ABSTRACT

Media literacy educators rely upon the law of copyright and fair use in order to help students develop critical thinking and communication skills. The pedagogy and practice of media literacy are oriented around protectionist and empowerment perspectives, each of which promotes particular challenges for copyright and fair use. Since the rise of video recording, teachers have been able to make clip compilation reels for classroom use, but since the 2000s, teachers have faced fear, uncertainty, and doubt about students’ and teachers’ legal use of digital media, including DVDs, Google images, YouTube and screencasting. A review of chapters in the volume provides an overview of fundamental issues as experienced by diverse stakeholders, including educators, youth, academic librarians, journalism and writing teachers, and researchers in the digital humanities. The pedagogy of media education includes approaches to teaching and learning about copyright and fair use that vary depending on the age of the learner, the knowledge and experience of the educator, and the type of copyrighted materials used for learning.