ABSTRACT
This chapter explores some of the core relationship between digital media and civic life, and the debates that help us understand the complex landscape of possibilities. It also explores some of the new emerging norms and tensions that exist among digital media and civic life. Media literacies that support civic renewal embrace the types of deliberation, participation, and engagement that reflect a commitment to reforming communities. The idea that citizens rely on others to enact meaning in their civic actions emerges from a long history of social science research around networks, weak ties, and social movements. Media literacy pedagogies, where implemented, have been impactful. They have built the capacity for people of all ages to better critique and create media. Media literacies often pay lip service to acting in the world and supporting media use for strong social infrastructure, but fail to articulate a set of constructs that explains what media literacy design looks like that approaches specific civic outcomes.
