Are There Media-Literacy-Related Subjects?
Recently, I have held several workshops as part of the Lina Edu Erasmus+ teacher training programme on the topic of Media Literacy. What I noticed, especially when working with science-oriented teachers, is that although they successfully completed all tasks, many were unsure how media literacy fits into their subjects or how to implement it in their lesson plans.
Media literacy is usually associated with language and social science subjects, and by nature tends to belong to those categories. But does this mean that all other subjects cannot or should not contribute to developing this increasingly crucial competence-one that is now as essential as traditional forms of literacy?
If we look at the basic types of literacy-reading and writing-and place particular emphasis on reading competence, it becomes clear that Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, and Biology also rely heavily on reading comprehension and factual accuracy.
This leads us to an important conclusion: media literacy, as a universal literacy in today’s digital society, is a natural step in the evolution of literacy itself.
What deserves our attention is raising awareness of media literacy as an educational priority.
Digitalized, Yes-But How Digitally Competent?
The fact that today’s students grow up surrounded by digital devices can give us an illusionary impression of their overall digital competence, including media and information literacy.
In practice, it is easy to notice that students are not highly competent Internet searchers or readers of online content. Due to the current culture of short video-based entertainment, many are not regular consumers of news in any meaningful way.
Students need to know what media literacy is.
They need to become responsible users of media and information and more successful deep readers: learners who read deliberately and actively to build deeper understanding. This means analysing, synthesising, and applying critical thinking in order to understand the author’s message.
They should consider the implications of a text, make connections, reflect on prior knowledge, and relate what they read to their own experiences.
Only then can our students become creative thinkers.
News Article vs. Newsfeed
Teachers themselves were once “deep readers,” yet many of us have gradually drifted away from the core of literacy, giving in to the rush of shortened reading standards, misinterpretation, and commercialised newsfeeds.
We often struggle to hold attention long enough to read a full article, having developed a habit of consuming quick, shallow, minimally informative news snippets.
There are several concerning issues with how we read and consume news today:
- We become satisfied with very limited information-content that often fails to answer even basic journalistic questions.
- We lose the deeper curiosity needed to broaden our horizons.
- We accept superficial, incomplete, and frequently duplicated content from sources of varying reliability.
- We are drawn to sensationalism, which further weakens our intrinsic curiosity and our need to know and understand.
More worrying is that many adults, and even teachers, no longer pay attention to the type or quality of information they process.
Life has indeed changed, and technological advancement continuously reshapes our habits. However, this rapid change has also decreased the time and attention we assign to high-quality reading and self-education. We tend to spend that time scrolling through endless social-media newsfeeds filled with relevant and irrelevant content alike.
The culture of being informed, of reading, of continuous self-education, and of asking questions has been increasingly underestimated in the past decade.
The ease of producing, sharing, and consuming short digital content has overtaken real journalism and real reading.
We must acknowledge openly that reading comprehension is no longer a guaranteed proficiency, not even among adults, and, worryingly, not always among teachers.
Time is not our obstacle-our habits are.
New Literacy – Old Rules
During our school years, we learned what quotations were, and we learned to cite authors.
We learned to name the sources we used in our essays.
Today, one quick right-click allows us to download any visual material from the internet without even considering the author’s permission. Most of us rarely check copyright licences, nor are we fully aware of what different licences mean.
We often rely on easily editable and frequently inaccurate information sources without verifying their origin. We follow tabloids or so-called news portals that copy and paste content with poor attention to spelling, vocabulary, and accuracy.
I know I am being self-critical here, but these issues need to be stated clearly.
Teacher Training at Lina Edu in Split, Croatia
We cannot and should not be immune to the influence of modern communication or the new forms of literacy that arise from it. However, we can transfer a culture of deep reading and responsible information use to our students-with appropriate adaptations.
At Lina Edu Erasmus+ Teacher Training Courses in Split, Croatia, teachers and school staff can learn practical strategies for implementing media literacy across all subjects and for designing meaningful activities for their students.
Recommended Courses
Teacher’s Brand in the Digital Age: AI, Social Networks, Creativity & Online Safety
👉https://linaedu.eu/erasmus-course-teachers-brand-in-digital-age-ai-social-networks/
Video Teaching Methods: Flipped Classroom
👉 https://linaedu.eu/erasmus-course-video-teacher/
Author: Ivana Bokavšek
Lina Edu lead educator
