Media Literacy
Media literacy is the capacity to critically read communications in a range of digital media – text, graphical, video, animation, audio, haptic, etc., (also ‘multimodal literacy’). At higher levels, the capacity to appreciate audience, purpose, accessibility, impact and modality, and to understand digital media production as a practice and an industry. To act within digital copyright law.
Student learning outcome examples
- Use a variety of technologies for media consumption and production, with awareness of the personal, social and ethical impacts of their choices
- Engage with media representations with an understanding of how processes of selection and construction have been used to create stories according to particular points of view
- Recognise own role as an audience member across multiple media forms, and the processes used by media producers to invite particular consumption practices
- Understand that economic, social and ethical processes inform the production, distribution and regulation of media content
- Use and critique media languages in images, sounds and text to communicate and analyse how meaning is constructed across multiple media forms
- Be aware of and critique the various kinds of relationships that can be formed within and with various media forms
Sourced from the Media Literacy Framework for Australia
Assessment design
Example assessment types may include:
- Blog
- Social media post
- Debate
- Creative work
- Webpage
- Critique
- Performance
Capability development case examples
Copyright video
- Put the following questions on the board or a slide and give to the students.
- You come up with a new method of analysing data. Would this be covered under copyright?
- You create an image and host it on Instagram. Who owns the copyright to this image?
- You make adaptations to this Instagram image and share it somewhere else. Who owns the copyright to this new image?
- What are moral rights?
- Play the video.
- Ask the students to answer the questions anonymously and discuss the answers in class.
ABC – Media Literacy Program – Fact vs Opinion vs Analysis
Visit the ABC media literacy program website and explore the numerous resources freely available resources, including Fact vs Opinion vs Analysis interactive lesson.
Ask your students to watch the videos and complete the quizzes within the lesson. Following completion of the modules, the lesson provides follow-up activity ideas to continue the discussion.
Media Literacy
Together, or in small groups, explore the five questions:
- Who created the message?
- What techniques are being used to capture your attention?
- How might different people interpret this message?
- What is being left in and out of the message?
- Why is the message being sent?
Resources
- Build a ‘media literacy survival kit’ Lesson Plan (PBS, 50-minute lesson plan)
- The Power of Images Lesson Plan (Facing History, 50-minute lesson )
- Confirmation and Other Biases Lesson Plan(Facing history, 50-minute lesson)
- Finding and using Media (UQ Digital Essentials, module with a final quiz)
- “Fake news,” Misinformation and Disinformation (University libraries, list of lessons and activities)
- ALIA Media Literacy Webinar (PowerPoint slides)
