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Take care to get what you like, or you will be forced to like what you get.
-George Bernard Shaw
The public is asking for it by not asking for it.
-Mary-Lou Galician
I always begin my media literacy classes and presentations with the two quotations above. My purpose is to ensure that the citizen-consumers I am addressing and activating fully understand precisely who holds the ultimate responsibility for the form and content of our mediated news, entertainment, and advertising: not the media (although they certainly bear their share of responsibility) and not even the government but, rather, the consumers who support these media and who truly determine what we read, listen to, and watch.
If we-as individuals and as a society-want to empower ourselves to use the media rather than having the media use us, if we want to control our media rather than having our media control us, then we must make a serious and long-term commitment to stamping out the media illiteracy that is rampant in this nation. Sadly, we have more print and electronic media vehicles and more mediated messages bringing us more information today than ever before, but we are actually less informed in many significant ways.
And although many people in the United States believe that they themselves are media savvy, the truth is that they are not. In fact, most U.S. media consumers-even and perhaps especially heavy consumers of media-have not been educated to be media literate. Thus, we are a third-world country in this vital area. (Canada and the United Kingdom are light years ahead of us.)
In the 21st century, we simply cannot afford the disempowerment of illiteracy. Therefore, it is high time that we make the research, teaching, and practice of media literacy as a lifelong endeavor a personal and national priority in our mediated global village.
A SPECIAL DOUBLE ISSUE (PARTS I AND II)
This special issue is devoted to scholarship and commentary from pioneers and experts in media literacy education in our schools (Part I) and in our lives (Part II). Because of the unusually large number of important articles from distinguished contributors (all of whom are respected advocates of media literacy across a wide range of disciplines and academic traditions), this special...