Global Media Literacy in a Digital Age

2021 ◽  
pp. 146144482110186
Author(s):  
Gianfranco Polizzi

This article proposes a theoretical framework for how critical digital literacy, conceptualized as incorporating Internet users’ utopian/dystopian imaginaries of society in the digital age, facilitates civic engagement. To do so, after reviewing media literacy research, it draws on utopian studies and political theory to frame utopian thinking as relying dialectically on utopianism and dystopianism. Conceptualizing critical digital literacy as incorporating utopianism/dystopianism prescribes that constructing and deploying an understanding of the Internet’s civic potentials and limitations is crucial to pursuing civic opportunities. The framework proposed, which has implications for media literacy research and practice, allows us to (1) disentangle users’ imaginaries of civic life from their imaginaries of the Internet, (2) resist the collapse of critical digital literacy into civic engagement that is understood as inherently progressive, and (3) problematize polarizing conclusions about users’ interpretations of the Internet as either crucial or detrimental to their online engagement.


Author(s):  
John Lubbock

As the quality, scope and usefulness of Wikipedia (and its sister projects) increases, the Wikimedia community are increasingly reaching out to academic, library and other information professionals. Through institutional partnerships and training, we show how using Wikimedia projects can bring extra value to the library as a place of digital study and media literacy. Libraries and Wikipedia both aim to bring knowledge to a wider audience, to create spaces where people can safely learn and find the resources they need, and we believe it is possible for us to reach those goals together. This article will describe the complex and wide scope of our work with libraries and explain how our work complements the work of libraries and other cultural institutions. It will provide paths and ideas for librarians to understand how to effectively use the resources provided by Wikimedia to imagine how libraries can serve the public in our digital age.


Comunicar ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 16 (32) ◽  
pp. 65-72 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan Moeller

Freedom of expression is both a life and death matter and a bread and butter issue. Free media that allow a diversity of voices to be heard and all ideas to be discussed play a central role in the sustaining and monitoring of good government, as well as in the fostering of economic development and the encouraging of corporate transparency and accountability. Students in both developed and developing nations need to understand that there is no global issue or political arena in which the statement of problems and the framing of possible solutions are not influenced by media coverage. The Salzburg Academy on Media and Global Change is the meeting point where universities from around the world, media organizations and international institutions such as the UN and UNESCO have worked jointly for the first time in order to build a global media literacy curriculum, related lesson plans, exercises and resources to teach students to evaluate the media they read, hear and see, as well as teach them to speak out for themselves. The GML materials are written by a global commu nity for a global community and aim to prepare students the world over for active and inclusive roles in information societies. La libertad de expresión es cuestión de vida o muerte. Los medios de comunicación independientes cumplen un rol central en el mantenimiento de un gobierno adecuado, así como en el fomento del desarrollo económico y en el apoyo a la transparencia corporativa y la rendición de cuentas. Por otro lado, los estudiantes de todo el mundo necesitan comprender la influencia de los medios para formular sus problemas y sus posibles soluciones. La Academia Salzburgo de los Medios de Comunicación y los Cambios Mundiales ha sido punto de encuentro para que Universidades de todo el mundo, organizaciones mediáticas e instituciones internacionales (como la ONU y la UNESCO) hayan colaborado en construir un programa curricular para la alfabetización mediática mundial, con ejercicios y recursos para enseñar a ver y escuchar los medios, actuar ante los medios, a través de los medios, e incluso creando sus propios medios de comunicación social. Los materiales son elaborados por y para una comunidad mundial, con el fin de preparar a estudiantes en todo el mundo a cumplir roles activos e incluyentes en la sociedad de la información.


2018 ◽  
pp. 1-32
Author(s):  
Kimberly N. Rosenfeld

This chapter defines terms of the digital age as they relate to digital media literacy. The changing landscape of society is demonstrated through the recalibration occurring in media processes and the cultural forms they generate. These conditions have fostered cultural paradigms unique to the digital age: paradigms aligned with either humanistic or capitalist perspectives, and marketing playing a role with respect to this tension. An analysis of two policies in the form of new curricula reveals that more must be done to prepare, protect, and empower a digitally literate citizenry. The chapter closes with an argument that the first step in this direction must involve both establishing digital media literacy as a discipline as well as deepening and extending current media literacy frameworks.


Author(s):  
Kimberly N. Rosenfeld

This chapter defines terms of the digital age as they relate to digital media literacy. The changing landscape of society is demonstrated through the recalibration occurring in media processes and the cultural forms they generate. These conditions have fostered cultural paradigms unique to the digital age: paradigms aligned with either humanistic or capitalist perspectives, and marketing playing a role with respect to this tension. An analysis of two policies in the form of new curricula reveals that more must be done to prepare, protect, and empower a digitally literate citizenry. The chapter closes with an argument that the first step in this direction must involve both establishing digital media literacy as a discipline as well as deepening and extending current media literacy frameworks.


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