Media Literacy Education for Diverse Societies

Abstract

Since the 1980s, media literacy became a central topic in the field of communication, media and education studies, as a result of a parallel growth of polarization between societal groups and use of digital technologies for self-representation. In this article, we present a brief overview of the evolvement of media literacy and other competing terms and discuss emerging approaches that incorporate issues related to the politics of difference, representations and voice of marginalised groups. Although existing concepts and projects focus on singular aspects such as representation and media production by minorities, they do not commonly integrate concerns of diversity and media literacy education from a critical and holistic perspective. Building on critical pedagogy, feminist and decolonial theory, we argue that there is a need for a more inclusive and intersectional approach to media literacy education. Such an approach should not only focus on marginalised groups, but society as a whole; it should advocate a critical understanding of the mediated construction of reality and offer grounds to successfully challenge dominant representations; it should not only equip people with the skills to participate and raise their own voices, but also pay more attention to practices of listening to work towards a level playing field between mainstream and marginalized groups.