Media Literacy in Youth Education

Media literacy provides youth skills to access, analyze, evaluate, express and create 


media and messages in various forms to influence the society. This skills of inquiry 


and creative self-expression is essaintial in 21st century education.


1. Youth require active inquiry and critical thinking about the messages they receive 


to expands thier media literacy


2. Develop skills to become informed, engage, create and reflect their own 


expressions


3. Recognize that media is a part of culture and beliefs and experiences which help 


to develop their own meanings through media


There are 5 key concepts of critical media analysis
1. media messages are constructed


2. media messages are produced within economic, social, political, historical and 


aesthetic contexts


3. the interpretative meaning-making processes involved in message reception 


consists of an interaction between the reader, the text and the culture


4. media have unique 'languages,' characteristics which typify various forms, genres 


and symbol systems of communication


5. media representations play a role in people's understanding of social reality


Uniqueness of Media


Every author is unique: 
Who you are
where do you come from, w
What do you know
Who do you know will affect makes your 'point of view' 
And make your creation different from someone or somewhere else;


Every audience is unique: 
Your message may mean different things to different people 
who they are, where they come from, and what they know and who they know;


Each medium has its own unique language: 
Films created with moving images requires different skills than words on a novel of 


the same story; 


Media can change how people see , reat and live in the real world: 
Watching what you choose to show them (from your 'point of view') can change how 


they look at your subject when they encounter it again in the real world; what you 


show them about a subject also might change how they look at YOU;

Sri Lanka Youth Produces 13 entries to AYV Global Gallery

Perspectives: Our Communities, Our World13 Sri Lankan Youth creatives have been selected by TakingITGlobal for the Global Gallery of 150 youth media creatives of  Adobe Youth Voices Program 2011. TakingITGlobal engaged nearly 3,000 youth in 18 countries for creating multimedia pieces about their communities, their issues, their hopes, and their demands. Each media piece is unique and has a distinct youth voice. Some call for action, while others call attention to an issue. Some tell stories about a community, a person, or a moment in time. Each project provides a unique insight into the aspirations, ideas, and creativity of a young person somewhere in the world. Shilpa Sayura Foundation implemented AYV in Sri Lanka.

http://gg.tigweb.org/tig/perspectives2011/

Niranjan Meegammana
Shilpa Sayura