7: Engaging Media Literacy, Promoting Nonviolence

Media is pervasive and far‑reaching. Though always in view, its inner workings often remain hidden. Using a distinctive language of images, signs, symbols, and special effects, media constructs powerful messages and distributes them through global digital networks. Media literacy education engages students in decoding these messages, shifting them from passive consumers to informed and active media citizens. It does so by teaching students how to access, analyze, and evaluate media as well as create and share their own media content.

As violence increasingly dominates media narratives—shaping real‑world attitudes and behaviors—media literacy education plays a crucial role in bringing media violence to the foreground, where it can be broken down to reveal underlying assumptions. This chapter draws on Social Learning Theory, Media Literacy, and Gandhi’s concept of satyagraha (“truth‑force”) as a framework for understanding how media promotes violence in the service of profit and power. At the same time, it explores how media can be reclaimed as a tool for nonviolent truth‑telling and ethical social engagement. The author also shares classroom activities and materials that have shaped his media literacy teaching practice.