Critical Media Literacy and the Climate Crisis: Interrogating Ideology and the Politics of Representation

• In Event: Critical Media Literacy to Imagine, Empower, and Transform Educational Research and Practice

Abstract

1. Objectives

The language, words, and images used to tell the stories about environmental crises are the principal ways people are being educated to think and respond. This presentation uses critical media literacy to analyze how university students and educators develop critical thinking skills related to media messages about society and our relationship with the natural world. By situating this inquiry within a framework of unforgetting and futuring (Winn, 2025), this research examines how media education can disrupt colonial narratives and cultivate more sustainable collective futures.

2. Theoretical Perspectives

This work is grounded in cultural studies (Durham & Kellner, 2002), critical pedagogy (Kincheloe, 2007), critical literacy (Comber & Simpson, 2001), and ecomedia literacy (López, 2021). Through an action-based process and democratic pedagogy (Author 3, 2005), the Critical Media Literacy Framework (Author 3, 2019) was applied in classes with undergraduate students, master’s-level teacher candidates, and in professional development with in-service educators. This work also draws on decolonial theories (Tuck & Yang, 2012) and the Doctrine of Discovery scholarship (Charles & Rah, 2019; Miller, 2008) to interrogate Western epistemologies of extraction and domination that normalize ecological exploitation.

3. Methods

Qualitative and thematic research methods guided this study (Maxwell, 2013). Systematic inquiry generated emergent themes relating to hegemonic and counter-hegemonic ideologies about local ecologies. The analysis focused on the teaching of critical media literacy in two contexts: a large research public university with 160 undergraduate and 70 graduate students and professional development with 100 in-service English Language teachers in Eastern Europe.

4. Data sources

Data sources include instructor lessons and notes, interviews, written reflections, and alternative media projects. Emergent themes demonstrate a deep interest and engagement in the use of critical media literacy as a tool for addressing social and environmental justice. University students identified its relevance for applying the Critical Media Literacy Framework for analyzing social media, while in-service teachers reported enthusiasm for integrating it into language instruction.

5. Results

Results indicate an epistemological shift from colonial/capitalistic logics of domination toward an ecological worldview supported by Indigenous traditional ecological knowledge and the Rights of Nature Movement (López, 2021). Critical media literacy, used as an inquiry-based framework and pedagogy, facilitated the interrogation of dominant ideologies and the challenge of their hegemonic power. By analyzing mainstream media and creating counter-narratives, students addressed the social construction of harmful ideologies and produced their own media offering more humanistic, just, and sustainable alternatives.

6. Scholarly significance

To decolonize our institutions, systems, and structures, we must revisit the origins of Western dualistic epistemologies of domination, extraction, and exploitation by confronting the ideologies that support their creation and normalize their acceptance as “common sense.” Decolonizing minds begins with asking critical questions about how our beliefs and values have been socially constructed. Questioning media messages from the past and present offers opportunities to explore the worldviews and ideologies at the root of today’s crises. Through this process, critical media literacy becomes a praxis for unforgetting, resisting, and building sustainable futures worthy of people and the planet.

Author

• Jeff Share, University of California - Los Angeles