BRIEF HISTORY


1916: Harvard University psychologist Hugo Munsterberg first recognized that there would be resistance to media education.

1936: Pope Pius XI wrote an encyclical letter on "Motion Pictures" encouraging the church to a better understanding of this important medium especially in the area of teaching the young to be critical viewers of film, since that time - and especially during the second Vatican Council - numerous church documents continue to urge catholic schools and parishes to implement Media Literacy.

1970's: During that decade educators recognized that non-print media employed unique visual and aural language frameworks to encoded information. The ability to read the "text" of a motion picture, television program, advertisement, or photograph, for example, became important in an in expanding definition of literacy.

1987: Ontario mandated the teaching of Media Literacy as part of the revised Language Arts Curriculum for junior and senior secondary students (in grades 7-12). It is the first educational body in North America to do so.

1995: Australian language teachers have been required to teach nonprint media from kindergarten through the 12th grade.

Spring 1995: Language Arts Standards for the new Common Curriculum included the strands of Viewing and Representing thus ensuring that Media Literacy will be part of the curriculum for every child in every school in Ontario.

September 1995: David Considine chaired the First National Media Literacy Conference which was held at Appalachian State University.

1998: Journal of Communication devotes entire issue to media literacy.

1999: Approximately 25,000 students took their national gcse exams (for 16-year-olds), and 14,200 university-bound 18-year-olds sat for their A levels, or advanced-level exams, in media studies.


sources: http://www.edweek.org/ew/ewstory.cfm?slug=09ubey2.h19, http://interact.uoregon.edu/MediaLit/FA/MLArticleFolder/whatisml.html, http://www.ci.appstate.edu/programs/edmedia/medialit/article4.html, http://interact.uoregon.edu/MediaLit/FA/MLArticleFolder/windows.html



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