International Journal of Media and Information Literacy

11-17

Authors: Alexander Fedorov

This article gives the way for hermeneutic analysis of the topic of the White movement in the mirror of the Western cinema (1931–2016). The hermeneutical analysis suggests media text comprehension through comparison with historical, cultural tradition and reality; penetration of its logic; through comparison of media images in historical and cultural context by combining historical, hermeneutical analysis of the structural, plot, ethical, ideological, iconographic / visual, media stereotypes and analysis of media text characters. An analysis of this kind of media texts, in our opinion, is particularly important for media literacy education of future historians, culture and art historians, sociologists, psychologists and educators. Thus, the comparative analysis of plot schemes, characters, and ideology of the Western feature films of 1931–2016, in varying degrees of affecting the subject of the White movement, leads to the conclusion about the essential similarity of their media stereotypes. Content analysis of screen media texts of 1931–2016 on the topic related to the White movement allows generally to submit their basic narrative schemes. As for the film of CIS countries, here is, as before, the history of the civil war in Russia, probably will be somewhere in the periphery of the repertoire.

27-42

Authors: W. James Potter, Chan Thai

The analysis of the existing conceptualizations in the media literacy literature reported in this article revealed that there are considerable gaps in the media literacy literature. While there are a many definitions of media literacy, the existing definitions typically cluster around highlighting several components, especially skills and knowledge but also behaviors and affects. To a lesser extent there is a clustering around certain domains of skills and particular domains of knowledge. But at this point the conceptualizations stop providing detail, and this inadequate degree of specificity in the explication of media literacy requires researchers to fill in conceptual gaps in order to design their measures. The gaps have resulted in the design of a great many measures of questionable validity, which sets up a vicious cycle. Researchers who want to design a test of media literacy go to the literature for guidance, however that literature shows them an overwhelming choice of definitions with no single definition being regarded as the most useful one. Even more problematic is that none of the many definitions provides enough detail to guide researchers very far through the process of designing measures of media literacy. Until more fully explicated definitions of media literacy are offered to scholars, researchers will be left with little guidance, which will result in the continuation of inadequate conceptual foundations for their empirical studies and therefore a fuzzy and incomplete foundation to use as a standard for judging the validity of their measures.

54-71

Authors: Art Silverblatt

Information Literacy is an emerging discipline that operates according to a set of principles and strategies that enable individuals to make sense of the information we are exposed to on an ongoing basis. This discipline, which is defined as the ability to access and assess information, provides a framework that facilitates the discussion of Information with others-including children, peers, and the people responsible for the presentation of information. The paper identifies points of convergence with Media Literacy but makes the point that they remain distinct areas of study. The paper also identifies a series Lines of Inquiry that distinguishes this important discipline. Principle #1: The Body of Information (BOI) to which a person is exposed represents a version of reality. Instituting a BOI is a selective process; much depends upon which pieces of information have been assembled into a coherent narrative. Principle #2: The choice of audience affects the strategy and content of the information. Consequently, assessing the BOI - the composite of Information that has been collected by (or for) an individual—can provide insight into the intended audience. Principle #3: Data is, in itself, neutral. What determines whether it is instructive or deceptive depends largely on who is selecting and assembling the information, why it is being presented, and who is the intended audience.