Feminist theories’ and gender studies’ contributions to the debates on media and information literacy

Abstract

In recent decades, education reforms have been undertaken in several countries in order to expand the concept of literacy to respond to the challenges posed by the mass media and new information and communication technologies (ICTs). A wide range of new concepts came therefore to embrace this necessary revision of educational practices. Among these, the concept of media and information literacy (AMI) emerges, whose broader definition involves developing the capacity to access, analyse, evaluate and create content across different media types. The inclusion of this type of education in the school curriculum and the creation of policies to ensure that all have access to it are necessary because differences in access to media and information leads to the expansion of opportunities for the already privileged, considering that certain uses of ICTs may result in more human, financial, social and cultural capital, leaving those who are marginalized from the learning process at a disadvantage. Therefore, this paper aims to introduce the concept of media and information literacy as a public policy and as an educational practice, developing it through the critical and feminist approaches. The analysis concludes that feminist theories and gender studies represent important contributions in this debate and cannot be ignored if the objective of such an educational policy aims at building a more egalitarian and participatory democracy