Americans love technology. Machines and electronics are a major part of North American culture and we tend to deal with the social consequences of technology later. Production also fits in better with a job-readiness approach to education. The main underlying goal of media education is to teach good citizenship skills. There was a time when amassing information was a form of power, but with an avalanche of information crashing down on us every day, it becomes increasingly apparent that those who can access and organize information are the ones who are empowered to make informed decisions.
Information access is a democratic skill and an important one for media education.
Computer education, telecommunications and old-fashioned library research skills are an essential adjunct to any media literacy curriculum. Teachers in media production classes have much to share with media resource teachers, librarians, computer teachers, social studies teachers, language arts teachers, and artists. All of these teachers have common goals and only need to find ways to bridge the arbitrary divisions between subjects to teach media literacy across the curriculum. Of these, classroom resources are the easiest step to implement. There are existing texts and lessons, especially at the secondary level, and teachers can easily adapt those materials developed outside the country until they can make their own.