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It is often assumed that media literacy serves to protect and uphold democratic practice and that media literate citizens are the best safeguards for democracy. However, little attention is paid to defining this practice and its relationship to ongoing inequities within democratic societies. In this essay, we argue media literacy operates from three core assumptions; media literacy creates knowledgeable individuals, empowers communities, and encourages democratic participation. The first assumption draws out an individual's skills and critical thinking in media literacy practices. The second assumption focuses on the community aspect of media literacy, specifically which communities are best served by media literacy and why. Finally, the connection between media literacy and democratic practices is evaluated to understand how the democratic ideals of equity and justice are situated within the existing literature. Through an exploration of these assumptions, this essay provokes a discussion into the assumptions that media literacy scholarship and practice addresses to highlight some of the gaps in constructing impactful practice that centers on equity and social justice.

Young people today are immersed in digital culture: often considered savvy navigators of online ecosystems and adept at using everyday technologies to share, create and express. These technologies are often seen as social and personal tools instead of spaces for meaningful participation. This paper shares the results of an investigation in young people's attitudes towards popular social communication modalities -- memes and hashtags -- for civic purposes. The study employs Emerging Citizens: a suite of digital literacy tools and accompanying learning content that teach people of all ages how to critique and create hashtags and memes. This inquiry explores how young people perceive memes and hashtags as relevant avenues for civic expression, and the impact that a digital literacy intervention can have on youth attitudes. An analysis of the student experience using the Emerging Citizens tools and reflection of their creations finds that digital literacy interventions impact young people's perceptions of popular social modalities for civic impact.

In today's hypermedia landscape, youth and young adults are increasingly using social media platforms, online aggregators and mobile applications for daily information use. Communication educators, armed with a host of free, easy-to-use online tools, have the ability to create dynamic approaches to teaching and learning about information and communication flow online. In this paper we explore the concept of curation as a student- and creation-driven pedagogical tool to enhance digital and media literacy education. We present a theoretical justification for curation and present six key ways that curation can be used to teach about critical thinking, analysis and expression online. We utilize a case study of the digital curation platform "Storify" to explore how curation works in the classroom, and present a framework that integrates curation pedagogy into core media literacy education learning outcomes. (Contains 6 figures.)

Through a series of focus groups, this study explores how students, at the conclusion of a university-level media literacy course, see media's necessary role in democratic society. It is a narrative inspired by the core belief of the media literacy discipline that if people are effectively taught the critical skills to access, evaluate, analyze, and produce media they will better understand media's roles and responsibilities in civic life. Initial findings show that while media literacy may indeed enable for critical analysis skills, it carries the potential to breed cynical outcomes if not taught in a holistic manner.

This paper explores the structural constraints of contemporary approaches to media literacy in the face of increased partisanship, tribalism, and distrust. In the midst of a renewed call for media literacy initiatives that respond to the increasing levels of distrust in both legacy and grassroots media, this paper argues that media literacy interventions must be re-imagined as intentionally civic. A new set of emerging norms of digital culture further put into question the relevance of long-standing approaches to media literacy pedagogy and practice. This essay puts forward a new set of constructs that position media literacy initiatives to 'produce and reproduce the sense of being in the world with others toward common good' (Gordon, E., and P. Mihailidis. 2016. "Introduction." In "Civic Media: Technology, Design, Practice," edited by E. Gordon and P. Mihailidis. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2). These constructs--"agency, caring, critical consciousness, persistence, and emancipation"--reframe media literacy as relevant to the social, political, and technological realities of contemporary life.

Despite the increased role of digital curation tools and platforms in the daily life of social network users, little research has focused on the competencies and dispositions that young people develop to effectively curate content online. This paper details the results of a mixed method study exploring the curation competencies of young people in digital culture. Forty-seven college students from two institutions in the north-eastern United States used the social curation platform Storify to curate essays on the topic of income inequality. Their curated stories were coded to explore for narrative development, consistency, sourcing, analysis, and content type. Regression models were used to assess clarity and balance of the curated stories, and a detailed questionnaire explored dispositions towards curation as a relevant and effective mode for engagement in digital culture. The paper argues that curation can enhance core media analysis and storytelling skills, and an understanding about the role of peer-to-peer platforms and collaborative spaces in digital culture. The results advocate the utilization of student- and creation-driven pedagogies that embrace curation as core digital and media literacy competencies for young people in daily life.

The digitally marginalised communities are in focus in the EU-funded Rural Wings project 2006-2008. The aim is to identify and analyse the user learning needs in non-connected communities and to meet these needs by providing satellite Internet broadband connections, education and tools. This article reports the findings of the user needs investigation of 31 communities in 10 countries in the initial phase of the project designed and coordinated by Stockholm University, Sweden. Each national coordinator conducted a user needs study in their country using a common framework of questions and guidelines. The sites were selected according to national and regional needs and where satellite-provided Internet is believed to be the long-term solution. The 31 communities selected can be summarised as (a) mainland/lowland communities, 10 (b) mainland/highland communities, 12 (c) island/lowland communities, 5, and (d) island/highland communities, 4. The analysis reveals common threads of lack of infrastructure, accessibility and reliability concerning information and communication technology (ICT) implementation and containment in the community. There is a plethora of reasons for wanting more reliable and frequent Internet connections. Reasons range from educational opportunities, language opportunities, governmental inclusion, information/news outlets, and medical and weather initiative capabilities. This study provides in-depth macro-summaries of each participating country's user needs analysis in total. It also includes the actual analysis of each test site based on over 31 sites spanning 10 European nations. In addition, generalisations, comparisons and differences have been composed, to provide a framework for European trends in rural ICT access. (Contains 3 figures, 1 table and 1 note.)

This study aims to comparatively explore the role of the state (federal policy) in distance-education initiatives in the higher education communities of Sweden and the United States. In a globalized context, education institutes now have the capabilities to provide education and educational resources more efficiently and to a wide-ranging and diverse audience. Within the education sector and distance education, the role of the state and federal policy becomes increasingly important, in terms of how distance-education platforms are developed and implemented in institutions of higher education. The first section of this article provides an overview of the United States and Sweden's current higher education and distance-education landscapes, focusing on the role of the state and federal policy with respect to the funding and overall aims of distance education. The development of distance education in Sweden is highly related to political goals and policies, the top down/domestic/"inside" approach. The governing body dictates the funding and policy for distance education, and implementation is left to the university body. In the United States, the landscape differs in that no one federal institution provides direct funding or unified guidelines for developing distance education, but universities are left to their own devices and capabilities for implementation. In Sweden, high ambitions and goals are set at the national level, but the educational organizations are changing only slowly. The pressures on the education organizations are high because of steadily decreasing funding and fewer and fewer staff in relation to students. In the United States, education functions primarily as a state and local responsibility. In conclusion, the article aims to exploit the differences between the two countries' role of the state (federal policy) in distance-education policy, and present a middle ground which would be most balanced for distance education, entailing some federal supervision with the allowance for a certain level of autonomy in regards to development, implementation, funding and longevity. (Contains 4 notes.)

The recent protests across the Middle East, generally referred to as the largest civic uprising enabled by social media platforms and mobile technologies, are actively reshaping how one thinks about citizenship, community, and participation in the 21st Century. Within these new spaces have emerged voices--largely those of everyday citizens--that are exposing corruption, demanding accountability, and maintaining a diverse flow of ideas and dialogue across communities, across cultures, and across divides. This article discusses the implications for media literacy education in light of these new societal shifts largely in and by social media platforms and mobile technologies, and lists three specific challenges facing media literacy. The author concludes that media educators can no longer afford to sit back and simply teach about media messages as they come. It is high time that media literacy become the proactive movement that enables the future civic voices of democracies worldwide to create the meaningful dialog, collaborations, and struggles that will hold civic societies together. In this sense, media literacy in the 21st Century will be about enabling new civic voices, ones that are tolerant, purposive, and that are active in the face of the global challenges.

This study explores how an engaged journalism process supported by participatory design practices can impact attitudes and perceptions of audience engagement in local journalism. Using MuckRock's Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) submission tool, journalists, journalism students, and community stakeholders engaged in participatory design workshops centered around pressing local issues and creative approaches to filing FOIA requests. This study re-imagines FOI requests not just as a way to locate source material for important local reporting, but as a visible process that invites the public to engage and understand how that reporting is done — and how anyone can use and benefit from the process. Findings show that design-driven engagement journalism practices can make public records culture more inclusive, engaging, and accessible, and support more collaborative and creative engagement between journalists and audiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Atop the high hill from which Syracuse University keeps watch on its hard-working hometown, the building known as Newhouse III has been going up for the past two years. A [...]

Abstract Media literacy education aims to enable students to critically and analytically engage with media. Teacher/Student engagement in the classroom enables students to enhance their learning experiences by providing them [...]

Abstract As a curricular initiative, media literacy presumes to go beyond base theoretical and ethical journalism courses by providing student-outcome, reflexive engagement that enables students to become active participants in [...]

In the United States, and around the world, journalism and public information exist across broken media architectures. Citizens are at the mercy of those eager to take advantage of platform infrastructures in which access, quality, and diversity varies so wildly. Increasingly, politicians are taking advantage of these platform architectures to position people against one another. The result is a fracturing of belief, where truths splinter and trust erodes. Our digital environments are at the center of this fracturing, and our social and civic cohesion is at risk. What has resulted is a rampant cynicism, which is reflected in an intentional disengagement from the information infrastructures that provide civic cohesion. This is buoyed by an erosion of local news environments, which has further disconnected communities or forced them to rely on large scale digital media companies. This article will detail three areas eroding public trust and engagement— distributed propaganda, hijacking of local news, and reifying polarization —and their contributions to growing cynicism toward our current civic and political environments. It will unpack the frame of cynicism to articulate a lack of willingness to participate in civic processes that are seen as inclusive and reach beyond differences. The essay will pivot to the concept of civic-mindedness to promote an approach to combat the cynicism that has engulfed our political and civic infrastructures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]