Why is the U.S. Lagging in Media Literacy Education?

Canada, Australia and England are the worldwide leaders in media education, primarily because -- decades ago -- they were the first countries to experience the cultural and societal results of importing English-language visual media (films and TV programs) from the United States. Much of the best academic research and writing comes from these countries. Many other countries also have reacted to the impact of media on their cultures by instituting media studies in their schools.

So why is the U.S. so far behind? An excellent explanation is this one, from Literacy in a Digital World, an excellent book by Kathleen Tyner (available from the Center for Media Literacy):

Because of the idiosyncratic nature of U.S. education, the problem of scaling up promising practices in education [such as media literacy education] can be a nightmare. Combined with the individual preferences exhibited by each classroom teacher, the introduction of new subject matter in the curriculum becomes a Hydra of complexity.

Change and adoption occurs district by district, school by school, teacher by teacher. It is difficult to know which conditions, in which configurations, will foster the kind of critical mass necessary to produce widespread education change efforts.

International media education programs in Canada, England and Australia have an advantage because they work from a central education ministry that disseminates resources, training and information on a regional or national scale. The downside of the centralized approach is that bad educational ideas can be spread as easily as good ones.

Nonetheless, the mechanisms for wide-scale educational change are in place when centralized structure serves as a clearinghouse for concepts and resources. At the time, no comparable institutional mechanism exists in formal educational structures to support U.S. media educators. This puts the onus of support on ad hoc organizations; nonprofit, community-based organizations; professional education associations; or local teacher groups.

In other words, because education in the United States is decentralized (not controlled at the federal government level, nor even the state level). it is very difficult to create awareness about media literacy and to make it happen in the classroom. Even more important is the fact that in this era of focusing on results and standardized testing, American teachers are forced to spend most of their time ensuring their students can pass the tests (which isn't necessarily the same as getting a good education). Media literacy is not on the standardized tests.