Media Literacy

A news story by Donnelly (2011) published last week on the Center for Social Media website aims to summarise some issues around media literacy, and in particular draws on a report, Digital and media literacy: a plan of action, (Hobbs, 2010) "A White Paper on the Digital and Media Literacy recommendations of the Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy". I have only skimmed the Hobbs report in a superficial way, but (unsurprisingly) it does engage with the subject in a more thoughtful way than is possible in Donnelly's brief article (in particular Hobbs doesn't do the irritating thing of implying that media literacy is a broader field encompassing information literacy). However, the Donnelly article is useful for summarising issues and providing some interesting links.
The Hobbs report includes recommendations for numerous stakeholders, including the President of the USA, youth groups ... and librarians.

- Donnelly, K (2011) Special Public Media 2.0 Showcase Series on Digital and Media Literacy. Center for Social Media. http://www.centerforsocialmedia.org/future-public-media/public-media-showcase/special-public-media-20-showcase-series-digital-and-media-. Interestingly for something on media literacy, there is nothing on this web page that gives a date for the article, but the home page dates it 24 February ;-)
- Hobbs, R. (2010) Digital and media literacy: a plan of action. Washington: The Aspen Institute. http://www.knightcomm.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/Digital_and_Media_Literacy_A_Plan_of_Action.pdf
Photo by Sheila Webber: Sheffield University campus, February 2011.