What is Media Literacy Education?

Media Literacy is defined as the ability to access, analyze, evaluate, and produce communication in a variety of forms – or – Media Literacy is the ability to ask questions about what a person watches, sees and reads.

Media Literacy education programs can teach students to:

• Develop critical thinking skills they can use to intelligently navigate the media and filter the hundreds of media messages they receive every day.


• Enhance their understanding of media message production processes, the commercial sources and beneficiaries of advertising, the ideology of messages contained in commercial and news media, and the techniques advertisers use to persuade viewers.


• Recognize the persuasive intent of advertising, assess the realism of media portrayals, and question societal norms regarding behaviors such as substance use.