Is that media literacy?: Israeli and US media scholars' perceptions of the field

Abstract

Sixty-nine media scholars from Israel and the Unites States responded to an online questionnaire aimed to identify the boundaries of media literacy. The participants received a list of thirty-two potential titles for a final paper and were asked to rate the relevancy of each topic for an undergraduate media literacy course. While the statistical analysis showed no significant difference in the ranking, deviations and distributions demonstrate disagreements as to what is important or marginal in the field. Protectionist topics were ranked high as well as topics involving children, digital media, and popular culture. It also appears that media education has become associated with social activism. Only five out of thirty-two topics reveal significant differences among Israeli and US scholars on a p-value of 0.10. However, this difference could reflect political and cultural processes that yielded various social agendas in each society over the last decade.