Media Literacy 

Across the 
Curriculum 
 Media education has a place in nearly
every course and subject. Here are some
ideas just to get you started: 

Social
1 In History Science
classes, students can look at how their views of history and
historical events have been shaped by media. Studying films,
newspapers and even their own textbooks can help students see how
the nature of each medium shapes how history is told. In Geography
and World Issues classes, students can analyze how news coverage
influences how we view different parts of the world – and the people
who live there. 
 Media education has a place in nearly
every course and subject. Here are some
ideas just to get you started: 

2 Science
How are students’ views of science, and what scientists do,
shaped by media? Where does the idea of a “mad scientist”
come from, and where do we see this trope today? How do
the commercial demands of newspapers and TV news
influence reporting of science stories? 
 Media education has a place in nearly
every course and subject. Here are some
ideas just to get you started: 

3 Family Studies
How are families depicted in different media? How has
this changed with time? Do media portrayals of family
follow trends in society, or do they influence them (or
both)? What do various media products popular with
youth say about gender roles, and how do youth interpret
these messages? 
 Media education has a place in nearly
every course and subject. Here are some
ideas just to get you started: 

4 Health and Physical Education

What influence does media consumption have on what we eat? How
does it affect our decisions about smoking, drinking, and drug use?
What kinds of relationships do we see modeled in media products
popular with youth, and what messages do youth take from them? How
do digital media such as cell phones and the Internet affect our
relationships with others, and how can we maintain healthy
relationships using these media? 
 Media education has a place in nearly
every course and subject. Here are some
ideas just to get you started: 

5 Music
How do the commercial pressures of the music industry affect the
creation of music? How are things like gender, class, relationships, or
alcohol and drug use depicted in music (and music videos), and how do
youth interpret these messages? How do different musical genres and
styles (pop, rock, hip hop, R&B, etc.) influence the content of music and
music videos? How are musicians portrayed in media, and how does that
influence how youth see them? 
 Media education has a place in nearly
every course and subject. Here are some
ideas just to get you started: 

Law
6 How do media products popular with youth portray crime and the
criminal justice system? How are these portrayals influenced by the
values or assumptions of the media creators, by commercial
considerations, or by the influence of different genres (cop shows,
action games, etc.)? How are digital media affecting our views on
issues such as intellectual property, hate speech, harassment and
defamation of character? 
 Media education has a place in nearly
every course and subject. Here are some
ideas just to get you started: 

7 Visual and Fine Arts

How do artists use, appropriate and deconstruct
media products to create new art? What rights and
responsibilities do artists have towards the original
media creators or owners? 
  “The convergence of media and technology in a global
culture is changing the way we learn about the world and

“ challenging the very foundations of education. No longer is

it enough to be able to read the printed word; children,
youth, and adults, too, need the ability to both critically
interpret the powerful images of a multimedia culture and
express themselves in multiple media forms. Media literacy
education provides a framework and a pedagogy for the
new literacy needed for living, working and citizenship in
the 21st century. Moreover it paves the way to mastering
the skills required for lifelong learning in a constantly
changing world.”  9
Cyberliteracy/
Digital literacy 

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 The 21st century has redefined digital
literacy. It has broadened its perspective to
include other aspects of the 21st context. These
literacies include (1) Cyber Literacy or Digital
Literacy, (2) Media Literacy, (3) Arts and
Creativity Literacy, (4) Financial Literacy, (5)
Multicultural Literacy or Global Understanding.
This lesson will focus on digital skills and digital
literacy as a response to the 21st century
developments. 

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 The millennial students are generally tech-
savvy, digital natives. They practically know how
to go about a tablet, an ipad, smartphones or
laptops better than anyone else. This suggest their
digital skills. However, are all students digital
literates? Thinking on how to use the digital tools,
accessing information, and exhibiting ways of
working in a globally competitive contexts,
together with skills in living in the 21st century
refer to the digital literacies. 

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• Media and communication have been among the most
rapidly developing.  
• At the turn of the last century, theatre, the telegraph, and
the newspaper entertained and informed us.  
• By the 1930s, movies replaced theatre as popular
entertainment, and telephones had replaced telegraphs as
primary lines of communication. In the 1950s TV
replaced movies and, later, newspapers.  
• Now, at the turn of the new century, Web technologies
are replacing all three —TV, telephones, and newspapers
—as the primary means by which we are informed and
entertained 
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 Digital Literacy  
• As the Premier’s Technology Council (PTC) noted in its
2010 Vision for 21st Century Education, "the world is not just
changing, it is becoming increasingly complex as the global
pool of information expands and becomes ever more
accessible.  
• Students 'live in a world that is dramatically more complex
than it was just a few years ago. 
• In a remarkably short period of time, the world and its
people, economies, and cultures have become connected,
driven largely by the Internet, innovations in mobile
computers and devices, and low-cost telecommunications
technology. 
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So, what does ‘digital literacy’ really mean?  
  
• Literacy traditionally means being able to read and
write.  
• Digital literacy shares some similarities. It refers to the
reading and writing of digital texts, for example being able
to ‘read’ a website by navigating through hyperlinks and
‘writing’ by uploading digital photos to a social
networking site.  
• In this sense, digital literacy means the functional skills
required to operate and communicate with technology and
media.  15
 
 
International
   definitions of digital literacy 
• The skills and knowledge to use a variety
of digital media software applications and
hardware 
devices, such as a computer, a mobile
phone, and Internet technology 
• The ability to critically understand digital
media content and applications; and the
knowledge and 
capacity to create with digital technology. 

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  The terms ‘digital technology’ and ‘new media’ 
    
• A wide range of technologies which store and
transmit information in digital form.  
• This includes computers, the internet and e-mail,
mobile phones and other mobile devices and
cameras, video games, and also Web technologies,
the label commonly applied to ‘participatory’ and
interactive media which involve the user being able
to generate and broadcast content (including blogs,
wikis, and social networking sites) 
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Why call   it "Digital Literacy"? 
• Many organizations use different terms
such as ICT (information and
communication technology), educational
technology, computer literacy, and
others.  
• We view these terms as synonymous
with digital literacy 
 
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   Digital Literacy  
Definition
Digital
  Literacy is “the interest, attitude
and ability of individuals to appropriately
use digital technology and
communication tools to access, manage,
integrate, analyze and evaluate
information, construct new knowledge,
create and communicate with others”. 

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Statistics of Digital Literacy 2019 
 
   the key trends and insights from this year’s reports in
We’ll explore all of
detail below, but here are the essential headlines you need in order to
understand ‘Digital in 2019’: 
 
 There are 5.11 billion unique mobile users in the world today, up 100
million (2 percent) in the past year. 
 There are 4.39 billion internet users in 2019, an increase of 366
million (9 percent) versus January 2018. 
 There are 3.48 billion social media users in 2019, with the worldwide
total growing by 288 million (9 percent) since this time last year. 
 3.26 billion people use social media on mobile devices in January
2019, with a growth of 297 million new users representing a year-on-
year increase of more than 10 percent. 
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