Through an analysis of two representative media-romance fiction and television news programs-this article argues for the production of a more media-literate citizenry. The section on women's romances addresses the confluence of a commercial, institutional and ideological matrix that poses crucial problems of a socio-cultural nature. Likewise, conflicting views of the power of television news programs are examined to explore the extent to which news and information may literally be manufactured. Some suggestions governed by the Freirean objective of co-intentional education are then offered to support a view of media literacy as a form of cultural politics, and to advocate its adoption if adults are to be emancipated from the effects of media's construction of reality.
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