This chapter examines the history of media education and literacy. Following a discussion of literacy, it is argued that media education has occurred in three main phases. The first phase involved attempts to protect or inoculate the user or audience from the negative aspects of the media. The second phase concerns the assertion that media are inherently ideological and the role of media education was to equip the audience with skills with which they could demystify the media and thus be aware of the ideological messages latent within it. The third phase draws upon constructivist philosophy and asserts that education best occurs when students are engaged in the acts of production. As such media education should involve students in productive acts. Through engaging in such acts, students will become aware of issues of representation and also gain valuable skills that can assist them in the work place. It is noted that media education is an inherently political activity and that some of the changes in media education can be understood sociologically through understanding them as evidential of a shift from middle to late modernity.
