Renee Hobbs explores the evolution of media literacy education and examines changes in how the media industry has shifted its focus in teaching about media.

1. Renee Hobbs
Professor of Communication Studies
Director, Media Education Lab
University of Rhode Island USA
Twitter: @reneehobbs
Media Literacy in Evolution
What is Life?
University of Oregon at Portland
Media Literacies Roundtable
April 8, 2017

3. PEER-TO-PEER FILE SHARING
My Argument
Media literacy evolves in response to changes in media,
technology, education, and the cultural environment.
Mapping media literacy practices enables reflection on what
is gained and what is lost as new paradigms displace older
ones.
Historical research helps us understand how media literacy
adapts to the ever-changing context of cultural ecosystems in
historical context.
Educators and scholars should retrieve some older concepts
as they reinvent the theory and practice of media literacy in
relation to the needs of learners in contemporary society.

4. What is media literacy?

5. Rhetoric
Print Literacy
Visual Literacy
Information Literacy
Media Literacy
Computer Literacy
Critical Literacy
News Literacy
Digital Literacy
Literacy in Historical Context

6. Literacy is the sharing of meaning
through symbols
#chariholearns @reneehobbs

7. Media literacy is
responsive to
people’s lived
experience with
digital media,
mass media &
popular culture

8. Representation
Media Effects
Interpretation
Semiotics
Political
Economy
KeyKey Concepts and Core Principles of Media Literacy, NAMLE

9. Digital Literacy
SKILLS & ABILITIES
➢ Computer Use
➢ Digital Skills
➢ Participatory Culture
LITERACY
➢ Multimodality & New Literacies
➢ Media Production & Composition
➢ Coding & Programming
TEACHING WITH
➢ Technology Integration
➢ Digital Media and Learning
➢ Connected Learning
TEACHING ABOUT
➢ Information Literacy
➢ Media Literacy
➢ Internet Safety & Digital Citizenship
an expanding array of concepts, terms and approaches

10. How has media literacy changed over time?

11. 1930s. How to Recognize and Resist Propaganda
1950s. The Rise of Film Studies
1960s. How to Critically Analyze Advertising
1970s. Understanding Media Industries and
Media Effects
1980s. Focus on Cultural Context and Processes
of Interpretation
1990s. The Rise of Youth Media
2000s. Participatory Culture
2010s. Understanding Social Media
Mapping Media Literacy
History

12. Mapping Media Literacy History
As a network of
relationships between
people and ideas

13. PEER-TO-PEER FILE SHARINGIntellectual Grandparents
DEWEY. Communication &
education are linked together
to enable democratic societies
BRUNER. Asking
questions is key
to the
development of
critical thinking
skills
FREIRE. Awareness, analysis
creation & reflection enable
people to take action against
injustice
McLUHAN. Media
& technology are
immersive cultural
environments that
restructure human
perception and
values
HALL. Audiences
are active.
Meaning-making
is shaped by lived
experience &
cultural context

14. LOVE HATE
PRINT VISUAL SOUND DIGITAL
EMPOWERMENT – PROTECTION PARADIGM
People have a love-hate relationship with
media, technology and popular culture

15. Mapping

16. Stakeholders in Digital and Media Literacy
MEDIAACTIVIST
GOVERNMENTLIBRARY
EDUCATIONRELIGION

17. What evolutionary patterns are noticeable
when we look at media literacy over time?

18. Should the media industry
help to advance media
literacy education?

19. History of Media Industry
Involvement in Media Literacy
• Understanding New Media (NAEB, 1960)
• Television Information Office (NAB, 1962)
• Visual Learning (Kodak, 1969)
• Creating Critical Viewers (ABC, 1991)
• Know TV (Learning Channel, 1994)
• Assignment: Media Literacy (Discovery Channel, 1998)
• Taking Charge of Your TV (NCTA, 2001)
• Messages & Meanings (NAA Foundation, 2001)
• Media Smart UK (British Advertisers, 2002)
• Adobe Youth Voices (Adobe, 2006)
• Google Digital Literacy & Citizenship (Google, 2011)
Hobbs, R. (2016). Literacy: Understanding media and how they work. In R. G. Picard (Ed.), What Society Needs from Media in the
Age of Digital Communication (pp. 131 – 160). Porto: Media XXI.

20. 2012
Google Digital
Literacy &
Citizenship
1962
Television in
Today’s Society
50 YEARS

21.  13 scripts / lecture notes
 Worksheets / quizzes / slides /
reading list / recommendations
for supplemental 16mm films
 Pedagogy: Presentation by local
experts; Q & A session;
supplemental readings and films
 Multiple points of view from both
inside and outside the industry
 Much background information
about how television works,
including reflection on the
unintended consequences of
advertising-supported economic
model
 Acknowledges the pleasure
people experience with television
as a leisure activity
 Little emphasis on the impact of
television on family life, social
relationship or citizenship

22.  3 videos / lesson plans
 Target audience: Grades 6 – 8 (ages
11 – 13)
 Pedagogy: presentation by teacher;
view and discuss videos; “what if”
scenario activities
 Goals: Increase knowledge of tools
offered by Google/YouTube to
detect inaccuracies and protect
oneself from inappropriate content
 Little background information about
how the Internet works
 Tone conveys sense of urgency to
follow the “do’s and don’ts”
 Positions multiple points of view
available online as a “problem” that
needs to be solved

23. Pedagogy: lecture/activity plus discussion
No focus on critical analysis | No media production
EMPOWERMENT PROTECTION

24. Which concepts from the past should be
recovered?

26. DE-MYSTIFICATION
How does Amazon know
how to make such good
recommendations for me?
How does Google
autocomplete work?
Why is my browser history
so valuable?
Why does my Facebook
look so different from
yours?

27. DECONSTRUCTING
THROUGH CRITICAL ANALYSIS

28. PEER-TO-PEER FILE SHARING
My Argument
Media literacy evolves in response to changes in media,
technology, education, and the cultural environment.
Mapping media literacy practices enables important
reflection on what is gained and what is lost as new
paradigms displace older ones.
Historical research helps us understand how media literacy
adapts to the ever-changing context of cultural ecosystems
in historical context.
Educators and scholars should retrieve the concepts of de-
mystification and de-construction as they reinvent the
theory and practice of media literacy in relation to the needs
of learners in contemporary society.

29. Renee Hobbs
Professor of Communication Studies
Director, Media Education Lab
University of Rhode Island USA
Twitter: @reneehobbs
Media Literacy in Evolution
What is Life?
University of Oregon at Portland
Media Literacies Roundtable
April 8, 2017