National Association for Media Literacy Education (NAMLE)

 

Media literacy empowers people to be both critical thinkers and creative producers of an increasingly wide range of messages using image, language, and sound. It is the skillful application of literacy skills to media and technology messages.

 

Media literacy—the ability to ACCESS, ANALYZE, EVALUATE, and COMMUNICATE information in a variety of forms—is interdisciplinary by nature. Media literacy represents a necessary, inevitable, and realistic response to the complex, ever-changing electronic environment and communication cornucopia that surround us.

 

 

United Nations Organization for Education, Science and Culture (UNESCO) 

 

Media Literacy aims to empower citizens by providing them with the competencies (knowledge and skills and attitude) necessary to engage with traditional media and new technologies. It includes the following elements or learning outcomes:

• Understand the role and functions of media in democratic societies;

• Understand the condition under which media can fulfil their functions;

• Critically evaluate media content;

• Engage with media for self-expression and democratic participation; and

• Review skills (including ICTs skills) needed to produce user-generated content.

 

 

1982 Grünwald Declaration on Media Education

 

Rather than condemn or endorse the undoubted power of the media, we need to accept their significant impact and penetration throughout the world as an established fact, and also appreciate their importance as an element of culture in today’s world. The role of communication and media in the process of development should not be underestimated, nor the function of media as instruments for the citizen’s active participation in society. 

 

 

EU Audiovisual Media Services Directive

 

Media-literate people will be able to exercise informed choices, understand the nature of content and services and take advantage of the full range of opportunities offered by new communications technologies. They will be better able to protect themselves and their families from harmful or offensive material.