- The most important book about media literacy in 20 years!
- A comprehensive overview of the pedagogical debates, political issues and classroom practices in the field.
- Insightful! Engaging! A roadmap to the future of media education.
How should education respond to the challenges of an increasingly mediated world? How can it enable young people to become active, critical participants in the media culture that surrounds them? And how can it keep pace with the complex technological, cultural and economic changes that are currently reshaping the contemporary media environment?
These are just some of the questions that arise as media education is gradually becoming recognized as a key aspect of the school curriculum in many countries. As if right on cue, David Buckingham, one of the leading international experts in the field, provides an accessible and cogent set of principles on which media literacy curriculum should be based. Almost every page has significant insights, engaging examples of cogent analysis useful to the classroom teacher as well as the administrator, researcher or scholar.
But it is not a "how to do it" book. Rather, he offers something far more valuable � a rationale for media teaching that reflects the changing nature of digital culture and a set of research-based pedagogic principles that reflects the best of collaborative teaching.
Drawing on his extensive personal knowledge of research conducted in actual classrooms, the author also provides a much needed analysis of different ways of teaching media � why some work and others don�t.
He challenges old models such as the �protectionist� approach and is not afraid to take on controversial issues such as the trend toward political ideology or the promotion of �correct� readings in terms of gender and race. Throughout the book, he urges teachers to move beyond just analysis of media, emphasizing the importance of creative production as the most valuable way for students to develop the critical thinking so central to authentic learning.
The book is developed in four parts:
- Part I addresses the fundamental aims of media education and how the field has developed historically.
- Part II defines the "state of the art" of media education within and beyond the school curriculum.
- Part III considers the nature of teaching and learning in media education, and outlines a model of media pedagogy.
- Part IV discusses the challenges and opportunities currently facing the field, especially the impact of new media technologies and the potential for using and learning about the media beyond the classroom walls.
Although some of the ideas in the book are not new, nevertheless it is the most important book in the field since Masterman�s Teaching the Media published in 1985. In the assessment of Canadian Barry Duncan, "David Buckingham takes the pulse of media education today, insightfully surveying the field, probing the debates and controversies, assessing out motives for teaching the media but leaving us a road map for the future. Covering both analysis and production, including the new digital technologies, this book is a must-have for the serious media teacher."
'Buckingham marshals all his considerable talent to define the field of media education in an engaging and compelling style. This inspiring book moves educational reform ahead by light years.'
Kathleen Tyner, author of Literacy in a Digital World