In early 2022, the National Association for Media Literacy Education embarked on a year-long process to update our existing Core Principles of Media Literacy Education and Implications for Practice documents to reflect what media literacy education should look like today. The updated Core Principles document identifies 10 guiding principles for media literacy education. The expanded Implications for Practice document identifies specific pedagogical approaches for media literacy educators, highlighting attitudes, values, teaching techniques and classroom strategies that embody each core principle.

NAMLE’s Revision Process

The following questions motivated NAMLE’s revision process: How should the language and focus of the Core Principles be updated to reflect 21st-century media literacy education? How can we create a foundational document that better serves people seeking to implement media literacy education in myriad ways? How can the Core Principles and Implications for Practice better account for new knowledge on the nuanced and critical intersections of media, society, politics, and culture?

A committee comprising NAMLE board members and staff conducted six focus groups with educators of all levels throughout 2022, using each focus group as an opportunity to identify common themes and needs regarding how the Core Principles should be updated. A working group session at the summer 2022 NAMLE Conference provided additional feedback.

After multiple rounds of revision and discussion, through which committee members came to a consensus on updates, the documents are ready for public preview. The updated documents presented here represent NAMLE’s current positions on media literacy education. Our final step in the public preview process is to better understand how these updated texts can be used to support those involved in media literacy education. To preview the updated documents and provide feedback, please continue.

In updating these documents, the NAMLE committee drew from the work of:

The National Media Literacy Alliance organizations, Center for Media Literacy, MediaSmarts, Project Look Sharp, The John Lewis Institute for Social Justice, The Stanford History Education Group, Belinha S. De Abreu, Lynda Bergsma, Spencer Brayton, Natasha Casey, David Considine, Sherri Hope Culver, Yonty Friesem, Renee Hobbs, Henry Jenkins, Amy Jensen, Douglas Kellner, Paul Mihailidis, Nicole Mirra, Srividya Ramasubramanian, Theresa Redmond, Faith Rogow, Jeff Share, Cyndy Scheibe, Sangita Shreshthova, and Elizabeth Thoman.

View the documents below, and then fill out this form to provide feedback to NAMLE. We are accepting feedback through March 17, 2023.

The original Core Principles (2007) were developed by the following past and present NAMLE/AMLA Board members: Lynda Bergsma, David Considine, Sherri Hope Culver, Renee Hobbs, Amy Jensen, Faith Rogow, Elana Yonah Rosen, Cyndy Scheibe, Sharon Sellers-Clark, and Elizabeth Thoman.

The original authors drew from the work of:

Association for Media Literacy, British Film Institute, Center for Media Literacy, Ontario Ministry of Education Media Literacy Resource Guide, Project Look Sharp, Television Awareness Training, Neil Andersen, Frank Baker, Cary Bazalgette, David Buckingham, John Condry, Jay Francis Davis, Stan Denski, Barry Duncan, Linda Elder, Liz Flynn, Paulo Freire, John Taylor Gatto, George Gerbner, Steven Goodman, Bradley Greenberg, Thomas Gencarelli, Peter Henriot, Joe Holland, Stewart Hoover, Henry Jenkins, Tessa Jolls, Sut Jhally, Robert Kubey, Ben Logan, Len Masterman, Barrie McMahon, Laura Mulvey, Richard Paul, James Potter, John Pungente, Byron Reeves, David Scholle, Rosalind Silver, Art Silverblatt, Ladislaus Semali, Erik Strommen, Chris Sperry, Robyn Quin, Kathleen Tyner, and participants at the 1990 UNESCO Conference “New Directions in Media Education”