Digital media are now an everyday part of most children’s lives, for entertainment, learning and communication. At the ARC Centre of Excellence for the Digital Child, we have been thinking about what it means to create better internet experiences for children and one of our key recommendations is that children should have opportunities to develop their media literacy knowledge and skills, from an early age. 

Media literacy is the ability to reflect critically on the media’s role in everyday life and in society. It starts with understanding your own relationship with various forms of media, the role they play in other people’s lives and how they influence our community and society as a whole. We need media literacy to be successful in our lives, whether this be for general communication, for learning and work and for being successful consumers and citizens. 

Media literacy complements other important frameworks like eSafety and digital literacy.  eSafety has a specific focus on protecting children from harm and maintaining their privacy and digital literacy focuses on the specific skills people need to successfully use digital technologies. Media literacy goes further to ask critical questions about the media. These questions are organised around six key concepts that enable rich classroom conversations and practical activities:

• Representations: focus on how people, places, and ideas are portrayed in examples of media. We might focus on bias, stereotypes and accuracy in media portrayals. 

• Media Languages: focus on the techniques used to communicate in media. We might focus on how images, sounds and written text are used (usually in combined ways) to communicate using different story forms and structures. 

• Technologies: focus on asking critical questions about the specific technologies that are used to produce, circulate and access media. We might focus on how a device like an iPads enables media production and use. 

• Audiences: focus on how media are typically made to target different audiences. We might focus on how we know a television program is made for children as opposed to adults. 

• Institutions: focus on who makes media and why they make the media. We might focus on who owns an animated series like Bluey and how they make their money. 

• Relationships: focus on how media are often central to the relationships we have with each other, with technology and media companies and with society as a whole. We might focus on how media can be used to have fun with family members, or how media can be the cause of arguments. As children get older, they may consider how people manage relationships via social media. 

Australia is often recognised as a global leader in media literacy education. The Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF) includes media literacy provisions that are aligned with these six key concepts. They are important provisions, though some educators may not be aware that they are part of a media literacy framework. Examples include: 

Early years classrooms are an important centre for early media literacy development, and a number of early childhood pedagogies are particularly suited to helping young children engage with Media Literacy skills and understandings. For example, some key pedagogies include:

• Emergent Curriculum: Popular culture and multimodal media are a significant part of children’s experiential knowledge. We might focus on these experiences as a rich source for emergent curriculum by engaging in critical conversations about plot, or providing materials for children to recreate their favourite characters. 

• Culture of Inquiry: Fostering a culture of inquiry encourages children to actively engage with media. We might use “I wonder” questions about apps being used, or the production and distribution processes of favourite programs, to invite further investigation and insight.

• Converged Play: This play-based pedagogy allows for the blurring of lines between traditional and digital play. We might facilitate child-driven play-based opportunities to follow the flow of stories, characters, and information across both digital and non-digital modalities. For example, children may play ‘Bob the Builder’ in the sandpit, or experiment with image framing as they take photos of a block tower they have built.

Young children live in a digital world and are developing a range of skills associated with media and technology. We know that engaging with media doesn’t automatically equate with being media literate, and that children require additional support to develop media literacy skills. Early childhood educators therefore play an essential role as they engage with the EYLF to provide young children with everyday media literacy opportunities and experiences.