ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book argues that digital culture media literacy initiatives must be designed from the point of civic intentionality: an approach to media literacy practices that "produce and reproduce the sense of being in the world with others toward common good." It explores two phenomena—spectacle and distrust—that are directly impacting the relationship between media and citizenship, and demanding a re-evaluation of how citizens understand media systems, structures, and messaging. The book provides the concept of agency to describe the emerging gap between "concern and the capacity to act. It presents findings from a global study that asked young people around the world about their use of media for engaging in civic life. The book concludes by contemplating the application of civic media literacies in three spaces: classrooms, communities, and civic institutions.
