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Media literacy is the process of accessing, analyzing, evaluating and creating messages in a wide variety of forms. It uses an inquiry-based instructional model that encourages people to ask questions about what they watch, see and read. Media literacy aims to enable people to be skillful creators and producers of media messages, both to facilitate an understanding as to the strengths and limitations of each medium, as well as to create independent media.

Digital and Media Literacy: A Plan of Action, a new policy paper by Renee Hobbs, Professor at the School of Communications and the College of Education at Temple University and founder of its Media Education Lab, proposes a detailed plan that positions digital and media literacy as an essential life skill and outlines steps that policymakers, educators, and community advocates can take to help Americans thrive in the digital age. You can download DIGITAL AND MEDIA LITERACY: A PLAN OF ACTION at http://bit.ly/bdVDy3

My Pop Studio is a creative play experience that strengthens critical thinking skills about television, music, magazines and online media directed at girls. Users select from four behind-the-scenes opportunities to learn more about mass media: My Pop Studio strengthens media literacy skills, promotes positive youth development, and increases knowledge about health issues. Highly interactive creative play activities are used to create an online community that guides users through the process of deconstructing, analyzing and creating media. Video segments, flash animation, media deconstruction games and quizzes, and moderated blogs make the website lively, fun and educational. My Pop Studio was created by a team of researchers and media professionals at the Media Education Lab, located at Temple University's School of Communication.

The Cost of Copyright Confusion for Media Literacy, is a research-based report on scores of longform interviews with teachers. It shows that the fundamental goals of media literacy education-to cultivate critical thinking and expression about media and its social role-are compromised by unnecessary copyright restrictions. The report concludes with a call for educators to develop a consensus around their interpretation of their most valuable copyright tool: fair use.This project was funded by the MacArthur Foundation.

How media smart are you? How about your children or students? Sometimes called media literacy or information literacy, it's a key 21st Century skill because it provides a framework and method to think critically about the media you consume and create. Being media smart also means you know how to use television, the Internet and other technologies safely, productively and ethically.

Members of the research team at Project New Media Literacies discuss the social skills and cultural competencies needed to fully engage with today's participatory culture. Featuring Henry Jenkins, and produced by Anna Van Someren at Project New Media Literacies.

BEST PRACTICES IN FAIR USE from the folks at Temple University's Media Literacy Education Lab. This is a case study of PROJECT LOOK SHARP and their use of media literacy materials. Included are discussion questions that would be appropriate for teaching teachers and/or students.

This excellent video from Temple University's Digital Media Education Lab illustrates the reasons why media literacy educators are at the forefront of the user rights movement because of their reliance on the use of copyrighted materials in their teaching. We see how teachers' confusion about copyright affects the quality of teaching and learning, the ability to share innovative teaching practices, and students' understanding of the law. Download the report, "The Cost of Copyright Confusion for Media Literacy" for more information.

The average teenager spends more than three hours a day watching TV, but only 43 minutes reading, according to a study by the Kaiser Family Foundation, data which suggests that as important as English literature and composition courses are to a proper high school education, something valuable is missing from the curriculum. A number of schools are already answering that need, offering media literacy programs that teach teens to recognize and deconstruct the ways messages are made in film, television and new media.

TRAILS-9, which stands for Tools for Real-Time Assessment of Information Literary Skills, uses multiple questions to assess the information literacy skills of students based on sixth- and ninth-grade standards. The free site, which is a project of the Institute of Library and Information Literacy Education, was developed to give library media specialists a tool to identify strengths and weaknesses of their students' information-seeking abilities.

A range of research reports suggest that digital literacy should be a key part of curricular developments in both primary and secondary schools. Digital literacy is about far more than functional ICT skills: it requires support for children to access, create and communicate using ICT, as well as to be evaluative and critical about the influences and impacts of new media.

The activities and assignments in the elementary-level curriculum introduce children to some basic ideas in media literacy, such as attention-getting techniques, interpretations by different audiences, and the values that make certain stories newsworthy.

Part of an 18-unit curriculum developed by Renee Hobbs and integrating media literacy into common state standards in English, Social Studies, Math, and Health. Provided by Temple University's Media Education Lab.

Do you suffer from Copyright Confusion? This is another great video from the Center for Social Media that describes the new Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Media Literacy. This is a great video to show at an educator workshop as a segue into the new thinking on Copyright Law and Fair Use. The Fair Use document was developed and funded by a MacArthur Foundation grant after a research study revealed that rigid interpretations of copyright law are actually strangling educational practice rather than enabling it.

"The authors argue that five key issues are at stake in the new media: identity, privacy, ownership and authorship, credibility, and participation. Drawing on evidence from informant interviews, emerging scholarship on new media, and theoretical insights from psychology, sociology, political science, and cultural studies, the report explores the ways in which youth may be redefining these concepts as they engage with new digital media."

"The authors argue that five key issues are at stake in the new media: identity, privacy, ownership and authorship, credibility, and participation. Drawing on evidence from informant interviews, emerging scholarship on new media, and theoretical insights from psychology, sociology, political science, and cultural studies, the report explores the ways in which youth may be redefining these concepts as they engage with new digital media."

Visual literacy ...is the ability to interpret, use, appreciate, and create images and video using both conventional and 21st century media in ways that advance thinking, decision making, communication, and learning.

Research on how perceptions of copyright law affect media literacy educators, by Temple University's Media Education Lab in collaboration with the Center for Social Media, American University. Funded by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

Why is media literacy important? Here's a beginning list of reasons from thinkers and leaders in the field.

Great list to help raise awareness