Obstacles to the DeveloPm~t of Media Education in the United States

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Obstacles 
to the Development of Media Education 
in the United States
 
 
by Robert Kubey, PhD 
 
first published in the 
Journal of Communication 
Winter, 1998 / Vol. 48, #1
 
 
 
Abstract 
This article examines the political, economic, historic, and cultural explanations for why the 
United States lags behind other major English-speaking countries in the formal delivery of 
media education. The research relies on formal documents and newsletters, interviews with 
leading media education researchers and teachers from numerous nations, and site visits to 
five countries. Among the many factors explored are the sheer physical size of the U.S., its 
highly heterogeneous population, resistance to the federal government’s making central 
educational or broadcasting policy, the fact that the U.S. exports far more media products 
than it imports, and a long-standing reluctance to take the popular arts seriously. 
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The United States finds itself in the ironic position of being the world’s leading exporter of media 
products while lagging behind every other major Eng1ish-speaking country in the world in the 
formal delivery of media education in its schools. Are there specific reasons that explain the less 
developed state of U.S. media education? If so, what obstacles lie ahead? 
The formal research for this study began in 1993 when I began collecting material from around the 
world, including formal documents, brochures, newsletters, and educational plans; interviewing 
leading media education scholars and researchers, as well as experienced media education master 
teachers and inexperienced teachers from around the world; and directly observing in five countries, 
spending the greatest periods in England, Scotland, and the United States. 
A worldwide movement in media literacy education has been growing for roughly 30 years. Since 
the mid-1990s, Australia has mandated media education from kindergarten through 12th grade. 
Ontario has mandated it for grades 7-12 since 1987. In Britain in 1996, approximately 25,000 
students took their GCSE exams (for 16-year-olds) and some 8,000 university-bound 18-year-o1ds 
took their A Level (advanced level) exams in media studies. Even before the fall of apartheid, South 
Africa was already ahead of the United States in formal media education (Criticos, 1997). Numerous 
non-English-speaking regions and countries have also developed media education initiatives at a 
rapid rate. Substantive developments have occurred in Scandinavia, South America, Europe, Asia, 
Russia, and Israel (see Brown, 1991; Piette & Giroux, 1997).
In the United States, significant statewide initiatives are now in place in New Mexico and North 
Carolina, with noteworthy developments having occurred in Wisconsin, Minnesota, and other states. 
Most states are home to one or more organized groups working to advance the cause of media 
education, locally, statewide, or nationally. In 1992, the first National Leadership Conference on 

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