Critical Media Literacy: A Comprehensive Approach Enabling Students (as Citizens) To Use ICT in the Quest for a Just Society

Abstract

Computers have considerably changed people’s lives. Ever since the development of the first computer, many opinions have been expressed echoing different, even unbridgeable, standpoints concerning Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and their implications on human ecology. Reviewing the benefits and perils associated with ICT in contemporary society, it becomes clear that education should focus both on the technical skills necessary for media production and the critical analytical skills that could help students uncover the politics underpinning the digitized world. In this context, Critical Media Literacy (CLM) becomes a necessity. The chapter aims to shape, via a narrative literature review, a theoretical framework that could help toward the development of educational approaches that would contribute to the development of the skills and attitudes that would help students uncover the politics underpinning the digitized world, empower them to resist to media manipulation, but also enable them to learn from media and to use it in constructive ways.