Toward Critical Media Literacy: Core concepts, debates, organizations, and policy

Media literacy education is not as advanced in the USA as in several other English speaking areas, such as Great Britain, Canada, and Australia. Despite decades of struggle since the 1970s by individuals and groups, media education is still only reaching a small percentage of K /12 schools in the US. While some major inroads have been made, such as getting elements of media literacy included in most of the 50 state’s educational standards and the launching of two national media education organizations, most teachers and students in the USA are not aware of issues involved in media literacy education. In this paper we set forth some models of media literacy, delineate key concepts of critical media literacy, and then examine some of the most active organizations in the USA and differences in their goals and pedagogy.