ABSTRACT
Critical literacy draws upon a number of critical theories, including those that posit explanations for social reproduction, those that dissect language and power, and those that explicitly critique culture. Critical media literacy as author employ it is grounded in the fields of both New Literacy Studies and Cultural Studies. New Literacy Studies (NLS) posits that texts include not just print formats but social and digital media, as well as film, advertising, and television. The emphasis on context thus connects Cultural Studies to NLS, wherein both are focused in the meanings that are attached to particular moments and locales. Critical medial literacy affords teachers the opportunity to bridge in and out of school literacies, where the latter refers to the ways students engage outside of the classroom in discourse communities, such as in composing music lyrics or in social networking. Critical media literacy provides teachers and students the capacity for creation, for knowledge design.
