Overview:

This master’s capstone project explored the fractured landscape of media literacy research and proposed a psychologically grounded framework for building it back better. By reviewing existing literature and applying classical psychological theories, I offered a roadmap for future interdisciplinary research.

Challenge:

Media literacy has been debated, redefined, and siloed across disciplines for decades. My goal was to uncover why, and how we could fix it—using the same scientific rigor psychology applies to itself.

Approach:

• Reviewed 20+ years of academic literature across media literacy, education, health comm, and critical theory

• Identified disconnects between definitions, interventions, and teaching goals

• Reframed the debate using 5 psychological paradigms:

  • Structuralism: what media literacy is made of

  • Functionalism: what it does for learners and society

  • Gestalt: how meaning emerges from context and connection

  • Cognitive psych: how users process and store media information

  • Humanism: how individual identity and agency shape interpretation

• Proposed a model that encourages disproving theories rather than just reinforcing bias

• Positioned media literacy as a UX problem—centered on participation, meaning-making, and social context

Impact:

• Influenced my later research on gamer identity, live-streamed academic engagement, and digital storytelling

• Set the foundation for how I approach design, inclusivity, and communication strategy

• Continues to shape how I teach, create onboarding experiences, and build curriculum in both UX and art education

Reflection:

This work laid the foundation for how I now approach UX research. Systems are only as strong as the perspectives we include—and when it comes to media, literacy is power. But we have to keep challenging our own lenses, or we’re just reinforcing old frameworks.