Critical media literacy in Canadian classrooms: the re-education of media savvy children

Over the latter half of the 20th century, a number of technological innovations brought about a major shift in the Canadian media environment whereby we have seen traditional media, such as newspapers and radio, eclipsed by ubiquitous, state-of-the-art technologies that are incredibly vivid and burgeoning with interactive potential. New media have appeared while older media have evolved to offer us hundreds of channels and virtually unlimited access to information and entertainment. Along with these developments, our acceptance and appetite for media and technology has also shifted. In 1990 for example, only 10.4% of Canadian households owned a computer and 12.6% had VCRs (Manna, 2002, p. 18). A little over a decade later, in 2001 more than 70% of Canadian homes had computers and VCR penetration reached 93%, according to a report from the Bureau of Broadcast Measurement (ibid.). Cable and satellite subscriptions, Internet access, and mobile telephone use have also increased substantially in the last decade. Given what appears to be a vigorous proliferation of media technology, it is hardly surprising that children are becoming remarkably 'media savvy'.