Using Popular Culture to Develop Students' Media Literacy and Critical Thinking Skills

This paper addresses the ever-growing complexities pertaining to information consumption, which are particularly enhanced by the advancement of technology. It focuses on the essential skill which is needed nowadays for an effective navigation in digital age – media literacy. This paper investigates how the core concepts of media literacy can be applied in the analysis and evaluation of media products, with the aim to promote and develop students’ media literacy and critical thinking skills, as well as their digital competence. The purpose of this work is to present the process and the results of a project conducted among secondary school students which focused on the use of popular culture as a resource for the application of the key media literacy concepts and principles.