Moving from Information Literacy to Media Literacy

Instructional Technology Workshops for FacultyMarch 13, 2007Shana Higgins

“We live in a world of images and sound. The electronic media are to us what ‘nature’ was to earlier times. That is to say, the electronic

media are the inescapable background against which we live our lives and

from which we derive our references and meanings.”

Steven ShaviroConnected: Or What it Means to Live in the Network Society. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, (2003).

What is Information Literacy? Information literacy is a core instructional pedagogy in higher education. The Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL), the primary professional organization for academic librarians, first described information literacy in 1989. Numerous disciplinary and accrediting associations have also incorporated the Information Literacy Standards for Higher Education and/or information literacy language into their documents.

At University of Redlands, our library instruction is based on these five standards set forth by the ACRL:

Can the student identify the information need? Can the student find the information needed? Can the student evaluate the information retrieved? Can the student synthesize to create a new information product? Does the student behave with an awareness of the ethical and legal issues regarding information use?

What is Media Literacy? The most widely cited definition of media literacy in the United States came out of the 1992 Aspen Media Literacy Leadership Institute. From this three day conference materialized the following definition: “The media literate person…can access, analyze, evaluate and produce media in a variety of forms.”

Let’s break it down…

The tenets of media literacy include:

All media are constructions. The media construct reality. Audiences negotiate meaning in media. Media contain ideological and value messages. Media have social and political implications. Form and content are closely related in media.

Media Literacy-Key Questions

1. Who created this message?

2. What creative techniques are used to attract my attention?

3. How might different people understand this message differently than me?

4. What values, lifestyles, and points of view are represented in, or omitted from, this message?

5. Why is this message being sent?

Center for Media Literacy www.medialit.org

Information Literacy-Key Questions

1. Who is the author/publisher/source/sponsor?

2. When was the information published or posted?

3. Is the information supported by evidence?

4. What is the purpose for the information? To inform?

teach? sell? entertain? persuade?

5. Does the information relate to your topic or answer

your question?

Very simplified set related to issues of Currency, Relevance, Authority, Accuracy, and Purpose of information developed by the Meriam Library, California State University at Chico.

Integrating Information and Media Literacies in the

Classroom Wikipedia as a learning/teaching tool

Examining coverage of an event from multiple mediums

Evaluate form and content of websites

Produce multimedia blogs/websites for class projects (in lieu of paper for an audience of one-the professor)

Produce multimedia collaborative wiki projects

Produce autoethnographies or biography videos--post to YouTube or other video hosting site

Produce PSA videos

An example: Integrating media literacy into the library one-shot session…

REL 125: World Religions

Begin the library instruction session where students start their research: Google. We can discuss how Google works as a search engine and then evaluate several of the results of our search.

What is Wikipedia?: An opportunity to discuss pros

and cons of this online collaborative project;

issues of currency, authority, and bias; as well

as ethical production of information and civic

engagement.

Another example: Integrating media literacy into the library one-shot session…

EVST 100: Introduction to Environmental Studies

Searching YouTube for expert testimony and/or documentary artifacts.