Developing Media Literacy in Cyberspace: Pedagogy and Critical Learning for the Twenty-First-Century Classroom

(Hardback)

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Combines recent communication and educational scholarship on telecommunications technology with theoretical visions and pragmatic possibilities for the Internet-supported classroom. By joining bodies of research in media theory, cultural studies, and critical pedagogy, Developing Media Literacy in Cyberspace offers a vision of learning that values social empowerment over technical skills. An inquiry into the existence and range of models equipped to cultivate critical teaching and learning in the Internet-supported classroom, this new study argues that media literacy offers the best long-term training for today's youth to become experienced practitioners of 21st-century technology. Author Julie Frechette helps educators develop and provide concrete learning strategies that enable students to judge the validity and worth of what they see on the Internet as they strive to become critically autonomous in a technology-laden world. Part of this effort lies in developing a keen awareness of the institutional, political, and economic structure of the Internet as a means of communication that is increasingly marketing products and targeting advertisements toward youth. "Values" on the Internet are discussed constantly both by the major media and by the private sector, with little regard for the pervasive interests and authority of profitable industries staking out their territory in this new "global village." Unlike other studies that provide a broad sociohistorical context for the development of theoretical uses of new technologies in the classroom, Developing Media Literacy in Cyberspace lays the groundwork for establishing critical thinking skills that will serve students' interests as they navigate this vast and complicated cyberterritory.

Reviews

[F]rechette does a fair job tackling the issue of how well schools prepare students for the onslought of media messages they receive in the information age. Highly recommended. General readers, and lower-division undergraduates and above.-Choice
"Frechette does a fair job tackling the issue of how well schools prepare students for the onslought of media messages they receive in the information age. Highly recommended. General readers, and lower-division undergraduates and above."-Choice
"[F]rechette does a fair job tackling the issue of how well schools prepare students for the onslought of media messages they receive in the information age. Highly recommended. General readers, and lower-division undergraduates and above."-Choice

Author Bio

JULIE D. FRECHETTE is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Communications at Worcester State College. She is the co-author of the Media Literacy and Gender Equity Curriculum, distributed to teachers in the state of Massachusetts.