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United States Standards for Media Literacy Education

Is media literacy education taking place in American schools? In many countries outside the U.S., media education IS integrated nationwide into many aspects of K-12 curricula, but not here at home (here's why).

There's a difference between having curriculum standards that merely include language reflecting media literacy requirements (such as "students will know how to read and interpret a newspaper story"), and integrating media literacy throughout the curriculum. The latter reflects the fact that media messages are part of our modern culture, and we see and hear, every day, media messages on every possible topic.

Montana and Texas are two states that do a good job of integration. Montana Standards for Media Literacy (opens PDF) have benchmarks for 4th, 8th and 12th grades. Texas' Viewing & Representing standards show how media literacy can be thoroughly integrated into curricula. Also check out this very comprehensive 2010 article out of the Georgia State University Digital Archive, Media Literacy in the United States: A Close Look at Texas.

In the other 48 states, standards for media literacy education vary widely. In 1999, Robert Kubey [1] and Frank Baker [2] wrote Has Media Education Found A Curricular Foothold? for Education Week Magazine, and Baker developed a matrix showing where all 50 states have at least one reference to media studies in the curriculum (usually English/Language Arts or Social Studies, but also sometimes in Health/Life Skills or Media Studies classes). Note: we don't know if this matrix is regularly updated, you would need to contact Frank Baker to ask.

Check that matrix to find where media literacy educations can be found in your state's standards. Updated California standards are here, Missouri standards are here. Here are Michigan's K-8 Health, K-8 English, K-8 Social Studies, High School English/Language Arts and High School Social Studies. (These are all PDF files compiled for biannual NAMLE conferences.)

International Standards

Because they were the first recipients (starting in the mid-20th century) of American, English-language media exports (primarily films and TV), Australia, Canada and Great Britain have the most highly advanced academic research and educational programs in media studies and media education.

In Canada, the excellent Media Awareness Network site has an overview of curricular outcomes and expectations in curricula across Canada. (Thank you to Jane Tallim for this link.)

Other countries are also way ahead of the United States:

• France CLEMI, the Centre for liaison between teaching and information media, was created in 1983 with the mission of "promoting especially by means of training activities, the multiple use of news media in teaching with the aim of encouraging a better understanding of the world by pupils while simultaneously developing critical understanding." The CLEMI program focuses on teaching media literacy relative to the news media.

[1] Robert Kubey, Ph.D. directs the Center for Media Studies and is Associate Professor of Journalism and Mass Media at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, NJ.
[2] Frank W. Baker, a media literacy education consultant in Columbia, South Carolina, is past President of the Partnership for Media Education. He maintains the Media Literacy Clearinghouse website.