Critical Reading of Media: A Methodological Proposal

This work analyzes some aspects on which the development of critical thinking is based starting with the contributions of critical theory to the educommunicative perspective, as a bedrock for reflection on the media. This work reviews the characteristics of the critical subject and differentiates between critical reading and critical thinking. The former works as an analytic strategy that searches the re-reading of texts or audiovisual messages to identify categories attached to discussion and interpretation; the latter highlights ways to learn to think autonomously which leads to the proposal of interpretation strategies that target creative thinking. The objective of this article is to present orientations coming from Social Communication as an academic discipline that sustain Critical Readings conceived as educommunicative strategies. The methodology used to develop this study is the review of documents and content analysis. The result is a guide that proposes actions for critical media readings in the classroom. The conclusion is that the promotion of a critical attitude involves identifying the political personality of the cultural industry and the communicational process; it means constant questioning of the transparency of media messages, with the aim of creating independent, inquisitive and creative citizens.