Literacy involves gaining the skills and knowledge to read, interpret, and produce certain types of texts and

artifacts and to gain the intellectual tools and capacities to fully participate in ones culture and society. Both traditionalists and reformists would probably agree that education and literacy are intimately connected. Literacy, in our conception, comprises gaining competencies involved in effectively learning and using socially constructed forms of communication and representation. (Kellner 2005). Media literacy is a set of skills that anyone can learn. Just as literacy is the ability to read and write, media literacy refers to the ability to access, analyze, evaluate and create media messages of all kinds. These are essential skills in today's world. Today, many people get most of their information through complex combinations of text, images and sounds. We need to be able to navigate this complex media environment, to make sense of the media messages that bombard us every day, and to express ourselves using a variety of media tools and technologies. Media literate youth and adults are better able to decipher the complex messages we receive from television, radio, newspapers, magazines, books, billboards, signs, packaging, marketing materials, video games, recorded music, the Internet and other forms of media. They can understand how these media messages are constructed, and discover how they create meaning usually in ways hidden beneath the surface. People who are media literate can also create their own media, becoming active participants in our media culture Media literacy skills can help children, youth and adults: Understand how media messages create meaning Identify who created a particular media message Recognize what the media maker wants us to believe or do Name the "tools of persuasion" used Recognize bias, spin, misinformation and lies Discover the part of the story that's not being told Evaluate media messages based on our own experiences, beliefs and values Create and distribute our own media messages Become advocates for change in our media system. (Created by the Media Literacy Project. Shared under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercialShareAlike 3.0 License. Details at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/us/)

According to Elizabeth Thorman (1995), Media literacy is an overall term that incorporates three stages of a continuum leading to media empowerment: THE FIRST STAGE is simply becoming aware of the importance of managing one's media "diet" that is, making choices and reducing the time spent with television, videos, electronic games, films and various print media forms. THE SECOND STAGE is learning specific skills of critical viewing learning to analyze and question what is in the frame, how it is constructed and what may have been left out. Skills of critical viewing are best learned through inquiry-based classes or interactive group activities, as well as from creating and producing one's own media messages. THE THIRD STAGE goes behind the frame to explore deeper issues. Who produces the media we experienceand for what purpose? Who profits? Who loses? And who decides? This stage of social, political and economic analysis looks at how everyone in society makes meaning from our media experiences, and how the mass media drive our global consumer economy. This inquiry can sometimes set the stage for various media advocacy efforts to challenge or redress public policies or corporate practices. Although television and electronic media may seem to present the most compelling reasons for promoting media literacy education in contemporary society, the principles and practices of media literacy education are applicable to all media from television to T-shirts, from billboards to the Internet. (Source: Elizabeth Thoman, Founder and President, Center for Media Literacy, 1995). Media literacy education helps to develop critical thinking and active participation in our media culture. The goal is to give youth and adults greater freedom by empowering them to access, analyze, evaluate, and create media. In schools: Educational standards in many states -- in language arts, social studies, health and other subjects -- include the skills of accessing, analyzing and evaluating information found in media. These are media literacy skills, though the standards may not use that term. Teachers know that students like to examine and talk about their own media, and they've found that media literacy is an engaging way to explore a wide array of topics and issues. In the community: Researchers and practitioners recognize that media literacy education is an important tool in addressing alcohol, tobacco and other drug use; obesity and eating disorders; bullying and

violence; gender identity and sexuality; racism and other forms of discrimination and oppression; and life skills. Media literacy skills can empower people and communities usually shut out of the media system to tell their own stories, share their perspectives, and work for justice.

MEDIA LITERACY CONCEPTS The study and practice of media literacy is based on a number of fundamental concepts about media messages, our media system, and the role of media literacy in bringing about change. Understanding these concepts is an essential first step in media literacy education. 1. ALL MEDIA ARE CONSTRUCTION The media do not present simple reflections of external reality. Rather, they present carefully crafted constructions that reflect many decisions and result from many determining factors. Media literacy works towards deconstructing these constructions, taking them apart to show how they are made. 2. THE MEDIA CONSTRUCT REALITY The media are responsible for the majority of the observations and experiences from which we build up our personal understandings of the world and how it works. Much of our view of reality is based on media messages that have been pre-constructed and have attitudes, interpretations and conclusions already built in. the media, to a great extent, give us our sense of reality. 3. AUDIENCES NEGOTIATE MEANING IN THE MEDIA The media provide us with much of the material upon which we build our picture of reality, and we all "negotiate" meaning according to individual factors: personal needs and anxieties, the pleasures or troubles of the day, racial and sexual attitudes, family and cultural background, and so forth. 4. MEDIA HAVE COMMERCIAL IMPLICATIONS Media literacy aims to encourage an awareness of how the media are influenced by commercial considerations, and how these affect content, technique and distribution. Most media production is a business, and must therefore make a profit. Questions of ownership and control are central: a relatively small number of individuals control what we watch, read and hear in the media. 5. MEDIA CONTAIN IDEOLOGICAL AND VALUE MESSAGES All media products are advertising, in some sense, in that they proclaim values and ways of life. Explicitly or implicitly, the mainstream media convey ideological messages about such issues as the nature of the good life, the virtue of consumerism, the role of women, the acceptance of authority, and unquestioning patriotism.

6. MEDIA HAVE SOCIAL AND POLITICAL IMPLICATIONS The media have great influence on politics and on forming social change. Television can greatly influence the election of a national leader on the basis of image. The media involve us in concerns such as civil rights issues, famines in Africa, and the aids epidemic. They give us an intimate sense of national issues and global concerns, so that we become citizens of marshall mcluhan's "global village." 7. FORM AND CONTENT ARE CLOSELY RELATED IN THE MEDIA As marshall mcluhan noted, each medium has its own grammar and codifies reality in its own particular way. Different media will report the same event, but create different impressions and messages. 8. EACH MEDIUM HAS A UNIQUE AESTHETIC FORM Just as we notice the pleasing rhythms of certain pieces of poetry or prose, so we ought to be able to enjoy the pleasing forms and effects of the different media. source: john pungente, s.j. from barry duncan et al. media literacy resource guide, ontario ministry of education, toronto, on. canada, 1989.