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Author
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Alice Lee & Clement So
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Year
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2014
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Publisher
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Comunicar
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Abstract
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In knowledge society, there is currently a call for cultivating a combination of media literacy and
information literacy. This, however, requires cooperation from these two separate fields of study,
and uncertainty regarding their boundaries hinders a smooth merger. It is unclear whether they
are subsets of each other or separate entities. In this study, we have explored the relationship
between these two fields by empirically mapping out their territories and discussing their similarities and differences. We have made use of the Web of Science database to delineate the content
and boundary of these two fields. Our findings from 1956 to 2012 show that the two fields have
different authors, university affiliations, and journals; they also differ in terms of academic origin,
scope, and social concern. Information literacy has a closer tie to library science, while media literacy is more related to media content, media industry, and social effects. Due to their different
academic orientations, the two fields adopt different analytical approaches. We have found that
media literacy is not a subset of information literacy as some scholars have suggested, although
the two fields have similarities. They share the same goal, and their publications overlap in terms
of subject areas, countries of origin, and titles. The two fields could find common ground by cooperating together to contribute to the promotion of new literacy in knowledge societies.
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Language
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English