PROFESSIONAL COMMUNICATION AND TRANSLATION STUDIES, 9 / 2016 13 MEDIA LITERACY: CONCEPTS, APPROACHES AND COMPETENCIES Daniel CIUREL Politehnica University of Timișoara, Romania Abstract: Media Literacy (ML) focuses on educating different categories of public (children, young people and adults), in both formal and informal settings, to critically and consciously consume mediated messages. It encompasses various skills, such as critical thinking, problem solving, autonomy, communication and participation. Although ML is far from being a unified field, there are a number of concepts, approaches and competencies that tend to share a common ground. In addition, despite the fact that there is a vigorous development of ML initiatives worldwide, in Romania the critical deconstruction of media messages is only scarcely present, within narrow niches. Keywords: Media Literacy, media studies, discourse analysis, semiotics 1. Introduction Living in a media-saturated world requires a constellation of skills – critical resources for users to cope with and to process media messages, produced and distributed via traditional and new channels alike (Cernicova 2013, 75). Media Literacy (ML) is a field and a movement that promotes and facilitates critical thinking skills oriented toward media messages. It has evolved from a variety of disciplines, having at its core media and cultural studies and semiotics. ML is a fractured field: many competing frameworks and visions, different schools and factions, antagonistic discourses and practices, unresolved and ongoing debates. As ML builds on different underlying theories and even if there is no consensus on what media literacy exactly is, there have emerged several key concepts. It promotes awareness and mindfulness, enhanced discernment concerning media consumption, and critical abilities for analyzing media messages. ML provides tools for interpreting, analyzing, understanding, and challenging media discourses. All media messages are representations, and so they are inherently ideological and biased. In addition, all media messages have financial and symbolic stakes. ML is multi-dimensional and comprises a set of developmental, progressive skills. Media messages have the potential to exert both positive and negative effects on consumers. ML aims to create active, competent users of media messages. The fundamental principle of ML is the process of inquiry – the habit of questioning media messages on a systematic basis. “A media culture has emerged in which images, sounds, and spectacles help produce the fabric of everyday life, dominating leisure time, shaping political views and social behavior, and providing the materials out of which people forge their very identities.” (Kellner 1995, 1). In this media environment, the boundaries between news and entertainment, on the one hand, and between news and propaganda, one the other hand, are increasingly blurred. Consequently, the ability of decoding media messages is crucial for the modern man. It is beyond the scope of this paper to discuss the extreme diversity of ML visions in detail. The main intention is to highlight the points of agreement. Various definitions