The Knight Commission Recommendation
Digital and Media Literacy: A Plan of Action
“Integrate digital and media literacy as critical elements for education at all levels through collaboration among federal, state and local education officials.”
— Recommendation 6, Informing Communities: Sustaining Democracy in the Digital Age
The Knight Commission Recommendation
Children and young people are growing up in a world with more choices for information and entertainment than at any point in human history. Most Americans now live in “constantly connected” homes with broadband Internet access, 500+ channels of TV and on-demand movies, and with mobile phones offering on-screen interactive activities with the touch of a fingertip. Global media companies from Google to Viacom to News Corporation dominate the media landscape, despite the rapid growth of user-generated content. As entertainment and news aggregators replace editorial gatekeepers, people now have access to the widest variety of content—the good, the bad, and the ugly—in the history of the world.
But in addition to mass media and popular culture leisure activities, many people are discovering the pleasures of participating in digital media culture, being able to stay connected to friends and family, share photos, learn about virtually anything, and exercise their creativity by contributing user-generated content on topics from cooking to politics to health, science, relationships, the arts and more. While at one time it was expensive and difficult to create and distribute videos and print publications, now anyone can publish his or her ideas on a blog or upload a video to YouTube.
The rapid rate of change we are experiencing in the development of new communications technologies and the flow of information is likely to continue. Consequently, people need to engage actively in lifelong learning starting as early as preschool and running well into old age in order to use evolving tools and resources that can help them accomplish personal, social, cultural and civic activities. At the same time, people are increasingly aware of the negative aspects of life in a media and information-saturated society. Contemporary media culture includes ultraviolent and sexually explicit movies, pornography, gossip-mongering blogs, public relations masquerading as news, widespread sales promotion of unhealthy products, hate sites that promote prejudice, sexism, racism and terrorism, cyber bullying, cyber terrorism, and unethical online marketing practices. Stalking, online bullying and cell phone harassment may affect physical and psychological safety. Intellectual property and reputation are also vitally important issues in a time when we are experiencing rapidly shifting notions of ownership, authorship, privacy and social appropriateness.
Such ubiquitous and easy access to so many information and entertainment choices requires that people acquire new knowledge and skills in order to make wise and responsible decisions. For people to achieve the personal, professional and social benefits of thriving in a digital age, these skills are not just optional or desirable—they are the essential elements of digital citizenship.
The Knight Commission’s report, Information Communities: Sustaining Democracy in the Digital Age, recognized that people need news and information to take advantage of life’s opportunities for themselves and their families. To be effective participants in contemporary society, people need to be engaged in the public life of the community, the nation and the world. They need access to relevant and credible information that helps them make decisions.
This necessarily involves strengthening the capacity of individuals to participate as both producers and consumers in public conversations about events and issues that matter. Media and digital literacy education is now fundamentally implicated in the practice of citizenship.
To address these needs of digital citizenship, the Knight Commission made three recommendations that directly address the issue of digital and media literacy education in the context of formal and informal public education sectors:
Recommendation 6: Integrate digital and media literacy as critical elements for education at all levels through collaboration among federal, state and local education officials.
Recommendation 7: Fund and support public libraries and other community institutions as centers of digital and media training, especially for adults.
Recommendation 12: Engage young people in developing the digital information and communication capacities of local communities.
