Media Literacy―Keys to Interpreting Media Messages

One of the principle and enduring goals of Media Literacy is to enable students to realize a healthy independence from the pervasive influence of the media. To that end, the text provides a critical approach that enables students to decipher information conveyed through the various channels of mass communication--print, photography, film, radio, television, and interactive media. Since the first edition of this text was published in 1995 and the second in 2001, much has happened in the world of media. This new, third edition addresses those changes in particular. It also includes: conceptual revisions, current examples, updated references, and discussions of new developments in media, especially in digital media. Part I presents a theoretical framework for the critical analysis of media text. Part II gives students the opportunity to apply this methodological framework to a variety of media formats, including journalism, advertising, American political communications, and interactive media. Part III offers a consideration of mass media issues (violence in the media, media and children, media and social change, and global communications), as well as a discussion of possible outcomes and developments once people have become media literate.

Art Silverblatt is Professor of Communications and Journalism at Webster University in St. Louis. He is the author of numerous books and articles, includingMedia Literacy: Keys to Interpreting Media Messages (Praeger Publications, 1995, 2001),The Dictionary of Media Literacy (Greenwood Press, 1997), Approaches to the Study of Media Literacy (1999), andInternational Communications: A Media Literacy Approach (2004). Another book,Approaches to Genre Study is scheduled to be published in Fall 2006.