What is Media Literacy? Professor Kennedy

What is Media? Today's information and entertainment technologies communicate to us through a powerful combination of words, images and sounds. Today’s student obtain their information from T.V., Internet, Videos, Movies, CD-ROMs, Magazines, Newspapers, etc.

What is Media Literacy? Media literacy -- the ability to apply critical thinking and viewing skills to what we see, hear and read -- is key to being fully literate in the Information Age. Media literacy also includes the ability to ACCESS, ANALYZE, EVALUATE and COMMUNICATE information in a variety of forms including print and non-print messages.

Why is Media Literacy important to students? Media literacy represents a necessary, inevitable and realistic response to the complex, ever-changing electronic environment and communication cornucopia that surrounds us. The media age requires critical thinking skills which empower students as they make decisions, whether in the classroom, the living room, the workplace, the board room or the voting booth.

Example #1: Magazines, T.V., the Internet show images and stories of popular women such as pop singer Brittany Spears. Girls learn from media that to be admired and successful, women must be beautiful, thin, and well-dressed.

Example #2: Students searching the Internet for information on Martin Luther King Jr. come across multiple websites with information about this famous leader. One website is sponsored by the Biography Channel, another website is sponsored by the Klu Klux Klan.

How can we teach our students to become Media Literate? Understand the impact of Media on your students. Incorporate some Media Literacy lessons into your curriculum.

Your Task Today.. Select and Evaluate an appropriate Media Literacy lesson that you could incorporate into your future classroom. Summarize the lesson and share it with your fellow teachers.