In this essay I describe the history of media education in the UK, tracing its evolution from its Leavisite origins, through the advent of cultural studies to the more explicitly political approaches developed in the 1970s. These approaches reflect a gradual democratization of the curriculum, as well as a form of cultural or political protectionism. I outline the conceptual framework of contemporary media education and discuss the unresolved questions about learning and pedagogy. Media Literacy Perspectives by James A. Brown Media literacy education involves cognitive processes used in critical thinking. Inductive media literacy programs promote independent critical thinking.
Media content is a limited predictor of potential effects of media exposure.
To succeed, a curricular program of media literacy requires collaboration among teachers, administrators, specialists, and parents. This article examines the political, economic, historic, and cultural explanations for why the United States lags behind other major English-speaking countries in the formal delivery of media education. The research relies on formal documents and newsletters, interviews with leading media education researchers and teachers from numerous nations, and site visits to five countries. A central component of media literacy should be an understanding of the representational conventions through which the users of media create and share meanings. This paper analyzes the representational conventions of visual communication.