Transformative Media Pedagogies

Exploring the concept of individual and collective transformation as the underlying driver for media pedagogy, this book offers valuable insights and practical strategies for implementing transformative media pedagogies across learning environments and civic ecosystems.

Each chapter takes the form of critical and reflective writing on specific processes and practices that emerged from contributors' experiences of participating in the Salzburg Academy on Media and Global Change, an experimental and immersive transformational media pedagogy project born in 2007, and continuing to this day. Together, contributors examine media pedagogies that prioritize value constructions like human connection, care, imagination, and agency, all of which collectively support a transformative approach to learning. While this book takes into account media pedagogies that focus on competencies and skills, its priority is to reveal and offer learning pathways that develop media makers and storytellers focused on positive social impact in the world.

This book will be of interest to any media educators, researchers, practitioners, and entrepreneurs seeking to implement transformative media pedagogies that support equitable and just civic futures.

Paul Mihailidis is Associate Professor of Civic Media and Journalism in the School of Communication at Emerson College, Boston, Massachusetts, where he teaches media literacy, civic media, and community activism. He is the founding program director of the Master's in media design, senior fellow of the Emerson Engagement Lab, and faculty chair and director of the Salzburg Academy on Media and Global Change. He sits on the advisory board for iCivics.

Sangita Shresthova is the Director of Research of Civic Paths at the University of Southern California and holds a PhD in Culture and Performance from UCLA, United States. Her work has been presented in academic and creative venues around the world including the Schaubuehne (Berlin), the Other Festival (Chennai), and the EBS International Documentary Festival (Seoul). She is the co-author of Practicing Futures: A Civic Imagination Action Handbook (2020) and co-editor of Popular Culture and the Civic Imagination (2020).

Megan Fromm is a high school journalism teacher in Grand Junction, Colorado, where she advises the award-winning Orange & Black student newsmagazine and website. She is a curriculum coordinator for the Journalism Education Association and the curriculum lead for the Salzburg Academy on Media and Global Change. She is also the co-author of Student Journalism and Media Literacy (2014).