The Journal

Media Literacy Week was
designed to promote media literacy in the St. Louis region for students, media professionals, businesses and institutions. The third annual Media Literacy Week is scheduled to take place at local colleges, including Webster University.

Media literacy is the ability to understand and assess the meaning of the media that is offered, whether it is film, print, radio, television or the Internet.

Media literacy's main objective is being able to be inquisitive of the media source and to understand what one is consuming at the time.

"Media literacy is an extension of the idea of literacy," said Edie Barnard, an adjunct media law professor at WU. "In order to be informed you have to access the value of sources."

Media Literacy Week starts Sunday, Oct. 4. The week is sponsored by Gateway Media Literacy Partners (GMLP) and St. Louis Community College (STLCC). Governor Nixon and mayor Francis Slay have proclaimed the week Media Literacy Week for the state and in the city of St. Louis, respectively.

The events for the week are free and open to the public. Media Literacy Week will take place at five college campuses in the St. Louis area - WU, STLCC-Meramec, Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville, Lindenwood University and Maryville University.

"Media literacy is a critical thinking skill," WU literacy professor Art Silverblatt said. "People are learning to interpret and construct messages through media literacy. It's becoming more and more important."

Media literacy is increasingly being considered a survival skill. Technology is up coming stronger then ever in the media.

"Everybody's trying to figure out where the media's going next," said Jessica Brown,
president of the GMLP and adjunct media literacy professor at WU.

To appeal to businesses, the GMLP is offering a GMLP Media Literacy Enrichment Certificate to employees from businesses that attend the event.

"This is something that will allow the employees to go back and talk about," Brown said. "It's a benefit to the community in all sectors."

The week's events will include a moderated discussion with David Folkenflik, an NPR media correspondent and a discussion panel called Emerging Business Models in the Media Industry, which will feature two WU professors, Silverblatt and Don Corrigan.

An Academic Symposium will take place, allowing students to observe scholar's work in the area of media literacy.

"The features are outstanding," Brown said. "You don't see these discussions at this juncture."

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