Media and Information Literacy as Civic Practice

This edited volume offers a resource for instructors who are interested in developing innovative and effective teaching practices at the intersection of critical media and information literacy and civic engagement.

Responding to increasingly complex media environments and myriad crises in our democratic systems, this book foregrounds the importance of teaching students media and information literacy skills to prepare them for a life of active citizenship. Using a series of case studies, this book shows how media and information literacy can be interwoven with course design, instruction, and assessment, all in service of civic learning. The contributions provide models that are useful for faculty and teaching staff across a wide range of disciplines and fields of study, including interdisciplinary and co-curricular projects. Readers can draw from these examples in part or in whole to advance their own pedagogical goals and, at the same time, draw on the broader lessons of engaged pedagogy offered by the editors and featured contributors. Readers are encouraged to engage and to reengage the text, focusing their attention on strategies that help address their specific needs when building these skills into their teaching practices.

This volume is ideal for college and university educators who are looking to integrate civic and information literacies into their undergraduate teaching, as well as graduate students preparing for careers that include postsecondary teaching.

Meghan Grosse is an Associate Professor and Chair of Communication and Media Studies at Washington College in Chestertown, Maryland and co-director of the Cromwell Center for Teaching and Learning. She teaches courses in theory and research methods of communication, media and politics, and political economy of communication. Her research focuses on the history of internet governance policy, independent and alternative media, critical information literacy, and digital pedagogy. She holds a Ph.D. from the Institute of Communications Research at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

Sara Clarke-De Reza is an Associate Professor and Chair of Education at Washington College in Chestertown, Maryland and co-director of the Cromwell Center for Teaching and Learning. She teaches courses in the historical and cultural foundations of American education, educational psychology, and educational research and design. Her research explores teaching, learning, and collaborative design at the intersection of formal and informal learning environments, like schools and museums. She holds a Ph.D. in curriculum and instruction from the University of New Hampshire.