To the Editor,

I agree with the fundamental message of the Nov. 30 editorial advocating for enhanced media literacy education. I am pleased to see it in The Huntington News, especially in these urgent times, but there are a few caveats worth mentioning.

It is worth noting that media literacy is an area of education and research that has several tracks and also several points of origin. For instance, there is a strong and long-standing media literacy movement in the U.K., Canada and other Commonwealth countries that is somewhat different than how it has been taken up in the United States.

It is important to note that media literacy is not exactly a “thing,” meaning it is not a singular approach that educates citizens in how to understand the media with which they engage in some once-and-for-all fashion; there’s obviously a lot that goes into media interpretation. The editorial also overlooks the fact that media literacy is often criticized within the academic field of media studies for its textual basis and the emphasis on deriving some essential meaning from the articles, newscasts and other media forms themselves.

Critical media studies, which is at the core of the pedagogical and research focus in Northeastern’s Media and Screen Studies program, certainly isolates media texts for analysis in ways that are not always so distant from media literacy approaches. But in this department, the faculty recognizes that it is absolutely necessary to locate media texts — whether it be in print, broadcast or online — within wider structures of power or institutional hegemony and within more sophisticated ideological frameworks. The emphasis on culture is crucial and, in this regard, our international faculty is superbly situated to address a broad array of media issues.

The editorial cites some viable university centers or institutes throughout the country, but it unfortunately missed one of Northeastern’s more pertinent programs where the basic concepts of critical media analysis define our mission and identity.

Sincerely Yours,

Murray Forman

Murray Forman is a professor in the Media and Screen Studies department