Public health has long been a topic addressed through media literacy - whether the issues are violence prevention, sexuality, smoking cessation or any other health concern. Interviews with Erica Rosenthal from Hollywood, Health and Society and Narges Dorratoltaj from Ctrl+S explore how public health and media literacy intersect.
Media literacy education requires the use of media in the classroom so it’s important for educators and administrators – as well as students and parents – to have a basic understanding of the structure and purpose of legal frameworks addressing intellectual property, particularly regarding copyright. This issue includes interviews with copyright experts Renee Hobbs, professor of communication studies, and David Sohn, copyright lawyer. The MediaLit Moments activity offers a simple way to introduce the concept to students.
Part 2 of our look at the similarities and overlap of Media AND Information Literacy. This issue includes three interviews with librarians representing public libraries, maker spaces, and higher education who offer first-hand accounts of how libraries and librarians are reinventing themselves to meet the varied needs of today’s learners. Read the interviews with Susan Broman, LA Public Library; Mya Stark, LA Maker Space, and Spencer Brayton, Blackburn College, IL.
Part 1 was published in the May 2017 issue of Connections.
This issue highlights the close relationship of the fields of media literacy and information literacy. Although media literacy and information literacy are two separate fields of practice and research, the intersections and the overlaps between the fields continue to strengthen and grow as both fields evolve. UNESCO has long encouraged both fields to align and work together through support of its Media and Information Literacy (MIL) program, and has sponsored meetings and declarations, conferences and events that focus on the combined fields.
This issue continues our discussion of the power shift in the media ecosystem, and what it means to be a citizen in a digital age. CML interviewed two digital literacy advocates – Kimberly Brodie, Founder/CEO of The Digital Peace Project, and Alan Simpson from iKeepSafe.
CML is sad to inform our readers of the death of Elizabeth Thoman. Thoman was a pioneer and visionary who founded the Center for Media Literacy in 1989.
This month we continue to explore Education and The Creative Economy by featuring exciting initiatives being undertaken in Australia, where media literacy is now embedded in the national curriculum through media arts, and where the Australian government has prioritized supporting and growing the creative economy. CML interviewed two Australian education/media literacy leaders, one who works in higher education – Michael Dezuanni -- and the other in secondary education, Roger Dunscombe.
How is education tied to the creative economy? One of the answers is obvious--the 4 C’s of creativity, collaboration, communication and critical thinking. These are skills encouraged through media literacy and deployed by workers in the creative economy, from publishing and printing to furniture and decorative arts. This issue discusses Richard Florida’s pathbreaking book The Rise of the Creative Classes, and show how workers in the creative industries have shaped the nature of work for many in the U.S.
This issue explores the classroom and library activities of media literacy-oriented schools with information and interviews from the teachers and librarians themselves.