civic literacy
Civic literacy is staying informed on government issues. It is a peripheral term in the context of my project, but is intertwined with being familiar with messages in the media.
Participating effectively in civic life through knowing how to stay informed and understanding governmental processes. Exercising the rights and obligations of citizenship at local, state, national and global levels. Understanding the local and global implications of civic decisions. ( http://www.21stcenturyskills.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=258&Itemid=126 )
Civic Literacy is the knowledge of how to actively participate and initiate change in your community and the greater society. It is the foundation by which a democratic society functions: Citizen Power as a check and as a means to create avenues for peaceful change. ( http://www.urbanagenda.wayne.edu/whatiscl.htm )
connotation
A description of value, meaning or ideology associated with a media text. (www.media-awareness.ca/english/resources/educational/teaching_backgrounders/media_literacy/glossary_media_literacy.cfm)
the associations a particular font brings to the readers interaction with it; what it reminds the reader of, the feelings or thoughts that arise when looking at it.
content
In the scope of this project, content refers to the substantive information and questions necessary for directing the debate/game.
construct or construction:
The process by which a media text is shaped and given meaning through a process that is subject to a variety of decisions and is designed to keep the audience interested in the text. ( http://www.medialit.org/reading_room/article565.html )
critical autonomy
The process by which a member of the audience is able to read a media text in a way other than the preferred reading. Also used to describe the ability of media literacy students to deconstruct texts outside the classroom. ( http://www.medialit.org/reading_room/article565.html )
critical thinking
The true definition of critical thinking is greatly under debate, but in my project it will refer to the ability to read while simultaneously analyzing and reasoning.
Critical Thinking as Defined by the National Council for Excellence in Critical Thinking, 1987
A statement by Michael Scriven & Richard Paul for the
{presented at the 8th Annual International Conference on Critical Thinking and Education Reform, Summer 1987}.
Critical thinking is the intellectually disciplined process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and/or evaluating information gathered from, or generated by, observation, experience, reflection, reasoning, or communication, as a guide to belief and action. In its exemplary form, it is based on universal intellectual values that transcend subject matter divisions: clarity, accuracy, precision, consistency, relevance, sound evidence, good reasons, depth, breadth, and fairness.
It entails the examination of those structures or elements of thought implicit in all reasoning: purpose, problem, or question-at-issue; assumptions; concepts; empirical grounding; reasoning leading to conclusions; implications and consequences; objections from alternative viewpoints; and frame of reference. Critical thinking — in being responsive to variable subject matter, issues, and purposes — is incorporated in a family of interwoven modes of thinking, among them: scientific thinking, mathematical thinking, historical thinking, anthropological thinking, economic thinking, moral thinking, and philosophical thinking.
Critical thinking can be seen as having two components: 1) a set of information and belief generating and processing skills, and 2) the habit, based on intellectual commitment, of using those skills to guide behavior. It is thus to be contrasted with: 1) the mere acquisition and retention of information alone, because it involves a particular way in which information is sought and treated; 2) the mere possession of a set of skills, because it involves the continual use of them; and 3) the mere use of those skills (”as an exercise”) without acceptance of their results.
Critical thinking varies according to the motivation underlying it. When grounded in selfish motives, it is often manifested in the skillful manipulation of ideas in service of one’’s own, or one’s groups’’, vested interest. As such it is typically intellectually flawed, however pragmatically successful it might be. When grounded in fairmindedness and intellectual integrity, it is typically of a higher order intellectually, though subject to the charge of “idealism” by those habituated to its selfish use.
Critical thinking of any kind is never universal in any individual; everyone is subject to episodes of undisciplined or irrational thought. Its quality is therefore typically a matter of degree and dependent on , among other things, the quality and depth of experience in a given domain of thinking or with respect to a particular class of questions. No one is a critical thinker through-and-through, but only to such-and-such a degree, with such-and-such insights and blind spots, subject to such-and-such tendencies towards self-delusion. For this reason, the development of critical thinking skills and dispositions is a life-long endeavor.
(excerpts from http://www.criticalthinking.org/aboutct/define_critical_thinking.cfm )
critical viewing
This term is similar to critical thinking but can be used specifically in relation to visual media.
The ability to use critical thinking skills to view, question, analyze and understand issues presented overtly and covertly in movies, videos, television and other visual media. ( http://www.medialit.org/reading_room/article565.html )
deconstruction
This term describes a student’s ability to isolate the different pieces of the media message for analysis.
The process by which the audience identifies the elements that make up the construction of meaning within a text. ( http://www.medialit.org/reading_room/article565.html )
game play
Game play refers to what a player does in a game as outlined by the rules and includes other aspects such as tools, strategy, and skill.
mass media
Mass media refers to the established media outlets such as newspapers and television versus emerging media such as blogs.
Mass media refers to those media that are designed to be consumed by large audiences through the agencies of technology. ( http://www.medialit.org/reading_room/article565.html )
Mass media are channels of communication through which messages flow, produced by a few for consumption by many people. As the messages go through the channels, they are distorted. When people receive mass-media messages, they have no opportunity for immediate feedback with the producers of the messages. ( http://www.pbs.org/weta/myjourneyhome/teachers/glossary.html )
media
As outlined in the definition below, media are vehicles which carry messages.
Vehicles which carry messages. Common media channels are televisions, radios, telephones, and newspapers. Less common media are building materials, paintings, sculpture, dance and other means of communicating ideas. See also the singular form, Medium. ( http://www.pbs.org/weta/myjourneyhome/teachers/glossary.html )
media literacy
Media literacy is a person’s ability to absorb the different messages coming through various media channels such as television and the internet and be able to “read” the messages for more than their face value being aware of the source, the intended audience, and any peripheral meaning within the message.
The process of understanding and using the mass media in an assertive and non-passive way. This includes an informed and critical understanding of the nature of the media, the techniques used by them and the impact of these techniques. ( http://www.medialit.org/reading_room/article565.html )
The ability to read, analyze, evaluate and produce communication in a variety of media forms (television, print, radio, computers, etc.). ( http://www.pbs.org/weta/myjourneyhome/teachers/glossary.html )
medium
Any singular, physical object used to communicate messages. Television is a mass medium, but there are many other kinds of mass media. See also the plural form, Media. ( http://www.pbs.org/weta/myjourneyhome/teachers/glossary.html )
propaganda
Any media text whose primary purpose is to openly persuade an audience of the validity of a particular point of view. ( http://www.pbs.org/weta/myjourneyhome/teachers/glossary.html )
sustainable
In the scope of my project, I am using this term to mean an application that does not require consistent updates of content, but rather relies on the users (educators) to contribute questions and content.
