Media Literacy and Television Criticism

2004/08/25 by Leah R. Vande Berg, Lawrence A. Wenner, Bruce E. Gronbeck · 1 citation
Arts and Humanities · #Art Education and Development #Ethics, Aesthetics, and Art #Visual Culture and Art Theory

paper · doi:10.1177/0002764204267266

openalex publication_date 2004/08/25 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29

Abstract

This article argues that the concept of media literacy is strengthened when it is understood as media criticism. After briefly tracing the development from concerns about television in the early 1950s to the Aspen Institute’s 1992 call for media literacy, the article overviews several types of television criticism to illustrate how criticism embraces and moves beyond mere literacy to provide a vehicle for citizen empowerment and engagement. The conclusion reflects on the ethical impulse in media criticism and on how moral engagement with television by literate and critical citizens can serve to democratize public sphere policy debates over communication in the public sphere.

Cited by

• Television criticism [wikipedia]

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