Reconsidering media literacy in practice. A comparative analysis of 25 competence models

Reconsidering media literacy in practice: A quick-scan analysis and in-depth comparison of 25 media literacy frameworks Keywords: media literacy, competencies, information literacy, digital skills, conceptual framework Media education is continuously challenged to keep up with the ongoing and rapid evolution of digital media. New devices are brought into the market at an ever-fasting pace. Processes and services within all life domains are increasingly being digitized, or more yet, completely digitally transformed by default (Helsper, 2012; Mariën & Prodnik, 2014). The acquisition and development of the right set of knowledge, skills and attitudes to deal with these new types of media is crucial to ensure and enable a full participation in today’s knowledge society (Brotcorne et al., 2010). Media education research therefore needs to pro-actively study the dynamics of media literacy and reflect upon how old and new types of literacies, skills, attitudes and competences evolve in today’s digitized and mediatized society. Media education research is however characterized by an overwhelming number of concepts used to identify the various elements of media literacy. Aspects such as technical proficiency (Mossberger et al., 2003), information literacy (Boekhorst, 2003; Doyle, 1994), photo-visual literacy (Eshet-Alkalai, 2004) or digital skills (Steyaert, 2000; van Deursen, 2010) are brought to the fore as defining aspects of media literacy. In addition, an abundance of frameworks for media literacy are being used by civil society, policy makers, and public institutions active in the field of media education. It remains however unclear to what extent these various frameworks start from a similar conceptual interpretation and unified understanding of concepts as literacies, competences, skills, knowledge or attitude. This contribution first theoretically revises the commonly used concepts in media education research and media literacy programs in order to understand what these different media literacy concepts and frameworks stand for. Next, it entails an in-depth comparison of 25 media literacy frameworks, and analyses how and where these frameworks coincide and differ. Through a quick-scan methodology, 25 media literacy frameworks are mapped and compared with regards to the following aspects: (1) the process through which the conceptual framework was created, e.g. by way of expert-interviews, quantitative analysis, case studies, literature review…; (2) the different concepts used in the framework, along with how they are being defined and translated into a specific set of skills, competences and knowledge; (3) the attitudes, norms and values at the core of the framework; and (4) the target groups and pedagogical approach to which the framework refers. The results show that the majority of the frameworks are based upon a multitude of concepts that highly differ from each other. Next, there continues to be an emphasis on information literacies and the different set of skills that are needed to deal with (online and offline) media content such as evaluating and analysing information, critical thinking or processing, integrating and revising content. In addition, it is clear that skills related to communication and content-creation have gained importance as the majority of the frameworks explicitly refers to the creation of content, self-expression and digital communication as crucial aspects of media literacy.