Critical media literacy: Research, theory, and practice

Literacy is on the verge of reinventing itself. Luke and Elkins (1998), recently appointed editors of the Journal of Adolescent and Adult literacy, noted in their first issue of the journal that the potential for such reinvention is reflected in the way “texts and literate” practices of everyday lie are changing at an unprecedented and disorienting pace” (p. 4). Attributing the changes largely to new information technologies entail (New London Group, 1997), Luke and Elkins characterized the era in which we are living as New Times. It is a time of major shifts in cultural practices, economic systems, and social institutions on a global scale; a time when literacy educators from around the world are speculating about the ways in which new technologies will alter conceptions of reading and writing.