International Handbook of Media Literacy Education

Belinha S. De Abreu, Paul Mihailidis, Alice Y.L. Lee, Jad Melki, Julian McDougall, Belinha S. De Abreu, Paul Mihailidis, Alice Y.L. Lee, Jad Melki, Julian McDougall

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN: 9781138645493
• eBook ISBN: 9781317240051
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• Subtopic: Education General
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

At the forefront in its field, this Handbook examines the theoretical, conceptual, pedagogical and methodological development of media literacy education and research around the world. Building on traditional media literacy frameworks in critical analysis, evaluation, and assessment, it incorporates new literacies emerging around connective technologies, mobile platforms, and social networks. A global perspective rather than a Western-centric point of view is explicitly highlighted, with contributors from all continents, to show the empirical research being done at the intersection of media, education, and engagement in daily life. Structured around five themes—Educational Interventions; Safeguarding/Data and Online Privacy; Engagement in Civic Life; Media, Creativity and Production; Digital Media Literacy—the volume as a whole emphasizes the competencies needed to engage in meaningful participation in digital culture.

p.1

1

Arc of Research and Central Issues in Media Literacy Education

Belinha S. De Abreu, Paul Mihailidis, Alice Y.L. Lee, Jad Melki, and Julian McDougall

The International Handbook of Media Literacy Education seeks to address and question the educational research in the area of media literacy education by contributing five points of view derived from the current research model: Educational Interventions; Safeguarding/Data and On-line Privacy; Engagement in Civic Life; Media, Creativity, and Production; and Digital Media Literacy.

The emergence of media literacy education is basically related to two fundamental concerns: What have young people learned from the media and how should the education system react to it? As mass media were regarded as the “parallel school” in the early years (Morsy, 1984), media literacy has served as a form of educational mediation that guides young students to deal wisely with the media.

Media Literacy as an Educational Intervention

Over the years, media educators have developed different approaches to media literacy education. In retrospect, we can see that there are at least five media-literacy education approaches adopted by media educators in different countries and different stages. First of all, the approach of inoculation aims for protecting the youth against negative media messages. While the critical analytical approach teaches young people to deconstruct the hidden ideology and values of media messages, the media arts approach encourages teaching media literacy through media production. The media arts approach emphasizes enjoyment of the media. Media production and consumption are regarded as interesting, creative, participatory, and related to young people’s lifestyles. Some educators advocate the social participatory approach, which focuses on letting active citizens play a constructive role in media democracy.

The fifth approach is the reflective media production approach. This approach is the combination of critical analysis and production. It stresses the importance of respecting young students’ subjective media experiences and social backgrounds. It lets students produce media from their everyday life perspective. Some media educators have pointed out the limitation of an approach based entirely on media production. They say the problem with that kind of approach is that although students do learn about how the media influence the contents, they are not doing it in the same context as the one in which commercial media are produced. In fact, there are so many social, economic, and political forces shaping media production. The technical aspect is only one of the factors that constructs media reality. It is important to look into the social context of media production and the underlying commercial reasons. Therefore, there are suggestions for integrating analysis and production (Butler, 2010).

p.2

The works in this book indicate that media educators have long moved away from the approach of inoculation. In some countries, the social participatory approach is preferred as it is believed that media literacy can foster democracy and is good for cultivating active citizens. It is worth noting that in response to the rapid development of digital technologies, the production approach has become more and more popular. Engaging young people in new media production, such as that involved with video games, blogs, social networking sites, and citizen journalism, is encouraged. Creativity becomes a key element in the media-literacy education framework. In particular, combining critical questioning and production expertise is well supported. This new trend signifies the blurred boundary between high culture and popular culture; critical analysis and production; and politics and poetics.

Media Literacy Education as a Field of Study

After the development of almost half a century, media literacy education has evolved to be a more mature field of study. Apart from developing different approaches to practicing media education, educators in the field have gathered rich resources in this knowledge sphere. In recent years, numerous media literacy books, curriculum materials, dissertations, and journal articles have been published. Media literacy conferences and seminars were constantly held in different countries. Although media literacy education is still far from achieving the status of an academic discipline, it has already established an academic identity. A characteristic of this field is the rigorous development of key concepts and media-literacy education models.

Media literacy education is a practical subject. It puts great emphasis on practice, which is teaching media literacy. Therefore, over the years, theory building has revolved around the development of key concepts and teaching models. A Canadian eight-key-concept framework says “all media are constructions” and “the media construct reality” (Ontario Ministry of Education, 1989). It seems to be internationally influential as some Asian countries or cities, such as Thailand, Japan, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, adopted similar key concepts as their media literacy education foundation. Another well-known UK framework which lists the four key concepts as production, language, representation, and audience is also influencing conceptual building in the field.

In this book, new models are put forward. The rhetorical-poetic approach integrates a critical approach to the politics of the media and media aesthetics. It is argued that “if the critical approach becomes isolated from the pleasures of engaging with the media or the creative enjoyment of media production,” it becomes decontextualized. It is suggested that in the prosumer era, playful pedagogies are worth being developed. Meanwhile, educators have begun to recognize that teacher education is important for integrating media literacy into the school curriculum. As a result, more studies are being conducted in this area. A teacher-professional development model for digital and media literacy education is proposed in this book. It suggested that curriculum resources, conferences, summer institutes and job-embedded training programs are key components of the teaching education framework.

Academically, media literacy is at a crossroads. Researchers applied theories from various disciplines, mainly in the social sciences, to conduct media literacy research. Education, communication, and psychology are the top subjects with which media-literacy education research associates (Lee & So, 2014). For example, theories such as agenda-setting, positive psychology, participation and democratic theory, audience reception theory, media representation, social cognitive theory, and human ecological theory were applied in media literacy studies. Regarding educational intervention studies, more and more researchers in such diverse disciplines as psychology, pediatrics, and health have joined the field. There is increasing interest in the application of media literacy approaches in health promotion. Media literacy research and health literacy studies have gone hand in hand. The Message Interpretation Process Model proposed in this book is an outcome of this kind of research. In fact, adolescent health is not limited to youngsters’ physical health. It also refers to their holistic development, including cultivation of their values and fostering of their self-growth. Hence, media literacy and health is a growing research area, and it is on the top research agenda in many countries.

p.3

As more and more researchers from other established disciplines do media literacy research, the theoretical underpinnings of current media literacy education studies have been strengthened. Yet, this field has not established its unique research methods. Researchers are mainly borrowing research methods from the social sciences. The data collection methods often used include surveys, in-depth interviews, focus group studies, and experiment. Many research programs are media literacy case studies of individual countries. It seems that more comparative studies and cross-country research should be encouraged. Empirical research on the media-literacy education assessment, particularly longitudinal study, is still rare and it requires more research attention.

New Trends in Media Literacy Education

Media literacy education is a rising field of study. Its social and academic importance has been well recognized in recent years, and it is rapidly growing around the globe. The works in this book reflect some new trends of its development:

1 From mass media focus to new media focus:

The world is entering the Web 3.0 era, and people are living in a mobile-networked society. Young people are growing up digitally and they have become prosumers. They are permanently online and permanently connected. In other words, they live a media life (Westlund & Bjur, 2014). When we reflect on the developmental trajectory of media literacy education, we can see that it is an educational response to communication technology advancement. Therefore, in the new participatory media environment, media literacy education naturally had a paradigm shift. The assumptions, goals, and curriculum design of media literacy practice have shifted to the new media. The media-literacy research agenda has shifted to new media as well.

2 From entirely analytical approach or production approach to combined analytical-production approach:

As mentioned above, the critical analytical approach may ignore the fun students gain from the media, and the simple production approach also has its limitation of losing sight of the larger socio-political context. Therefore, more and more media educators are supporting the integration of the two approaches.

3 From media literacy to digital media literacy and MIL:

Literacy has a symbiotic relationship with communication technologies. As we move into the digital age, the definition of media literacy should be expanded. Many media literacy scholars and practitioners have developed the concept of digital media literacy. UNESCO (2013) took one step further to advocate a new concept of media and information literacy (MIL). Media and information is a holistic concept combining media literacy, information literacy, and ICT skills. A media- and information-literate person is expected to be able to handle messages from different sources such as mass media, the Internet, social media, libraries, museums, archives, and databases. The world is transiting from being an industry society to a knowledge society. Cultivating a media- and information-literate population becomes essential for the development of society. Hence, whether in developed or developing countries, more MIL programs are being developed and MIL research is rigorously conducted.

p.4

4 From the West to the East:

Media literacy education originated in the West. Canada and Britain are pioneering countries in media literacy. But after so many years of development, media-literacy education programs are now all over the world. Recently, Asian countries have been working hard to catch up. Countries such as Thailand and China are putting great effort into developing media literacy. Moreover, their media literacy programs have developed their unique cultural characteristics. For example, in Thailand local media educators proposed the integration of Buddhist concepts into media literacy education. This reflects that media literacy education needs to be contextualized in its socio-cultural location so that it can take a firm foothold in a country.

5 From schools to families:

Nowadays, many young people spend a lot of time consuming and using media at home. A family-centered approach to media literacy can tailor-make ways to meet the media literacy needs for individual children. As some scholars suggested, this approach is useful for emphasizing parent–child discussion and bi-directional socialization. In some non-democratic societies, it is not easy for media literacy education to penetrate the formal school curriculum. Promoting family-media literacy education is an alternative way to provide media literacy training for children and young people in those countries

To conclude, media literacy education is now situated in a new technological age. In a mobile-networked society, learning is not limited to the classroom. Therefore, regarding future media literacy education, whether it is for students, teachers, or parents, media educators should consider new curriculum design and a new pedagogic approach, which also fits outside school settings. Regarding research, building independent theoretical concepts and research methods are the urgent tasks for media-literacy education researchers.

Safeguarding Data and Online Privacy

Perhaps of all the parts of this book, this one would be considered the most relatively new as it relates to issues of data and online privacy, both of which are still under public debate. Data collection in all of its manifestations, as well as the idea of privacy in online environments, has become a larger conversation within the context of media literacy. Most commonly heard or discussed are the issues of online behaviors, which are controversial or worrisome, especially in schools, such as cyberbullying. But, as will be noted in the chapters that have been included in this handbook, the discussion extends beyond to questioning our own understanding of what we perceive as ownership online and frankly the perception of that ownership by children, students, and adults in particular.

The issue of cybercrime, whether through breaches by individuals for malice purposes or for economic gain, terrorist groups, net security and/or surveillance by various governments, are also a part of the research discourse. The more relative focus of the research question is the idea of Internet freedom and its existence or non-existence in some cases. As such, the research in this area is growing along with the number of controversial issues that have been in the media, such as Edward Snowden, school data collection breaches, cybersecurity, and certainly the installation of more cyber-surveillance mechanisms. As one of the contributors to this part has stated, “academic research lags behind marketplace developments” (Montgomery, 2015). This fact must be highlighted on a global level as these market changes have affected the way we interact with various online platforms.

As Facebook transforms its marketing model to meet its economic needs, privacy issues continue to arise and change. As a new social network tool is placed in the forefront, and students of all ages chose to join, the question of data protection becomes even more important. This issue appears more important to the parents, educators, or caregivers who have a vested interest in keeping their children or students safe (Livingstone, Haddon, Görzig, & Ólafsson, 2011). Then, the other side of this issue comes into context that even those whose job it is to protect children/students may have also allowed for breaches in data such as educational institutions. These issues are just beginning to take shape so the research in this area is just growing.

p.5

Media Literacy Education as Action

The case of privacy reinforces why media literacy education is essential and must be tau...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• International Handbook of Media Literacy Education
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Foreword
• Preface
• 1 Arc of Research and Central Issues in Media Literacy Education
• PART I Educational Interventions
• PART II Safeguarding/Data and On-line Privacy
• PART III Engagement in Civic Life
• PART IV Media, Creativity, and Production
• PART V Digital Media Literacy
• Notes on Contributors
• Index