Media literacy encompasses the skills and knowledge needed to question, analyze, interpret, and evaluate the messages of the mass media. In essence, media literacy is the application of critical thinking to the messages of print and electronic media. For example, after reading a short story, a student must be able to do more than explain what happened, name the central characters, and describe the style of the illustrations. To reach a full comprehension of the text's meaning, he or she must be able to use higher level thinking. The term media literacy refers to this higher level thinking as it is applied to images and messages of the media.
Media literacy covers a gamut of topics for discussion and deconstruction.
My intention with this approach was to create a structure through which to integrate media literacy into schools, homes, churches, and communities, but it was soon apparent that 50 topics is still overwhelming to a newcomer to media education. Using this method, the essence of critical thinking can be modeled for those new to media education. Through the 3 Rs Effective teachers already teach critical thinking within their curricula, encouraging students to analyze, synthesize, and evaluate the items presented to them. Whether any of these higher level thinking skills are then applied to messages received outside the classroom walls is questionable. Consider each of these verbs.