Agentive realism and media literacy

Abstract

What does it mean for young people to act in or upon the world, with, through and in response to media; that is, with agency? This question has driven media literacy in all its forms since at least the 1920s when concerned adults first began to question the relationship between children and the first mass medium to so publicly appeal to children – the cinema. In the 80 plus years since the Payne Fund Studies set out to understand the effects of cinema on children, the question of young people’s agency with media has persisted as a social concern. Television, comic books, video games, the home rental market for ‘video nasty’ horror films in the 1980s, heavy metal rock music, the Dungeons and Dragons board game, the internet, social media and online gaming have all raised concern—if not moral panic—about young people’s ability to act in and upon the world consciously, morally, ethically, safely and responsibly.