This qualitative action research project addressed the infusion of media literacy and new media into a standard secondary English language arts curriculum. In examining students' perceptions of South Africa as they interacted with new media texts in conjunction with the traditional literary text Cry, the Beloved Country, this study also explored the manner in which students' media interactions informed their reading of the novel. As a result of the research data, the author asserts that media literacy education can, in fact, play an effective role in teaching literature within the world literature classroom.

In this paper, we looked at how media influence education and how to provide students with tools for analyzing media messages in order for them to be able to reflect on that influence and foster critical thinking. We summarized research on media literacy in English language teaching and discussed how that may increase students’ language learning and critical thinking skills. To concretize our findings we developed a lesson plan using a contemporary YouTube genre, Epic Rap Battles of History, and used that as a basis for our discussions. This resulted in a discussion on the advantages of using media literacy to teach English and practical examples of how to do this in an English 6 course. We show the importance of connecting language learning to practical application as well as providing students with opportunities to develop their analytical and critical skills.

The purpose of this study was to measure the extent to which educators in Florida public high schools perceived the Florida Media Literacy Standard to be implemented within their schools. This study also identified strategies that school leaders were using to successfully implement the Florida Media Literacy Standard and any perceived barriers to the implementation process. The Florida Media Literacy Standard was designed to address decision-making and critical thinking skills with regards to research, evaluation, and communication with various types of media. The standard was introduced in Florida public schools in 2007 with its inclusion in the Next Generation Sunshine State Standards. High school principals and Language Arts Curriculum Leaders (LACLs) in the English/ Language Arts area were participants in this research because of their role in determining curriculum goals in Florida public schools. The Media Literacy Standard Questionnaire was sent to the principal and the department head of the English department in each participating school district. The results of this study suggested that those high school principals and LACLs that completed the Media Literacy Standard Questionnaire perceived the Florida Media Literacy Standard to be implemented in their schools. Over 80% of principals and LACLs reported ―strongly agree‖ or ―agree‖ with statements that reflected active implementation processes in school classrooms. Principals and LACLS reported use of the school Media Specialist, attendance at iv professional development and learning sessions, and making use of Professional Learning Communities as valuable strategies toward implementing the Florida Media Literacy Standard. Time and access to technology were two of the most commonly cited perceived barriers to the implementation process. Principals and LACLs both reported limited Media Center access for teachers due to standardized testing practices in Florida public high schools. Although many principals and LACLs reported that they perceived the Florida Media Literacy Standard to be implemented in their schools, the low response rate of 24.18% and conflicting data with regards to perceived barriers raise questions about the extent to which the results of this study can be generalized to the population of Florida public high schools. Further research is recommended to clarify the conflicting responses related to perceived barriers to implementation such as interviewing participants.

Amidst the public’s declining trust in news, media prosumers—that is, media consumers who have also become producers of mediated texts—are not equipped with any credible alternative mechanism to better understand the world around them. Prior academic studies of news and its delivery have not adequately explored the ideological framework we need to confront this frightening situation. This dissertation does so. I problematize the narration of news as an aesthetic process. Such mass-mediated narration stitches together our world in ideological ways. A tidal flow of stories highlights and obscures selected truths in a frenzy of “new” news cycles, the frequency of which intensifies with each new delivery platform. Social media platforms, which peddle short videos, need to be understood using new analytical methods, given that the aesthetic and narrative dimensions of such audio-visual texts are so far removed from the pace, delivery, and meaning of 19th-century objects like newspapers. In the current moment, I theorize the process through which an incident is converted first into a media event, then a media spectacle, and finally into myth. My work breaks new ground in mass communication studies by understanding this aesthetic and narrative process as mystification, a formulation I borrow from contemporary philosophers, particularly Cornel West. As an aesthetic process, mediated narration presents what the power brokers of a society deem desirable, while evacuating that which contradicts their ideological position. In this dissertation, I theorize this process in terms of “absenting” as a narrative process and “invisibilization” as an aesthetic maneuver. Aesthetic value undergirds the narration of the news by falsely presenting certainty and consensus to media prosumers. To accomplish this, I employ Theodor Adorno’s aesthetic theory to explain how news narration routinizes values of visibility, forming a discursive field that envelops the media prosumer. Pierre Bourdieu’s habitus best explains this theoretical field. An important implication of my work concerns the current obsession with “media literacy.” I argue that media literacy has not adequately explained the ideological nature of mediated narration, shifting the blame for a disinformation society from the structural forces of textual production onto a purportedly “illiterate” public. I destabilize the current understanding of media literacy by revealing the ideological implications of the aesthetic and narrative construction of what both practitioners and scholars of the news reduce to a binary notion of truths and falsehoods. The domain to which I apply this theoretical apparatus is the narration of majoritarian nationalism. Postcolonial governments use nationalism as an emotional trigger to co-opt their citizens into participating in the modernization project. Current institutions use rationality to showcase their nation as modern. The general narratives I have just described are in fact gleaned from three disturbing media events in recent India. My nation’s shift in recent years from a pluralistic democracy to a majoritarian, authoritarian state makes it a timely location for inquiry. In my three case studies, news narration showcases the desirable and hiding undesirable elements; depicts farmers in a negative light, as obstacles to modernization; and discredits resistant voices and deems them illegitimate individuals with smartphones or unethical practitioners of journalism. First, I analyze a media spectacle created in the city of Ahmedabad in 2020 by Narendra Modi’s government for Donald Trump’s visit. The government showcased this Potemkin Village as an example of the modernization project, a false construction that illuminates presentable elements of the city while walling off the unpresentable. I evaluate eight visual moments of this event and draw attention to the aesthetic facets of visibilization and invisibilization. Second, I examine narrative performances in a news-based television show anchored by Arnab Goswami, who analyzes murders involving politicians and farmers in a small rural road on which farmers marched and a convoy of vehicles led by the son of a central minister ran over them from behind, inviting retaliation. The aesthetic practices of this coverage destabilize in a chilling way who are the perpetrators and victims in these stories. In the third event, I analyze moments of journalistic struggle in a story of the police forcibly burning the body of a victim of gang-rape. Four men of an upper caste allegedly gang-raped a lower-caste woman in a village, and her dead body was brought back from a hospital in New Delhi. The media followed, and their cameras serendipitously captured the alleged destruction of evidence by the police. My dissertation concludes with questions about what cultural capital would be required in a world in which a media prosumer would be able to read and interpret the aesthetic and narrative presentation of such mass media objects. I conclude by understanding how the visibilized and invisibilized maneuvers of our current news media lead to the construction, not of media literacy, but instead, of “media illiteracy.” It is my theoretical conclusion that demystification is the best process to undo the debilitating effects of this dire situation. My dissertation ends with recommendations for completely transformed media literacy programs that deliver to communities, and specifically not individuals in a classroom, pedagogical tools rooted in critical theory.

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<p>   </p> <p>Health-related misinformation presents a significant threat to public health and wellbeing. Misinformation exposure is associated with decreased compliance with public health initiatives, decreased trust in science, and greater levels of disease transmission. Unfortunately, fact-checking is not a panacea for mitigating the negative effects associated with misinformation exposure. The present dissertation, guided by the Theory of Planned Behavior, investigated across two studies whether providing participants with different levels of media literacy education could enable them to successfully determine news articles, on a variety of different health topics, contained either legitimate or illegitimate information. Both studies utilized a three-group, pretest-posttest, between-subjects experimental design in which participants were randomly assigned to either a brief or detailed media literacy skill promotion message, or a no-message control. The messages took the form of Facebook posts from a fictitious organization dedicated to promoting media literacy. The first study recruited 305 undergraduate students. Results from the first study indicated that participants assigned to the detailed message condition were more successful compared to the other conditions in identifying health-related misinformation. A content analysis of participants’ open-ended responses revealed that participants in the detailed message group were the most likely to utilize skills related to media literacy and were the least likely to utilize heuristics or to guess when determining whether news articles contained legitimate or illegitimate information. The second study sought to replicate and extend the results of the first study in a sample of adults recruited through Amazon’s Mechanical Turk. The results of the second study found that the detailed message condition promoted a greater ability to identify misinformation compared to either the brief message or control condition. Similarly, participants in the second study were most likely to use skills related to media literacy when completing the misinformation identification task. The results suggest that brief media literacy messages may be insufficient in enabling participants to successfully identify health-related misinformation online. However, more detailed media literacy education messages show promise for potentially limiting the spread of misinformation online. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed. </p> <p>  </p>

This dissertation examines how media literacy education can be implemented and practiced for North Korean refugees to enhance their cultural competency. It is conducted as a form of participatory action research, which pursues knowledge and progressive social change. As a participant researcher, I taught media literacy to North Korean refugees in five different institutions during the summer of 2008 for a period of three months. This dissertation reviews my strategies for gaining permission and access to these educational institutions to teach media literacy education. Since media literacy classes cannot be separated from current events nor from the media environments of the given period, the dissertation also presents the significant role that the issues of importing U.S. beef and the candlelight demonstration played in the design of media literacy lessons during the summer of 2008 and in the process illustrates the value of teachable moments. It is hoped that other media educators will see how I made a connection between current affairs and media literacy lessons. Since this dissertation aimed to address how media literacy education can be effectively used to enhance North Korean refugees' cultural competence, I as researcher adopted an emergent curriculum approach which incorporates what emerges in the classroom into the learning. Based on predetermined educational goals, on what emerged in the classroom, on students' reactions, and on my own reflections, I continuously modified lesson plans throughout the summer. While I tried various pedagogies and covered several themes in the class, I selectively presented six different lesson models in this dissertation. The first lesson model includes drawing and talking about the mapping of students' media experiences. I started the initial class at each institution with this media mapping. As students drew and shared their media maps, they were able to reflect upon their own media usage. I also was able to gain better knowledge and insight about their media experiences. This exercise also allowed me to set the tone of the class as a comfortable venue in which students could honestly share their stories; as a result, the students were able to gain confidence in sharing their thoughts and experiences. The second lesson model used the film Crossing, the fictional film about North Korean refugees. Using this film in the lesson created an atmosphere in which students could talk freely about issues of North Korea and North Korean refugees. While the issues of North Korea refugees and North Korea are very sensitive topics for discussion between native South Koreans and North Korean refugees, the act of discussing this film naturally led students to share their stories about being North Korean refugees. The groups' deconstruction of this film also provided an opportunity to learn how media stories are purposely crafted and represent only a certain part of reality. The third model incorporated in-class reviews of different media sources related to the film Crossing -such as articles in women's magazines, film magazines and newsmagazines, blogs, internet fan cafes, official sites of the film, and the star ratings at the portal site. Critically analyzing these media sources informed students of the various purposes of the media and offered the possibility of participation in the public discourse. Because North Korean refugees are not familiar with the various possible uses of the media, they found it helpful to see effective ways to utilize the media to accomplish various goals. In addition, this activity was a valuable way by which to teach the concept of target audience, helping the students to see how different target audiences influence the emphasis, format, and style of media content. The fourth lesson model incorporated comparisons of different news sources about the candlelight demonstration. This helped students to understand the variety of views and tones of different news sources that are influenced by their own history and political affiliations. By closely examining what factors impacted the creation of the news stories and their influence on the public, students started to acknowledge the importance of critically examining media messages and locating a reliable news source that they could trust. The fifth lesson model was the stereotyping activity. Students reflected upon their own stereotypes that they had toward others and how the prevalent images of certain groups of people are influenced by the media. This lesson encouraged students to think about the importance of conveying a balance of varied images of different groups of people so that these people could not be misunderstood and stereotyped by others. The six lesson model involved watching and discussing documentaries about North Korean refugees in order to help students to better learn how the same group of people can be differently represented based on the purpose of the film and the knowledge and perspective of the producers. As two of the four documentaries discussed were created by teenage North Korean refugees, students also were inspired and learned how direct participation in producing the stories which they felt were important could make a difference. Ultimately, students who earlier had considered themselves as inadequate and incapable started to see that they themselves are valuable and that their voices are important, and therefore they can have a meaningful impact on others and on society. / Mass Media and Communication

In order to effectively teach students how to critically consume media it is paramount for teachers to be media literate (Ian & Temur, 2012; Keller-Raber, 1995; Schmidt, 2012). Using Freirean critical literacy as a theoretical framework, this case study investigated how a 60-hour teacher training program in media literacy promoting Catholic Social Teaching and how undergoing this training has influenced teachers’ perceptions of media literacy, Catholic Social Teaching, and the link between the two. As the researcher, I performed participant-observation as a trainee in the program. Five teachers, alumni of the program, participated in this study: one middle school teacher, three high-school teachers, and one college professor, all of them taught at Christian private schools. I recorded how participants applied the Media Mindfulness—a faith based media literacy strategy—in their practice as a response to the Church’s call for Catholic teachers to engage in media education (Benedict XVI, 2008; John Paul II, 1987, 1990, 1992, 2005). Findings show how the Media Mindfulness method helped teachers integrate media literacy in their practice, promoting student empowerment and character education. A follow up action research at a Catholic high school where teachers are trained in Media Mindfulness is recommended to find out: a) how the training influenced teachers’ confidence in integrating media education into their practice? b) to what extent students’ assimilation of Catholic Social Teaching concepts resulted from the teacher training program? c) and how training teachers in the media mindfulness model influenced the school’s culture in addressing social justice issues?

The aim of this diploma thesis, which is entitled "Media Education in schools - critical-analytic or production approach", is to map the current state of practice of media education in a sample of secondary schools (gymnasiums) in central Bohemia. Our goal is to provide readers with broader theoretical insight into the concept of media literacy (as a goal of any media education), to capture a brief history of development of the perspective on the role of media education, as well as to examine how media education is incorporated within the Czech system of secondary education, and also to reflect on its possible forms of implementation. Last but not least, the intent of the thesis is to describe two basic approaches to media education, both of which are directed to development of media literacy. Our research led by a combination of questionnaires and interviews with educators suppose to be used as a tool that should help us to bridge the theory with an image of factual practice. The research part primarily aims to provide insight into framework of the current practice of teaching media education in secondary schools in central Bohemia, and through interpretation of the main remarks points to (at least) basic issues which teachers of media education must deal with.

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