Renee Hobbs explores the history of media literacy in an address to the Media Ecology Association upon receiving the Neil Postman Lifetime Achievement Award for Public Intellectual Activity.

1. Renee Hobbs
Professor of Communication Studies
Director, Media Education Lab
University of Rhode Island USA
Twitter: @reneehobbs
The Competing Narratives
of Digital and Media Literacy
Media Ecology Association
University of Maine
June 23, 2018
#mediaecology2018

3. PEER-TO-PEER FILE SHARING
My Argument
Media literacy education evolves in response to changes in
media, technology, education, and the cultural environment
Competing narratives of media literacy education reflect &
embody multidisciplinary traditions of scholars, practitioners
and policymakers
Historical research helps us understand how media literacy
practice reflects a complex and individualized network of
relationships between people and ideas over time
Educators and scholars should retrieve some older concepts
as they reinvent the theory and practice of media literacy in
relation to the needs of learners in contemporary society

4. How is media literacy defined?

5. Stakeholders in Digital and Media Literacy
MEDIAACTIVIST
GOVERNMENTLIBRARY
EDUCATIONRELIGION

6. Media literacy is
responsive to
people’s lived
experience with
digital media,
mass media &
popular culture
RELEVANCE

7. Representation
Media Effects
Interpretation
Semiotics
Political
Economy
KeyKey Concepts and Core Principles of Media Literacy, NAMLE

8. MEDIA LITERACY IS….
• a critique of media’s institutional and
social power
• a type of education designed to
protect people from potential harms
of media exposure
• a dimension of democratic citizenship
• a social movement empowering
people to “talk back” to media
• a type of education that advances the
capacity for lifelong learning
• an expanded form of literacy

9. A definition is the start of an argument,
not the end of one.
-Neil Postman, 1976

10. Digital Literacy
SKILLS & ABILITIES
➢ Computer Use
➢ Digital Skills
➢ Participatory Culture
LITERACY
➢ Multimodality & New Literacies
➢ Media Production & Composition
➢ Coding & Programming
TEACHING WITH
➢ Technology Integration
➢ Digital Media and Learning
➢ Connected Learning
TEACHING ABOUT
➢ Information Literacy
➢ Media Literacy
➢ Internet Safety & Digital Citizenship
an expanding array of concepts, terms and approaches

11. How has media literacy changed over time?

12. Rhetoric
Print Literacy
Visual Literacy
Information Literacy
Media Literacy
Computer Literacy
News Literacy
Digital Literacy
From Orality to Literacy and Beyond

13. 1930s. How to Recognize and Resist Propaganda
1950s. The Rise of Film Studies
1960s. Critical Analysis of Advertising
1970s. Focus on Media Effects
1980s. Cultural Context, Political Economy, and
Processes of Interpretation
1990s. The Rise of Youth Media
2000s. Participatory Culture
2010s. Fake News, Privacy, Platform Capitalism
Mapping
Media Literacy History
COMMUNICATION

14. 1930s. Discriminating between Classic and
Contemporary Literature
1950s. The Rise of Educational Television
1960s. Popular Culture Enters the Classroom
1970s. School Journalism & Video Production
1980s. Film as Literature
1990s. New Literacies
2000s. Ed Tech Industry
2010s. Digital Citizenship & Credibility
Mapping
Media Literacy History
EDUCATION

15. Communication/Media Studies Education/Literacy
Competing Narratives of the Past

16. Literacy as metaphor

18. A text is best regarded as a semantic unit,
a unit not of form but of meaning

19. Literacy is the sharing of meaning
through symbols

20. What patterns are noticeable
when we look at media literacy over time?

21. Should media literacy
education empower or
protect?
1993

22. LOVE HATE
PRINT VISUAL SOUND DIGITAL
EMPOWERMENT – PROTECTION PARADIGM

23. Mapping

24. Should the media
industry help to
advance media
literacy education?
1999

25. Understanding New Media
National Association of Educational Broadcasters, 1960
This two-volume text was written by
Marshall McLuhan and commissioned
by the National Association of
Educational Broadcasters.
It proposed to provide an approach to
media and a syllabus for teaching the
nature and effects of media in
secondary schools.

26. The History of Media Industry Involvement
in Media Literacy
• Understanding New Media NAEB, 1960
• Television Information Office NAB, 1962
• Visual Learning Kodak, 1969
• Creating Critical Viewers ABC, 1991
• Know TV Learning Channel, 1994
• Assignment: Media Literacy Discovery Channel, 1998
• Taking Charge of Your TV NCTA, 2001
• Messages & Meanings NAA Foundation, 2001
• Media Smart UK British Advertisers, 2002
• Adobe Youth Voices Adobe, 2006
• Google Digital Literacy & Citizenship Google, 2011
Hobbs, R. (2016). Literacy: Understanding media and how they work. In R. G. Picard (Ed.), What Society Needs from Media in the
Age of Digital Communication (pp. 131 – 160). Porto: Media XXI.

27. 2012
Google Digital
Literacy &
Citizenship
1962
NAB Television in
Today’s Society
50 YEARS

28.  13 scripts / lecture notes
 Target audience: college students
and adults
 Worksheets / quizzes / slides /
reading list / recommendations
for supplemental 16mm films
 Acknowledges the pleasure
people experience with television
as a leisure activity
 Multiple points of view from both
inside and outside the industry
 Much background information
about how television works,
including reflection on the
unintended consequences of
advertising-supported economic
model
National Association
of Broadcasters

29.  3 videos / lesson plans
 Target audience: Grades 6 – 8 (ages
11 – 13)
 Goals: Increase knowledge of tools
offered by Google/YouTube to
detect inaccuracies and protect
oneself from inappropriate content
 Little background information about
how the Internet works
 Tone conveys sense of urgency to
follow the “do’s and don’ts”
 Positions multiple points of view
online as a “problem” that needs to
be solved

30. The Need to Identify Embedded
Values in Curriculum Materials

31. EMPOWERMENT – PROTECTION PARADIGM

32. Pedagogy: scripted lecture/video plus discussion
No focus on inquiry |critical analysis | media production

33. Learners
should create
media to
represent
their learning
Blog – image – audio – podcast
animation – video – screencast – vlog
remix – social media

34. How can we better understand the competing
narratives of digital and media literacy?

35. Mapping Intellectual History
As a network of
relationships between
people and ideas
Hobbs, R. (Ed). (2016). Exploring the Roots of Digital and Media Literacy through Personal Narrative. Philadelphia: Temple
University Press
 Lance Strate on Marshall McLuhan
 Henry Jenkins on John Fiske
 David Weinberger on Martin Heidegger
 Gianna Cappello on Theodor Adorno
 Vanessa Domine on Neil Postman
 Jeremiah Dyehouse on John Dewey
 Renee Hobbs on Jerome Bruner
 Mike Robb Grieco on Michel Foucault
 Amy Peterson Jenson on Bertholt Brecht
 and more

36. PEER-TO-PEER FILE SHARINGMy Intellectual Grandparents
DEWEY. Communication &
education are linked together
to enable democratic societies
BRUNER. Asking
questions is key
to the
development of
critical thinking
skills
FREIRE. Awareness, analysis
creation & reflection enable
people to take action against
injustice
McLUHAN. Media
& technology are
immersive cultural
environments that
restructure human
perception and
values
HALL. Audiences
are active.
Meaning-making
is shaped by lived
experience &
cultural context
Network of
relationships
between people
& ideas

37. www.grandparentsofmedialiteracy.com

38. www.grandparentsofmedialiteracy.com

39. www.grandparentsofmedialiteracy.com

40. www.grandparentsofmedialiteracy.com

41. www.grandparentsofmedialiteracy.com

42. By acknowledging our different intellectual grandparents,
we can build trust & respect for diverse perspectives

43. Which concepts from the past should be
recovered?

44. DEMYSTIFICATION
THROUGH CRITICAL
ANALYSIS

46. www.mindovermedia.tv

47. www.mindovermedia.tv

48. www.mindovermedia.tv

49. the practice of
obtaining
information or
input by enlisting
the services of a
large number of
people typically
via the Internet
CROWDSOURCING

50. CO-LEARNING
Flattening authority hierarchies
between teachers and learners

51. Summer Institute in Digital Literacy
University of Rhode Island
July 15 – 20, 2018
www.digiURI.com

52. THE PEDAGOGY OF
INQUIRY

54. THE PEDAGOGY OF
INQUIRY
How does Google
autocomplete work?
Why is my browser history
so valuable?
Why does my Facebook
look so different from
yours?
How does Amazon know
how to make such good
recommendations for me?

56. PEER-TO-PEER FILE SHARING
Review
Media literacy education evolves in response to changes in
media, technology, education, and the cultural environment
Competing narratives of media literacy require us to respect
the multidisciplinary traditions of scholars, practitioners
and policymakers
Historical research helps us understand how media literacy
practice reflects a complex and individualized network of
relationships between people and ideas over time
Educators and scholars should retrieve the concepts of inquiry,
demystification and time/space/place as they develop the
theory and practice of media literacy to meet the needs of
today’s learners

57. CONTACT INFORMATION:
Renee Hobbs
Professor of Communication Studies
Director, Media Education Lab
Harrington School of Communication & Media
University of Rhode Island USA
Email: hobbs@uri.edu
Twitter: @reneehobbs
LEARN MORE
Web: www.mediaeducationlab.com