Education Specialist, Jane Tallim says,

Media literacy is the ability to sift through and analyze the messages that inform, entertain and sell to us every day. It's the ability to bring critical thinking skills to bear on all media— from music videos and Web environments to product placement in films and virtual displays on NHL hockey boards. . . the instinct to question what lies behind media productions— the motives, the money, the values and the ownership— and to be aware of how these factors influence content . . . media education isn't about having the right answers—it's about asking the right questions. The result is lifelong empowerment of the learner and citizen.

Elizabeth Thoman, Founder and President, Center for Media Literacy, 1995 says, three stages of a continuum (range, gamut) leading to media empowerment:  The first stage is simply becoming aware of the importance of managing one's media "diet"— that is, making choices and reducing the time spent with television, videos, electronic games, films and various print media forms.  The second stage is learning specific skills of critical viewing— learning to analyze and question what is in the frame, how it is constructed and what may have been left out . . . learned . . . interactive group activities, as well as from creating and producing one's own media messages.  The third stage goes behind the frame to explore deeper issues. Who produces the media we experience—and for what purpose? Who profits? Who loses? And who decides? This stage of social, political and economic analysis looks at how everyone in society makes meaning from our media experiences, and how the mass media drive our global consumer economy.

Maureen Baron, Multimedia Administrator, The English Montreal School Board says, "The traditional definition of literacy, when print was the supreme media format, was the ability to decode, understand and communicate in print. But the world has evolved, and print is no longer the dominant media format—that role has been usurped by the electronic media. To be literate today, people must be able to:

decode, understand, evaluate and write through, and with, all forms of media

read, evaluate and create text, images and sounds, or any combination of these elements.

In other words literate individuals must possess media literacy as well as print literacy, numeral literacy and technological literacy."

 

Wally Bowen, Citizens for Media Literacy, Asheville, NC, U.S.A, 1996 says, Media literacy seeks to empower citizens and to transform their passive relationship to media into an active, critical engagement— capable of challenging the traditions and structures of a privatized, commercial media culture, and finding new avenues of citizen speech and discourse.