ABSTRACT
This chapter shows that media literacy education tends to exclude 'marginal' forms of media, such as alternative electronic media, art, print media, handmade media, and, surprisingly, comics. It focuses on comics to address the gap between conventional media literacy and media arts education. Comics can motivate students to explore identity and audiences through the authentic experience of being a part of a community of both readers and writers of an innovative and rich form of media. The Center for Cartoon Studies argues that the digital world's emphasis on images requires picture writing and visual literacy as a primary modality 'for sharing and shaping ideas and information'. The pioneering comics theorist, Scott McCloud, defines comics as 'Juxtaposed pictorial and/or other images in deliberate sequence, intended to convey information and/or produce an aesthetic response in the viewer'. Visual literacy is an area of inquiry that bridges visual arts education and media literacy.
