Journal of Media Literacy Education Pre-Prints
Document Type
Research Article
Abstract
While there is broad consensus regarding the social and educational need for CML, its actual didactic content and especially the meaning of ‘critical’ are far from clear. The article argues for a turn to educational practices. Findings are based on empirical research on adult education in Vienna (Austria) consisting mainly of interviews with expert-practitioners in the field of adult education and media and/or digital literacy. We confront academic definitions of the critical impetus of CML with an analysis of innovative projects, which were designed for accessibility and addressed learners facing high educational barriers. Our findings encourage a turn towards the ‘doing’ of critical practices, in which action and reflection are always enmeshed rather than being neatly separated. Our cases show that such an embedding of critical competencies is possible in educational settings, but requires CML to exchange the proclaiming of a critical stance for the messy reality of reflection-in-action.
Recommended Citation
Mayer, S., Fridrik, S., Mühlbauer, J., Temel, B., & Eberhardt, V. (2026). What’s Critical in Critical Media Literacy? Barriers and Good Practices in Adult Education. Journal of Media Literacy Education Pre-Prints. Retrieved from https://digitalcommons.uri.edu/jmle-preprints/47
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
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Adult and Continuing Education Commons, Communication Technology and New Media Commons, Educational Methods Commons, Educational Sociology Commons, Gender, Race, Sexuality, and Ethnicity in Communication Commons, Language and Literacy Education Commons, Social Media Commons