Adolescent internet usage is incredibly prevalent, marking a need for educational support as they navigate online texts. As online texts are prone to bias and misinformation, it is important to fully understand how young people conceptualize this information and where they need support. These texts may also contain harmful messages, particularly…

Renee Hobbs, director of the Media Education Lab at the Harrington School of Communication and Media at the University of Rhode Island, cautions us to stop using the term "fake news" with students and be more precise about the types of disinformation prevalent in content today, from hoaxes and satire to clickbait. In this article, she…

This article describes and reflects upon efforts to generate greater support for media literacy and critical thinking within the strategies and programs of the Federal government in the early 1990s to about 2005 primarily among agencies with an interest in youth substance abuse prevention. Beginning with their personal reflections on discovering…

Educators from Europe, Latin America, and the United States convened to explore issues inherent in democratic citizenship. Media literacy, a central component of democratic citizenship, was studied in depth. Data from the camp were examined for evidence of the participants' understandings of media literacy and how it might be taught. Results…

As reading continues to become governed by a spatial "logic of the image" rather than strictly a temporal or linear logic of written language (Kress, 2003), and readers increasingly engage with a range of Internet-based texts, a host of challenges ensue for educators and students alike. One of the most vexing of these challenges deals with…

Presents a process to prepare 10th-grade students to generate clear and thoughtful critiques of work in six nonprint media categories; movies, television shows, audio recordings, music videos, live performances, and computer programs. Provides detailed questions for student analysis of each. (SR)

Offers an overview of resource information in media literacy, including listings of key organizations; texts and resources for teaching on media literacy; comprehensive texts; sources of thematic curriculum units; and works that explore media genres. (SR)

Describes three instructional stages of television research for the classroom: (1) establish students as experts; (2) provide a solid research procedure; and (3) require written reports and oral presentations of research findings to the class. (SR)

This paper examines some of the key public policy implications of the media literacy movement using D. Easton's (1965) model of the policymaking process. The model has six elements: (1) demands and supports; (2) policymakers; (3) policy outputs; (4) policy outcomes; (5) feedback; and (6) environment. Each element is vital to understanding the…

The teaching of media texts as a form of textual construction is embedded in the assumption that audiences bring individual preexisting dispositions even though the media may contribute to their shaping of basic attitudes, beliefs, values, and behavior. As summed up by D. Lusted, at the core of such textual construction are basic assumptions that…

The overall pattern of research findings indicates a positive association between television violence and aggressive behavior. The first congressional hearing on television took place in 1952, when the House Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce investigated television entertainment to ascertain if it was excessively violent and sexually…

Starts with a macro or global analysis of television, leading into an examination of how media (television and commercials in particular) functions at a micro or personal level. Proposes ways these issues can be transformed into challenging and meaningful curricula that teach students to engage in critical evaluations of the content and broader…

By joining bodies of research in media theory, cultural studies, and critical pedagogy, this book offers a vision of learning that values social empowerment over technical skills. An inquiry into the existence and range of models equipped to cultivate critical teaching and learning in the Internet-supported classroom, the book argues that media…

Argues that educators should train themselves and students to understand and cope with television's power. Describes an inventory of viewing and reading habits, then discusses how three principles of teaching television are expressed in class activities. Outlines a unit that takes students from television as "just entertainment" to active,…

This paper describes a unit of instruction about media images--how they work, ways they affect people, and means to use them--in which young adolescents learn the consequences of becoming a media-literate consumer. The paper explains that in the unit, divided into 2 "clusters," 110 Boston-area eighth graders share 5 core academic…