Critical Media Literacy Guides

Critical media literacy means critical inquiry. Much of the work of critical media literacy is to ask questions of the media texts that we make use of and study. Critical media literacy focuses on both the content of the media (e.g., what we watch, read, or listen to) and, possibly more important, on the power behind the construction of the content (e.g., the ownership, production, and distribution of media texts). Critical media literacy pays close attention to the interrogation of power: What media are the object of our study and how did they come to be?

Making Use of the Critical Media Literacy Guides

The following guides will provide some foundational questions for a variety of media, including social media, websites, news & newspapers, movies, television, images, advertisements, and AI writing tools. The questions focus both on the forward-facing content as well as the behind-the-scenes of each medium. The questions address both representation of the power of construction and of distribution. The questions are intentionally broad - they will best be used to begin the process of analysis. The questions are designed with popular culture texts in mind and can be used with historic and contemporary media, and for a variety of local, national, independent, and corporate media. The questions are not focused on a particular text or content, so they are adaptable and can be used as a guide for multiple media, over time.  

1. Teacher and Student Guide to Analyzing Social Media

Questions About the Social Media Platform

Questions About Social Media Content

2. Teacher and Student Guide to Analyzing Websites

3. Teacher and Student Guide to Analyzing News & Newspapers

4. Teacher and Student Guide to Analyzing Movies

5. Teacher and Student Guide to Analyzing Television 

6. Teacher and Student Guide to Analyzing Images

7. Teacher and Student Guide to Analyzing Advertisements

8: Teacher and Student Guide to Analyzing Cartoons, Comics, and Memes

9. Teacher and Student Guide to Analyzing AI Writing Tools (e.g., ChatGPT)

Questions About the AI Writing Tool

Questions About the Text Produced by the AI Writing Tool

10. Teacher and Student Guide to Analyzing YouTube

Questions About the Social Media Platform

Questions About YouTube Videos

This content is provided to you freely by Equity Press.

Access it online or download it at https://equitypress.org/mediaandciviclearning/cmlguides.