Did you know that Comcast, AT&T, and
Verizon all support media literacy education? It’s true! The public
interest community has been portraying them as big bad wolves, but
really they are just a bunch of nice, friendly guys and gals who want
the best for you, your family, and society as a whole.

Don’t believe me? See for yourself:

AT&T’s Knowledge Network: http://www.kn.att.com/wired/21stcent/media.html

Verizon’s Thinkfinity: http://www.marcopolo-education.org/about/about_index.aspx

The Comcast Literacy Fund: http://www.comcast.com/corporate/about/inthecommunity/literacy/literacyfund.html

In fact, these and numerous other large media organizations have joined together as members of the Partnership for 21st Century Skills,
an advocacy organization that promotes media literacy education by
lobbying departments of education in a number of states around the
country (currently ME, MA, NC, SD, WV, and WI).

Impressed? Don’t be. These are marketing tactics. Neither the
Partnership’s, nor the three companies’ own initiatives come close to
discussing the importance of media ownership and the structure of the
media system in defining the boundaries for media content — instead
they keep kids busy with using each company’s products. Check out all the cool things
each Partnership member can do to improve classroom technology! The
possibilities are endless, and meanwhile your children, too, can become
indoctrinated into the consumer mindset at an early age.

The Partnership for 21st Century Skills is no flimsy initiative,
either. As of today, it is the only group promoting media literacy
education that is approaching educational administrators on the state
level to push for policy and curricular change. “Grassroots” media
literacy advocates have not been able to do this kind of lobbying of
their own so far. This gives a major advantage to corporate media to
impact the face of media literacy education while it is still in its
infancy in the United States.

This is what happens when the meaning of a concept like media literacy is left unclear. What is media
literacy? Is it only about discussing media content and learning to use
computers and software? Or is it also about learning to think
critically about the source and the conduits of the information we
receive as citizens and independent thinkers? We are still in
disagreement. Meanwhile, this slippery definition leaves all the more
room for Big Media to create its own story.