About The Journal of Media Literacy

Until our 65th Anniversary in 2018, our journal was one of the oldest, on-going, in-depth North American print journals in media education. Today, JML, The Journal of Media Literacy carries on that legacy online.

The JML is …

• Bringing together the pioneers, practitioners, and future thinkers in media literacy education
• Themed issues with invited expert guest editors and calls for outstanding contributors in the field
• A bridge connecting the professional to the layperson across various disciplines, pedagogies, and approaches that encompass today’s literacies.

Seeing Where Others Have Not Yet Begun To Look…

We believe this is the definition of the artist AND the scientist. Both are inextricably connected through their common bonds of learning, testing that knowledge, and actively contributing to new knowledge and insight. This is the essence of critical thinking and media literacy.

Media Literacy is…

… the ability to access, analyze, evaluate, create and participate thoughtfully and actively with media and within media cultures in a more equitable, humane, ecologically resilient, and just world.

Our definition of media literacy is based on the following key concepts:

• Media comprise global infrastructures with material impacts (environmental and human) while also producing sensory experience and constructions of reality with unique forms and conventions.​
• Media express ideologies and values, but are also the source of pleasure and emotional substance.​
• Media can be interpreted as being embedded with economic, social, and political significance that contribute to the shaping of our societies and cultures.​
• Individuals and groups negotiate the meaning of media based on multiple factors.