As the media literacy movement began to emerge around the world, particularly in Australia, Canada and England, Media&Values found colleagues whose work complimented and contributed to building a foundation for the introduction of what has come to be called "media literacy" in the K-12 educational curriculum.

Building on Brazilian educator Paulo Friere's "Awareness / Analysis / Reflection /Action" model of educating for change, Media&Values, in Issue #35 (Spring, 1986), proposed an innovative framework for analyzing complex media issues (the "Empowerment Spiral") which stands even today as the foundation for CML's educational philosophy: "Empowerment through Education."

By 1990 when UNESCO convened a gathering of media educators from 40 countries for a week-long conference in Toulouse, France, it was painfully obvious that the United States was years behind other countries in developing educational policies and practices relevant to schooling in an Information Age. As one of five participants from the United States, Thoman recalls being astounded by the sophistication and depth of media education initiatives in other countries. She returned to the United States committed to devote the resources of the newly incorporated and independent Center for Media and Values to the critical need for practical inquiry-based teaching materials for the classroom.

Soon Media&Values was more than just a magazine; it was the cornerstone of an innovative educational publishing program which developed the first generation of teaching tools about the media published in the United States.

Media Literacy Workshop Kits"!

With start-up funding from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Center hired adult educator Jay Davis to create a new media literacy educational process. Using the just completed Issue #48 / Men, Myth and Media and #49 / Redesigning Women, Davis created the first "Media Literacy Workshop Kit" titled Break the Lies that Bind: Sexism in the Media. The Kit consisted of one copy of each of the magazines for background context plus an extensive Leader's Guide containing six sample lesson plans along with reproducible handout masters and orientation for how to organize and conduct an "inquiry-based" media literacy class or group event.

" . . . the most useful tools available for sorting out the media images, ideas and values that swirl around us each day."

— Utne Reader

Much more substantive than just a "group discussion," the goal was to explore a complex topic, such as sexism in the media, from a variety of perspectives - not just what a media message "said" but how such a media "text" was constructed? How different people could interpret the same message differently? What were the economic, political or social conditions that might have influenced its creation, dissemination and interpretation?

Such questions were framed as the "five core concepts of media literacy" and were developed from the work of Canadian teachers who had identified 8 "Key Concepts" as the foundation for the Media Literacy Resource Guide, published in 1989 by the Ontario Ministry of Education. Their work, in turn, had been influenced by media thinkers such as Marshall McLuhan, early curriculum developers in Australia and educators such as England's Len Masterman whose 1985 book, Teaching the Media, was fast becoming the "bible" of the emerging field of media literacy education around the world.

• Media Education: 18 Basic Principles / by Len Masterman

Thoman and Davis' linking of the "Empowerment Spiral" with the Five Core Concepts created a solid educational platform for a US approach to media literacy. From 1990 thru 1993, the Center for Media and Values organized its editorial schedule to first, create an issue of the magazine on a specific theme and secondly, publish a Leader's Guide outlining the educational process. Nine Media Literacy Workshop Kits were published with several titles still relevant and available.

• End of an Era

Following the publication of Media&Values' acclaimed two-part series on Violence in the Media, the Center's Board of Directors made the tough decision to cease publication. The magazine had become a victim of its own success having unleashed a publishing machine whose vision was far ahead of the organization's ability to support it financially or to maximize distribution and utilization. A "time out" was needed to recover early development costs, organize a marketing and distribution structure and explore how to expand the media literacy market through teacher training and professional development.

The agenda was confirmed when the Center received funding from the Carnegie Corporation of New York and numerous other foundations to develop the last two issues on violence in the media into the comprehensive 5-part community education program and media literacy curriculum, Beyond Blame: Challenging Violence in the Media. Its publication in 1995 established the Center, according to the National Council of Teachers of English, as "one of the prime movers in the US media education movement."

"People who are media literate never again say, 'It's only a TV show.' They understand how symbols are used, how scenes are filmed, how music accents action, how silence can mean more than dialogue and how values are transmitted in subtle gestures."

— media critic James Breig