Paul Mihailidis SAC 09

1. The Salzburg Academy’s Imperative
Media Literacy
& Global Change
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

2. Paul Mihailidis, PhD
Associate Professor,
Emerson College, Boston
MA
Director, Salzburg Academy
on Media and Global
Change
Associate Director,
Engagement Lab

3. What does social change look like today…

10. LEZEM is a platform that seeks to actively
engage the youth of Lebanon in the country’s
civil life. We work together to identify major
obstructions to social development in our
community, to propose solutions & find effective
ways of implementing these solutions.

11. MAPPING POLICE VIOLENCE

15. What do these examples have in common?
The utilization of media tools, platforms and
processes designed to gather individuals
committed to positive change, and to facilitate
action in support of that change.

16. What Conditions Support Civic
Action?

17. connectivit
y
mobility spreadability
MEDIA
CITIZEN
Networked
Public
Sphere
Networked
Public
Sphere

18. Mobility

19. Internet access v. mobile phones
– 7+ billion people on Earth
– Only 40% have access to
internet http://www.internetlivestats.com/internet-users/
– 75% have access to mobile
phones (2012)

21. This has become a
'Tethered Generation'

22. "The logic of digital media, on the other hand,
allows the people formerly known as the audience
to create value for one another every day” – Clay
Shirky
Connectivity

23. Networked Publics
1. The space constructed
through networked
technologies
2. The imagined community
that emerges as a result
of the intersection of
people, technology, and
practice (19)

24. Global Internet Traffic
Real time: http://www.akamai.com/html/technology/dataviz1.html

25. Web Connection Density

27. “…the technical resources that make it
easier to circulate some kinds of content
than others, the economic structures that
support or restrict circulation, the attributes
of a media text that might appeal to a
community’s motivation for sharing
material, and the social networks that link
people through the exchange of meaningful
bytes” (Jenkins, Ford, Green, 4).
Spreadability

28. What Does One Second on the Internet Look
Like?

29. How Does Media Literacy
Support Civic Action?

30. Media Literacy
Literacy
Read Write
ANALYSIS EXPRESSION
…with all media texts available in the 21st century
Expanded concept of literacy

31. An emerging disconnect in this
approach to media literacy
Critical Engagement with Media
Critical Engagement with
Society

32. Even Academy Students struggle
with connecting media analysis to
social action
• Apathy Narratives
• Awareness-Action Gaps
• Self-Consciousness & Public (dis)comfort
with online expression and engagement
• Borderless Cynicism – what can we really
do?

33. Critical Inquiry
the ability to
analyze,
evaluate, and
produce media
messages,
and;
Critical agency
to use media to
engage in,
responsible,
inclusive, and
active dialog in
local, national,
and global
communities
Media Literacy as Civic Agency:
Connecting analysis to action

34. • ACCESS to media as a human right
• AWARENESS of messages as portrayers of
values, norms, and contexts
• ASSESSMENT of the techniques media use to
present information
• APPRECIATION for the value of media to provide
for communities in connective and dynamic
ways.
• ACTION to encourage better communication
across cultural, social, and political divides

35. AN ECOSYSTEM FOR MEDIA LITERACY