Leaving the Mess Epistemology and Ethics in Media Literacy Instruction

Abstract

Authority is constructed and contextual. Thus spake the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy, an assertion that rightly guides information and media literacy instructors as we form and inform students, empowering them to navigate an ecosystem rife with mis- and disinformation. Yet as danah boyd famously argues in her 2018 SXSW EDU keynote, how we teach media literacy can become an “assertion of authority over epistemology” that undermines skills we intend to sharpen by not recognizing and valuing fundamental differences among how individuals within communities make sense of the world(s) we inhabit. boyd asks, “How do we teach across epistemologies?” We suggest that by leveraging narrative and play mechanics, gameful design can mitigate problems of epistemic authority, encouraging exploration and fostering desire-driven encounters with diversity in worlds both real and imagined.