Multimodal Media Literacy

Media literacy is the ability to access, analyze, evaluate and produce a multiplicity of media in a variety of formats including print and non-print.

Media literacy involves both response to and production of media texts.

What is a text?

A text is the product of a process of production and interpretation of meanings.

Texts can be comprised of words, images, signs, symbols, sounds, gestures, and body language.

What are multimodal texts?

The term multimodal refers to five modes of meaning-making: linguistic, visual, gestural, spatial and audio, working together to create texts. These hybrid combinations form multimodal texts.

In this sense, all texts are multimodal as different modes of meaning interact with each other- words and images are organized on a page to create a newspaper article; images, sounds, and gestures are integrated to create a play or television program; words are spoken in a soft voice or typed in a small font to convey a particular meaning; a photograph is tightly framed to create a feeling of confinement.

More thoughts and ideas

Media Literacy: A definition...and more
http://www.medialit.org/reading_room/rr2def.php