Media literacy entails the ability by an individual to access, evaluate, create, analyze, and act on all communication forms. According to Jones-Jang et al. (2019), this definition assumes that all media are used for ideological, political, and commercial motivation and that they all construct and are constructed in reality. It is important for both adults and children to become media literate because information and knowledge is critical for the modern society. Some scholars explain that media literacy is necessary for people to discern true and false information, often propagated through fake news (Bulger & Davidson, 2018; Mason et al., 2018). Therefore, media literacy can help people across all age groups to remain informed on all matters that affect their lives. Therefore, individuals across all ages need media literacy to remain informed.
Since media literacy is a necessity even for children, there should be a standardized media literacy curriculum for all k-12 schools. The rationale is that a standardized curriculum ensures that students across the country are provided with equitable means of achieving media literacy. In the United States, most states have legislations on media literacy. In a 2020 media literacy report covering the K-12, it has been established that states and lawmakers are increasingly supporting media literacy that covers both smartphones and social media ecosystems. For example, the House Bill 688 in Massachusetts made several provisions requiring the Department of Education to integrate media literacy skills in all core curricular and health content for the K-12 grades (Massachusetts Legislation, n.d.). Additionally, the legislation requires the Media Literacy Advisory Council to survey librarians, teachers, principals, and other educational personnel to offer an understanding of the key requirements for media literacy requirements.
References
Bulger, M., & Davidson, P. (2018). The promises, challenges and futures of media literacy. Journal of Media Literacy Education, 10(1), 1-21 [PDF Document]. Web.
Jones-Jang, S., Mortensen, T., & Liu, J. (2019). Does media literacy help identification of fake news? Information literacy helps, but other literacies don’t. American Behavioral Scientist, 65(2), 371-388. Web.
Mason, L., Krutka, D., & Stoddard, J. (2018). Media literacy, democracy, and the challenge of fake news [PDF Document]. Journal of Media Literacy Education, 10(2), 1-10 Web.
Massachusetts Legislation. (n.d.). Web.