On Media Literacy

1970 NCTE Annual Business Meeting in Atlanta, Georgia

Background This resolution reflects the concern of NCTE members that although nonprint media had already become a major means of transmitting "information, entertainment, values, and ideals of our culture," and thus were affecting the lives of adults and youth, educators inside and outside NCTE continued to focus on print media and print-oriented aspects of culture. Be it therefore Resolution Resolved, that the National Council of Teachers of English explore more vigorously the relationship of the learning and teaching of media literacy to other concerns of English instruction and, further, that this exploration be made in the total context of the development of students to control and direct their own lives.