“Posting sparsely, sending love.” I recently shared these words in my Instagram stories to express honor and gentle acknowledgement for the aching losses and trauma experienced in our country this spring. As a media literacy and technology scholar, I’ll often engage in periods where I participate sparingly in online spaces. While this may seem incongruous– the media teacher who only lightly treads online– I find the practice one that demonstrates media literacy in action. I like to say “media literacy is both a verb and a noun.” In other words, it’s not something you have and then you move on, but rather something you do. It is a practice that is developed and refined over a life time. Or, as many scholars before me have suggested, media literacy occurs on a continuum. This conceptualization of media literacy gives me hope and, as spring unfolds in the northern hemisphere, I feel the growth that is possible through media literacy education. I practice media literacy as both a field of study and a way of teaching and learning that cultivates personal growth, community growth, and– possibly– the growth of nations and our global community. In this spirit, I offer you a collection of green imagery. Let’s remember that we– as individuals and communities– are not static. We are in process and we can grow towards the light– we can bend towards kindness, towards acceptance, towards our shared humanity. I think media literacy is a crucial part of this process and will continue to use the tools of media literacy towards this end, or forge new tools where others fall short. There is reason, too, that garden is both a verb and a noun.
Citation: Redmond, T. (2022, June, 3). Growing. Retrieved from https://theresaredmond.com/photography/green-growing/
