Critical Media Literacy for Elementary Students in an After-School Programme

As students’ uses and experiences with literacy are changing due to technological innovations, particularly in their out-of-school contexts, it is important to consider how media literacy is a social practice, particularly one where students are engaging socially, culturally, and politically. This is particularly relevant to the way that messages are conveyed through popular media such as commercials, video games, and television programmes. Th e purpose of this paper is to explore what happens when students use a critical media literacy to respond to mass media texts and images. The primary question this research attempts to answer is: What happens when students use a critical media literacy approach to discuss and interpret print and visual media images in an after-school setting? We used qualitative research methods to collect data and thematic analysis to analyse data. Findings reflect how students discussed identity, bullying and aggression, socioeconomic status, materialism and consumerism.