Arc of Research and Central Issues in Media Literacy Education

This introduction presents an overview of key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book offers insight in participatory youth cultures through the theoretical lens of media reform. It provides a critical look at remix as a core component of civic agency and engagement. The book connects the act of popular political remix to cultural appropriation, subversion, and civic engagement, using historical and ethnographic research, along with textual analyses of various remixes. It uses the frame of monitorial citizenship to explore the role of citizen science in helping to tell stories of public importance. The book details the ways in which citizens learn to gather data, share it with their communities, and promote scientific learning and public data simultaneously. It looks at the case of political elections and youth-led online protests in Mexico in 2012 to argue for the potential of digital civic space in weak democracies.