Media literacy education is not as advanced in the USA as in several other English speaking areas,
such as Great Britain, Canada, and Australia. Despite decades of struggle since the 1970s by
individuals and groups, media education is still only reaching a small percentage of K/12 schools in
the US. While some major inroads have been made, such as getting elements of media literacy
included in most of the 50 state’s educational standards and the launching of two national media
education organizations, most teachers and students in the USA are not aware of issues involved in
media literacy education. In this paper we set forth some models of media literacy, delineate key
concepts of critical media literacy, and then examine some of the most active organizations in the
USA and differences in their goals and pedagogy.
