ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the early questions and definition of media literacy in the United States, its growth. In 1992, the questions of media's impact on youth were codified when a group of U.S. scholars met to discuss and grapple with questions of media literacy. Current policy and legislation efforts for media literacy are compartmentalized into discrete, acute problem-solving efforts and are often trendy and reactionary. In Massachusetts, Mass Media Literacy (MML) supports legislation and K-12 curriculum that infuses media literacy across all courses. Since 1992, there has been much work, within the U.S. media education landscape. The literature of the early twenty-first century on young people and digital media reveals three prevailing themes: Quantity of time spent, with multiple media; how fast technology appears to be changing; and the mobility of media. Digital technology is valuable to explore how people can make teaching and learning more productive and proactive for young people, teachers, families, and communities.
