Media Literacies

Media Literacies: A Critical Introduction traces the history of media literacy and grapples with the fresh challenges posed by the convergent media of the 21st century. The book provides a much-needed guide to what it means to be literate in today’s media-saturated environment. Updates traditional models of media literacy by examining how digital media is utilized in today’s convergent culture Explores the history and emergence of media education, the digitally mediated lives of today’s youth, digital literacy, and critical citizenship Complete with sidebar commentary written by leading media researchers and educators spotlighting new research in the field and an annotated bibliography of key texts and resources

Revisiting Richard Hoggart’s classic work The Uses of Literacy (1957), this book applies Hoggart’s framework to media literacy today, examining media literacy’s various uses, the tensions between them and what this means for people, communities and the contemporary configurations of social class. In The Uses of Literacy (1957), Richard Hoggart wrote about how his working class community, in the North of England, were at once using the new ‘mass literacy’ for self-improvement, education, social mobility and civic engagement and, at the same time, the powerful were seizing the opportunity also to use this expansion in literacy, through the new popular culture, for commercial and political ends. Working in the intersection between education, cultural studies and literacies, the authors write about media literacy as a contested, under-theorised field through Hoggart’s ‘line of sight’ to provide a perspective on media literacy and working class culture today. This reimagining of a classic work, piercingly relevant to studies of class in Britain in 2019, will be of key interest to scholars in Media Studies, as well as interested readers in Communication Studies, Literacy Studies, Cultural Studies, Politics and Sociology.

Offering a critical perspective, Media Literacy for Citizenship emphasizes the ability to analyze media messages as a fundamental component of engaged citizenship. The ten chapters of this text are divided into two sections: the first six chapters explore the landscape of the media today, and each of the final four chapters examines how the media presents specific issues, all of which are of vital importance to civil society. Each chapter forms a mini-lesson and encompasses three core elements: an essay on a subject area important to critical media literacy; a list of case examples that can be used for assignments; and a list of key terms common to all chapters and cases. The diverse topics of study and the rich pedagogy make this book a perfect resource for courses in communications, journalism, media studies, and education.

Civic life today is mediated. Communities small and large are now using connective platforms to share information, engage in local issues, facilitate vibrant debate, and advocate for social causes. In this timely book, Paul Mihailidis explores the texture of daily engagement in civic life, and the resources—human, technological, and practical—that citizens employ when engaging in civic actions for positive social impact. In addition to examining the daily civic actions that are embedded in media and digital literacies and human connectedness, Mihailidis outlines a model for empowering young citizens to use media to meaningfully engage in daily life.

Media Literacies: A Critical Introduction traces the history of media literacy and grapples with the fresh challenges posed by the convergent media of the 21st century. The book provides a much-needed guide to what it means to be literate in today’s media-saturated environment. Updates traditional models of media literacy by examining how digital media is utilized in today’s convergent culture Explores the history and emergence of media education, the digitally mediated lives of today’s youth, digital literacy, and critical citizenship Complete with sidebar commentary written by leading media researchers and educators spotlighting new research in the field and an annotated bibliography of key texts and resources

Leading authority on media literacy education shows secondary teachers how to incorporate media literacy into the curriculum, teach 21st-century skills, and select meaningful texts.

How do students' online literacy practices intersect with online popular culture? In this book scholars from a range of countries illustrate and analyze how literacy practices that are mediated through and influenced by popular culture create both opportunities and tensions for secondary and university students.