"[Media literacy is] the ability to access, analyze, evaluate, create, and act using all forms of communication."
- National Association of Media Literacy Education
MEDIA LITERACY TEACHES:
- Learning how to use media wisely and effectively
- Engaging in critical thinking when evaluating media messages
- Being able to evaluate the credibility of information from different sources
- Recognizing media's influence on beliefs, attitudes, values, behaviors, and the democratic process
- Encouraging participatory citizenship
- Achieving greater understanding and appreciating multiple perspectives
- Learning to produce communication and express oneself using different forms of media
News Outlets (No Paywall)
- Baltimore Sun This link opens in a new windowBaltimore's newspaper, which is good for local news and issues from 1990 - today. (Need CCBC Login to remove paywall.)
- International NewsstreamNews from outside the United States and Canada. (Need CCBC Login to remove paywall.)
- U.S. Newsstream This link opens in a new windowNews from the United States. (Need CCBC Login to remove paywall.)
Databases
- JSTOR This link opens in a new windowJournals, books, images, and primary sources about many subjects.
- Academic Search PremierArticles on any subject. This is a good place to start.
- Media Literacy Research Starter
"Media shapes individually lived experiences, cultures, and societies. Cultural and corporate norms, values, ideologies, and practices are mediated by modern day modes of storytelling from movies, videogames, television, music, and the Internet. Drawing on educational reformer John Dewey’s argument in the early twentieth century that a strong democracy relies on an educated and literate citizenry, scholars of new media position media literacy as a vital ability for a democratic citizenry and socially just world." Contains bibliography.