Preparing to Be Digital

Abstract

Today most media messages are shaped by and circulate within the multi-faceted, always available, participatory communication space called the digital environment. This participatory, de-centralized space indicates a paradigm shift in media and communication, and therefore in the culture at large. In the new paradigm, comprehensive media ecology-infused media literacy is necessary not only in the disciplines of communication and media studies, but across higher education. One media department at a U.S. urban university is beginning to implement a comprehensive five-part model of activist media literacy education as it transitions from traditional media industry training to deeper media literacy-informed education. The five-part model engages core concepts from media ecology, critical cultural studies, and critical pedagogy, with a final goal of educating enlightened media practitioners interested in seeking social change. In the emerging media environment, messages, forms, and new ways of thinking and being ought to be the mandate of twenty-first century higher education.