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From the Cold War to the neoliberal era, state-sanctioned education reforms have been less concerned with responsible citizenship or social justice than matters of national security and economic supremacy. Meanwhile, the United States struggles to climb international education rankings or even close its own national achievement gap. While it continues to lead the world's information economies and dominate the global media industry, the perceived threat to its preeminent status is intensified in a multipolar world. In President Obama's speeches declaring the "educational arms race" and the new "Sputnik moment," he warned that the United States is at a greater risk than ever of being surpassed by rival nations if its students fail to keep pace with developments in technology. Accordingly, there has been a significant investment by prominent politicians, tech leaders, and educational policymakers to increase technical skills under this rationale. Learning technical skills such as coding can be advantageous in the new media landscape. However, communication scholars argue that technical skills must be taught within the critical framework of civics-based media education that is vital for a democratic society. This dissertation examines how students, teachers, and administrators during Obama's presidency responded to official discourses that defined the national agenda for digital learning in a global economy. In the national context, it provides a Critical Discourse Analysis of private-sector campaigns, political messages, and visual texts pertaining to the challenges and opportunities facing American schools in the digital age. In the local context of the New York City education system, it draws on a multi-site case study conducted between 2014-2015 across four public high schools where media and technology are the focus of an academic theme. Critical Discourse Analysis of interviews and observations reveal the extent to which the official discourse of worldwide competition -- reinforced by corporate interests and an ideology of national defense -- has infiltrated these learning environments. This dissertation considers the social and cultural implications of the most familiar refrains available to us on the role of technology in American schools, in the lives of young people, and in the future of the United States as superpower. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]