Media Literacy
Defining Media Literacy
Media literacy, from an autonomous stance, is defined as “the ability to access, analyze, evaluate, create, and act using all forms of communication.” (Baker, 2016; Hobbs, 2019; Rogow, 2019). The process of critical inquiry and reflection are central to being media literate (Grizzle et al., 2013) since “media literate people apply their skills to all symbol-based communication, irrespective of message” (Rogow, 2019 p. 122). These messages are bound by the types of media texts (print, visual, audio, digital) used to create and communicate (Baker, 2012; Hobbs, 2017). Media literacy involves examining the semiotics and symbolism of text messages as part of a meaning-making inquiry (Gee, 2015).Media literacy from an ideological stance shifts beyond encoding and decoding media texts to engage in meaning making within socially, politically, and culturally contextualized media consumption and production spaces (Baker, 2016; Hobbs, 2017; Hoechsmann, 2019; Hoechsmann & Poyntz, 2012). Media literacy is a process of becoming (Gee, 2017), networked (Ito, et al., West-Puckett et al., 2018), participatory (Jenkins et al., 2009), (D)discursive (Gee, 2015), and complicated (boyd, 2010). Within teacher education, these media literacy processes should be evident in the MDL learning that occurs with preservice teachers.
UNESCO combines media and information literacies (MIL) into a singular concept that encompasses and subsumes other literacies such as computer, internet, digital, library, news, media and information literacies. This MIL framework outlines five laws of MIL (Grizzle & Singh, n.d.) that are presented in a matrix with three components (access, evaluate, create) and includes competencies and performance indicators that can be applied to individual teachers and preservice education at the organizational level.