Today various types of media are continuously intruding into our lives and there is a growing awareness about its influence on the society, both good and bad. Media literacy employs an inquiry-based instructional model that encourages people to ask questions about what they watch and read. By transforming the process of media consumption into an active and critical process, people gain greater awareness of the potential for misrepresentation and manipulation. Media literacy provides a structure and pedagogy of the new literacy required to live in this modern world. Furthermore, it paves the way to master the skills required for lifelong learning in a constantly changing world. It gives students the aptitude to differentiate style from stuff, subject from image, strategy from personality and expression from reality. The article studies the development and future scope of media literacy across the world with special emphasis upon India.

With the development of technology, our consumption of media is continuously on the rise. In fact, so intricately media is woven into our lives that we can't think of a day without its pervasiveness. As an inter-disciplinary concept, media literacy can be explored and developed through several different approaches. It is important to recognize that none of these approaches by itself constitutes the totality of the media literacy. For example, understanding and appreciation of the language of film/television, which falls under the aesthetic/appreciation approach, becomes much stronger when fused with production and the realization that students learn best by doing. Knowing the language of film is enhanced by practical experience producing and utilizing that language.

The amalgamation of media and technology in an increasingly globalized world is changing the pattern of learning, and is changing the very basics of the education imparting system. Literacy now has an expanded meaning and it is no longer sufficient to be able to merely read the printed word. People need the skills to be able to critically interpret the potent images of a multimedia culture. Media literacy paves the way to master the skills required for lifelong learning in a constantly changing world.

It is all about the study of our responses to the media. As a tool, it helps us to analyze media messages. It is the ability to access, analyze, evaluate and communicate information in a variety of forms, including print and non-print media. Similar to traditional literacy, it is about developing the ability to comprehend and create the right media messages. Moreover, it goes beyond mere recognition and comprehension. It trains us to develop a more intricate order of critical thinking skills inherent in accessing, questioning, analyzing and evaluating media messages. The aim of media literacy is to teach people how to become conscientious creators of media messages, both to facilitate an understanding about the strengths and limitations of each medium, and also for the development of independent medium. Media literacy is an expanded conceptualization of literacy.

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