Practical Media Literacy: An essential guide to the critical thinking skills for our digital world

Media Literacy is a critical skill students must learn to succeed in today's tech-driven, media-saturated society. This book helps students, parents, and teachers understand media literacy, and how to implement and share that knowledge with others. As an experienced media literacy expert and teacher, Nick Pernisco provides a practical guide for learning this important critical thinking skill and implementing it in classrooms to meet Common Core standards, and using it in everyday life. This is a must-read for anyone interested in learning how to interpret the enormous amounts of information we are exposed to everyday, both in traditional media and online.

The first edition of this book has been used by teachers and students around the world, and has sold thousands of copies in various formats. The book filled a need by teachers, students, and parents for a practical guide for explaining and using media literacy. I am ecstatic to know that this book has made a difference in so many people’s lives.

With each endeavor, there is always room for improvement, and this book is no exception. This second edition incorporates feedback from readers, many of whom enjoyed the first edition but wanted more. Here are some things that are new in this edition.

• A stronger focus on the learner. The first edition was heavily focused on helping teachers learn how to teach media literacy. This edition assumes the reader is the person learning about media literacy, and the examples and exercises now reflect this shift.

• Expanded descriptions of different types of media. In the first edition, the focus was on learning about the media more generally, with the assumption that all of the techniques being explained could be used for any media. In this edition, every major type of media receives its own chapter.

This book is perfect as a textbook for a course on media literacy, or any introductory course about media.