Information Literacy in the Digital Age

9

Media literacy and visual literacy

Today we are beginning to notice that the new media are not just mechanical gimmicks for creating worlds of illusion, but new languages with new and unique powers of expression. (Marshall McLuhan)

What is media literacy?

‘Media’ (and its singular form ‘medium’) is from the Latin medius, meaning ‘middle’ or ‘between two things.’ The Canadian Marshall McLuhan (1911–80) was the first to use this term to mean ‘means of mass communication.’

Media literacy is defined by the Trent Think Tank on Media Literacy as ‘the ability to decode, analyze, evaluate, and produce communication in a variety of forms.’¹ According to the Information Competence Project at California Polytechnic State University, a person who ...