Core Principles of Media Literacy Education, NAMLE (2023)
Author: National Association for Media Literacy Education (NAMLE)
“Core Principles.” NAMLE, 27 May 2023, namle.net/resources/core-principles/.
The National Association for Media Literacy Education (NAMLE.net) aims to make media literacy highly valued and widely practiced as an essential life skill. In a mediated world, all people are media creators and consumers who deserve guidance on how to cultivate mindful, empowering relationships with media.
We view media literacy–the ability to access, analyze, evaluate, create, and act using all forms of communication -as an essential literacy. Media literacy education is the ongoing development of habits of inquiry and skills of expression necessary for people to be critical thinkers, thoughtful and effective communicators, and informed and responsible members of society. Developing these habits and skills is vital to civic life.
These core principles articulate NAMEL’s position on media literacy education and illuminate the complex dynamics between individuals, media experiences, media institutions, and the systems and structures that shape our world. The additional Implications for Practice document highlights distinguishing features of effective media literacy education. Our intent is for these Core Principles and Implications for Practice to build greater awareness and help scale media literacy education in all facets of life in the U.S.
Media literacy education:
1.
Expands the concept of literacy to include all forms of media and integrates multiple literacies in developing mindful media consumers and creators.
2.
Envisions all individuals as capable learners who use their background, knowledge, skills, and beliefs to create meaning from media experiences.
3.
Promotes teaching practices that prioritize curious, open-minded, and self-reflective inquiry while emphasizing reason, logic, and evidence.
4.
Encourages learners to practice active inquiry, reflection, and critical thinking about the messages they experience, create, and share across the ever-evolving media landscape.
5.
Necessitates ongoing skill-building opportunities for learners that are integrated, cross-curricular, interactive, and appropriate for age and developmental stage.
6.
Supports the development of a participatory media culture in which individuals navigate myriad ethical responsibilities as they create and share media.
7.
Recognizes that media institutions are cultural and commercial entities that function as agents of socialization, commerce, and change.
8.
Affirms that a healthy media landscape for the public good is a shared responsibility among media and technology companies, governments, and citizens
9.
Emphasizes critical inquiry about media industries’ roles in society, including how these industries influence, and are influenced by, systems of power, with implications for equity, inclusion, social justice, and sustainability.
10.
Empowers individuals to be informed, reflective, engaged, and socially responsible participants in a democratic society.
Implications for Practice
Implications for practice serve as guideposts for media literacy educators, highlighting attitudes, values, teaching techniques, and classroom strategies that support each core principle.
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Expands the concept of literacy to include all forms of media and integrates multiple literacies in developing mindful media consumers and creators
1.1 Like print literacy, which requires both reading and writing, MLE encompasses both analysis and expression.
1.2 MLE intersects with other literacies, such as information, digital, and social-emotional literacies.
1.3 MLE guides learners to participate in a broad range of media experiences-both in person and online-and across print, visual, audio, and digital media.
1.4 MLE values inquiry of contemporary media experiences that are culturally relevant in both the learning environment and the everyday lives of learners -
Envisions all individuals as capable learners who use their background, knowledge, skills, and beliefs to create meaning from media experiences.
2.1 MLE teaches that all media experiences are constructed and prepares people to engage in critical analysis and reflection of these experiences.
2.2 MLE acknowledges that people use their individual skills, beliefs, and backgrounds to construct personal meaning from media experiences.
2.3 MLE helps learners identify biases within their own and others’ media experiences.
2.4 MLE helps learners become aware of and reflect on the meaning they make from media experiences, including how those meanings relate to their own values and beliefs.
2.5 MLE views media analysis as a process of evidence-based, open-ended exploration, rather than one through which single “correct” or pre-determined media interpretations are revealed. -
Promotes teaching practices that prioritize curious, open-minded, and self-reflective inquiry while emphasizing reason, logic, and evidence.
3.1 MLE recognizes that how we teach matters as much as what we teach.
3.2 MLE uses co-learning and constructivist pedagogies in which teachers learn from learners and vice versa.
3.3 MLE asks learners to consider how emotions evoked through media experiences can be examined within frameworks of reason, evidence, logic, and metacognition.
3.4 MLE uses group discussion and analysis of media experiences to help learners understand and appreciate different perspectives and points of view.
3.5 MLE prioritizes media creation as an essential learning practice in building media literacy skills -
Encourages learners to practice active inquiry, reflection, and critical thinking about the messages they experience, create, and share across the ever-evolving media landscape.
4.1 MLE teaches that all media experiences are constructed and uses foundational media analysis concepts to help learners effectively analyze
those constructions.
4.2 MLE teaches learners that each medium has unique language codes, conventions, and constructions used to convey meaning.
4.3 MLE teaches learners to ask questions that will enable them to gain a deeper and/or more sophisticated understanding of media experiences.
4.4 MLE encourages learners to question and reflect on all media experiences, regardless of personal preferences, values, and biases. -
Necessitates ongoing skill-building opportunities for learners that are integrated, cross-curricular, interactive, and appropriate for age and developmental stage.
5.1 MLE takes place in a variety of digital and physical settings, including but not limited to schools, afterschool programs, universities and colleges, libraries, community-based organizations, and the home.
5.2 MLE involves an ever-evolving continuum of skills, knowledge, attitudes, and actions.
5.3 MLE provides learners with numerous and diverse opportunities to develop and practice skills of analysis and expression.
5.4 MLE supports the selection of age- and developmentally-appropriate teaching methods and materials across educational settings -
Supports the development of a participatory media culture in which individuals navigate myriad ethical responsibilities as they create and share media.
6.1 MLE helps learners to express their ideas through multiple forms of media and encourages learners to continually reflect on the impact of their own and others’ creations.
6.2 MLE helps learners make connections between comprehension and inference-making skills as they analyze and create media experiences.
6.3 MLE helps learners develop mindful and healthy media habits in a media-saturated world.
6.4 MLE empowers personal media management in a way that helps learners make informed decisions about which media they choose to use as well as time spent consuming and creating media -
Recognizes that media institutions are cultural and commercial entities that function as agents of socialization, commerce, and change.
7.1 MLE acknowledges that all media experiences have a particular perspective, context, and purpose and helps learners to ask questions about the substance, source, form, and significance of these aspects
7.2 MLE acknowledges that all media messages contain values and points of view.
7.3 MLE facilitates learner understanding and appreciation of media experiences through personal examination of tastes, choices, and preferences.
7.4 MLE supports the development of skeptical-not cynical-approaches to helping people navigate media experiences. -
Affirms that a healthy media landscape for the public good is a shared responsibility among media and technology companies, governments, and citizens.
8.1 MLE empowers individuals to hold media makers and distributors accountable for their shared responsibility in creating and maintaining a healthy media landscape.
8.2 MLE calls for educational institutions to facilitate educators’ efforts by actively supporting critical thinking across learning experiences.
8.3 MLE educates individuals about their rights as creators, consumers, and human beings in a media context and empowers them to use media and technology tools to be actively engaged in their communities.
8.4 MLE includes examination of how technological developments and media production impact living systems and the physical environment. -
Emphasizes critical inquiry about media industries’ roles in society, including how these industries influence, and are influenced by, systems of power, with implications for equity, inclusion, social justice, and sustainability.
9.1 MLE teaches learners to examine how media institutions and societal structures, such as audience, ownership and distribution, influence how media experiences are constructed and how people make meaning from those media experiences.
9.2 MLE exposes learners to media that present diverse voices, perspectives, and communities.
9.3 MLE amplifies historically marginalized voices by including opportunities to examine cross-cultural media and international perspectives.
9.4 MLE explores issues of representation such as race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, age, ability, and socioeconomic status. -
Empowers individuals to be informed, reflective, engaged, and socially responsible participants in a democratic society.
10.1 MLE benefits all people and is not partisan.
10.2 MLE acknowledges that media institutions and media experiences influence beliefs, attitudes, values, behaviors, and the democratic process.
10.3 MLE promotes interest in news and current events as a dimension of citizenship and should enhance learner understanding of First
Amendment rights and responsibilities.
10.4 MLE incorporates specific approaches for helping individuals to identify quality, reliable, and accurate information.
10.5 MLE opposes censorship and supports learners’ rights to access media experiences from diverse sources that are inclusive and appropriate for age and stage of development.
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I am looking also at the ways that the term “media” is used across different statements like this – such as NCTE’s literacy in a digital age definition: https://ncte.org/statement/nctes-definition-literacy-digital-age/
Here they mention media in the context of use/consumption (ie. Do learners apply ethical practices when using media?) … Then we see it in “multimedia” which is more about creating … and then in the professionals in the mix (ie. Do learners have opportunities to engage with and learn from school media and library professionals)
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https://ncte.org/statement/media_education/
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“To clarify what we mean when we talk about media literacy, NAMLE offers these definitions:”
“Media refers to all electronic or digital means and print or artistic visuals used to transmit messages. Literacy is the ability to encode and decode symbols and to synthesize and analyze messages. Media literacy is the ability to encode and decode the symbols transmitted via media and synthesize, analyze and produce mediated messages.”
“Media education is the study of media, including ‘hands-on’ experiences and media production. Media literacy education is the educational field dedicated to teaching the skills associated with media literacy.”
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These sentences are important to understanding the text because they provide definitions of key terms, such as media, literacy, media literacy, and media education. These definitions explain what is meant by “media literacy” and the purpose of media literacy education, which is the focus of the text. The background information that would be important for one to understand this text more deeply is knowledge of the impact that media has on individuals and society, such as the role it plays in shaping our values, beliefs, and attitudes. Additionally, knowledge of different forms of media and communication would be beneficial in understanding the way messages can be encoded and decoded and the way that media can be used to produce and transmit these messages.
This is starting to get to it. Literacy defines who we are, how we see ourselves, and how we understand others. Encoding and decoding messages is only a basic level of literacy. Look at the personal health impact of social media on all of us, but especially on youth. So literacy has to do with how we PARTICIPATE with others while encoding and decoding.
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How often does our work with students orbit around the first three words here. It’s often not until youth are creating an acting with media that the lessons of analysis and evaluation take hold.
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Just noting this. … Also connected in this NCTE Media Lit document (https://ncte.org/statement/media_education/) to production and creation of media most specifically.
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The insights shared here will help communities, schools, out-of-school programs for youth, and other stakeholders in media literacy education commit to a set of core principles and best practices. Educators and youth-serving professionals can use these documents to engage in deeper conversations, to develop, structure, and improve their media literacy work. We hope these documents help media literacy education practitioners think about media literacy’s value, understand their own practice, gain the knowledge they need to design meaningful learning experiences, and develop a culture of media literacy in their respective organizations.
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I don’t think these would be especially useful to someone wanting to get started with teaching media literacy, but work well as a “check in” for someone already in the process to make sure they aren’t missing any key pieces.
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I do think that was the intention. Which then begs that question, how to “get started”?
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This is where I feel like I lean into media literacy work most clearly – systems dynamics (and the ethical implications)
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Thinking through the ways that I teach (or don’t teach) this …
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One of the more significant updates to the Core Principles is its emphasis on how media literacy education can support learners as they understand the media’s impact on their world—from power structures to democracy itself (principles 7, 8, 9). Why are these connections important in your subject areas, and what might these lessons look like in an average classroom?
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Some might argue that while media literacy is an important ability to have, reading and writing are still important skills for youth to have before integrating multiple literacies. Without a strong foundation in basic literacy, it will be harder for young people to engage in informed media practices.
Another concern is that media literacy will be subjected to a similar deficit model that a lot of reading and writing literacy suffers from.
How do we use this as an opportunity to grow our conceptions of literacy learning and not move worn-out perspectives about teaching reading and writing into media?
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(Just noting :)
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I think this is a place where I am challenged sometimes; what is the landscape itself and how do we track it. AI is changing the landscape rapidly right now and I am not sure exactly where to look and what to think about related to it.
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Yes, “landscape” can be a helpful analogy. When it comes to understanding the landscape of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its implications for the world, a helpful way of Thinking Interdependently is to look at it from multiple perspectives and combine them to gain a better understanding. With this in mind, it is important to bring together many diverse voices, because different perspectives can capture different aspects of the landscape of AI. When considering the landscape of AI, it can be helpful to look at it through the lens of global citizens, researchers, technologists, educators, and impact makers. By engaging with different perspectives and utilizing a collective knowledge, people are better able to understand the implications for the world and ultimately make better decisions.
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I often see teachers use contemporary forms of media with an eye towards sparking engagement in a more traditional literacy lesson, but don’t view a TikTok as a form of media worth learning to critically read in its own right.
It’s worth investigating a TikTok not only because it is relevant and engaging for students (though it is that), but also because learning to critically read and engage with short-form video content is, at this point, just as important as other forms of more traditional literacy.
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This feels like an essential piece here, ie. the development of participatory opportunities within a changing landscape. Creating ways to participate that also support reflection and criticality actually. … What are the key designs and approaches for this work?
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When you think about the literacies needed for students to understand work in the humanities disciplines, how does media literacy support that?
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In what ways might we support learners to develop media literacy skills that are cross-curricular, interactive, and appropriate for age and developmental stages?
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From this text, we can see that media literacy skills are essential for individuals to be responsible useres and creators of media in our society. It involves many different forms of literacies which should be integrated and cross-curricular. It requires learning habits of inquiry and expression, and developing critical thinking skills. In addition, it promotes self-reflection, examining biases and purpose when engaging with media, and ethical responsibilities when creating and sharing media. Let’s keep reading and thinking to see if there are any more important lessons to be learned.
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