Frequently Asked Questions about Media Literacy Education

• What's the difference between media literacy, media education and media studies?
• Is there a curriculum for media literacy? I want to teach media literacy in my school (church / community center / youth group). How do I get started?
• How many schools are using media literacy in their classes in the United States?
• Why is the United States so far behind other countries?
• What's this website trying to do, and who pays to keep it up?

What's the difference between media literacy, media education and media studies?

Media literacy and media education are sometimes used interchangeably in the U.S, and even those within the "movement" haven't decided on exactly when to use one or the other. Each has its advantages and disadvantages as a label.

For example, the word literacy is abstract and make most people immediately think of reading and writing. On the other hand, to some people media education means teaching kids how to use video production equipment. 

Media literacy (or media literacy education) is presently the most-used term, and it clearly makes the point that to be a literate person in the 21st century, one needs to know how to "read" and produce all forms of media, including visual media -- reading and writing words isn't enough any more.

In the United Kingdom and Canada, the classes where you learn to become media literate are media studies classes, and media education (without literacy in the middle) pertains to everything which support the teaching of media in the classroom. In summary: media education (or media literacy education) is the process of teaching about media (how to access, analyze and produce media, in all formats), either in a media studies class or other setting, so the learners will become media literate .

Is there a curriculum for media literacy? I want to teach media literacy in my school (church / community center / youth group). How do I get started?

Media literacy is not a new subject to teach but rather a new way of teaching -- using media and their messages to help students learn basic skills such as critical thinking, evaluating information, detecting bias, persuasion, and more. There isn't one curriculum set in stone, but several have been developed just in the past decade to help teachers begin to do this work. The grade you teach and your subject areas would influence the materials you use.

How to get started? Teachers may choose from the subject area listings under Teaching in the navigation bar on the left, or you may pick one of the Topics & Issues below that.

Generally speaking, the best place to start learning about media literacy is the National Association for Media Literacy Education, where you will find many helpful resources along with the only online catalog of books, videos and other materials to help you better understand today's media culture and to teach others.

Also, the Media Education Lab at Temple University has outstanding free resources, including curricula, articles and a guide to Fair Use practices in the classroom. Project Look Sharp at Ithaca College, New York also has many free downloadable curriculum kits in U.S. History, Global Studies, the Environment, Health, Psychology & Aging Studies, and General Media Literacy.

Also, you should definitely subscribe to the online Media-L listserv, where you can "lurk" [read the posts without having to contribute yourself] with teachers talking about what they do in the classroom, and ask for -- and receive -- help from people teaching media literacy in the classroom all over the U.S. and Canada. (In recent years, this list has become more of a place for sharing links to articles about media and media literacy education, but you can still ask questions and get helpful answers.)

How many schools are using media literacy in their classes in the United States?

There isn't one group keeping statistics, and it's impossible to survey every classroom in 16,000+ U.S. school districts. All 50 states now have some form of written curriculum standards that include media literacy principles without using the actual words (for example, often using wording such as "information competency.") See this site's Curriculum Standards page, with more information and links to documents giving media-literacy-education-related standards for California, Missouri and Michigan.

But in general, the United States is far behind many other countries in teaching students about media. (For example, on a scale of 1 to 10, Texas' curriculum standards relative to media education are a 10, but the second runner-up state would probably be a 4 or 5 at best. Many states would be a 1.) And, in the U.S. educational system, there is no enforcement mechanism for ensuring that classroom work actually meets the state standards. 

In most provinces in Canada, to graduate from high school, a student must have 25% of his or her language arts units in media education. Great Britain, Australia, and most every other industrialized nation also do a very good job of media education.

Why is the United States so far behind other countries?

It's not for lack of trying to catch up. Elizabeth Thoman, the now-retired founder of the Center for Media Literacy (originally a non-profit, now a consulting company), was carrying the torch for media literacy education for almost 30 years in this country. She was one of the co-founders of what is now the National Association for Media Literacy Education.

Canada, Australia and England are the worldwide leaders in media education, primarily because, many decades ago, they were the first countries to experience the cultural and societal results of importing English-language visual media (films and TV programs) from the United States. Much of the best academic research and writing comes from these countries. Most of the rest of the industrialized world also has reacted to the impact of media on their cultures by instituting media studies in their schools. 

An excellent explanation on the real reason we're behind is this one, from Literacy in a Digital World: Teaching and Learning in the Age of Information , an excellent book by reknowned media education researcher Kathleen Tyner.

"Because of the idiosyncratic nature of U.S. education, the problem of scaling up promising practices in education [such as media literacy education] can be a nightmare. Combined with the individual preferences exhibited by each classroom teacher, the introduction of new subject matter in the curriculum becomes a Hydra of complexity.   Change and adoption occurs district by district, school by school, teacher by teacher. It is difficult to know which conditions, in which configurations, will foster the kind of critical mass necessary to produce widespread education change efforts.   International media education programs in Canada, England and Australia have an advantage because they work from a central education ministry that disseminates resources, training and information on a regional or national scale. The downside of the centralized approach is that bad educational ideas can be spread as easily as good ones.  

Nonetheless, the mechanisms for wide-scale educational change are in place when centralized structure serves as a clearinghouse for concepts and resources. At the time, no comparable institutional mechanism exists in formal educational structures to support U.S. media educators. This puts the onus of support on ad hoc organizations; nonprofit, community-based organizations; professional education associations; or local teacher groups."

In other words, because education in the United States is decentralized (not controlled at the federal or even the state levels) -- almost to the point where each individual teacher can make his/her own decisions about how to teach (and also what, to a certain degree, within state standards) -- it is very difficult to create awareness about media literacy and to make it happen in the classroom. Even more important is the fact that in this era of focusing on results and standardized testing, American teachers are forced to spend most of their time ensuring their students can pass the tests (which isn't necessarily the same as getting a good education). Media literacy is not on the standardized tests.

What's this website trying to do, and who pays to keep it up?

As editor and publisher, I (Susan Rogers) have made it a gateway/portal for anyone trying to find out what media literacy is and how to learn more about it. It is United States-centric simply because the field is too broad for one person to track and cross-index, I'm the only one here, and it's a labor of love (i.e., there's no real money to be made doing this work). I try to make this site act as a Table of Contents (and cross-index) for media literacy content on the Internet.

The domain name could be available for sale or lease to the right organization -- please contact me.