Media & Information Literacy: Further Reading

Ann Marie Seward Barry provides a fascinating analysis of the multifaceted ways that images create and inform meaning across a variety of media. Barry argues that “visual intelligence” is not a static trait, but rather “a way of looking at the world, a critical visual awareness that can be developed and exercised in order to think more creatively and to better comprehend the pattern of forces that govern our existence” (p. 8).

Allison Butler is a senior lecturer in the Department of Communication at UMass. In this book, she argues for the need for media literacy education in public schools, and this must begin with equipping teachers with the appropriate training and education in media literacy. She also highlights practices of media literacy in the classroom and how these can benefit both teachers and students.

James Paul Gee is a linguist and educator whose insights and contributions to games studies are quite unique. Gee’s background in multimodalities and multiliteracies is also especially conducive to analyzing video games. This book is a great introduction to developing a stronger understanding of how video games work and the learning process that is inherent to the experience of video games.

In this follow up to United States of Distraction (2019), Nolan Higdon provides a critical historical analysis of "fake news." Higdon argues that calls for media literacy education will be unsuccessful unless it includes a critical framework and comprehensive history of fake news.

Nolan Higdon and Mickey Huff provide a thoughtful analysis of the unique vulnerabilities to the U.S. American news media and the promises of the free press. They cite a pervasive commercial entertainment culture, hyper-partisanship, a fragmented media landscape, and an education system that has not adapted to a media-centered society.

The specific texts Johnson examined in the early 2000s would be dated now, but his thesis is still compelling. Rather than popular culture becoming “dumbed down,” Johnson examines the multitudinous ways that media and pop culture are becoming more complex. A favorite thought experiment from the book is: “Imagine a society in which video games are the favored media of creative expression. How would such a society view print books?”

Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics is a seminal work in the field of comics studies. McCloud breaks down how comics create meaning through multimodal storytelling. In comic form, McCloud effectively illustrates that comics are much more than words and pictures.

Marshall McLuhan was a prescient scholar and media theorist. He is perhaps best known for his maxim “The medium is the message.” The book title “The Medium is the Massage” was a misprint, but McLuhan liked it as a portmanteau of "mass age." This is an awesome little book with graphic design by Quentin Fiore is presented in a collage style and the ideas are still relevant over 50 years later.

This is a fascinating deep dive into several famous (and controversial) photographs, including Roger Fenton's Valley of the Shadow of Death (1855), photographs from the Abu Ghraib prison, and Walker Evans’ Great Depression era photography. Morris examines how assumptions and biases can influence how documentary photographs are viewed and interpreted.