The movement for media literacy in the United States has emerged from a plethora of individual projects and activities throughout the country, each sustained more often than not by the passion and commitment of a single individual, a grassroots organization or a small group of teachers, parents or community leaders.

 

Despite wide acclaim for the importance of media literacy education, especially for young people who will spend all of their lives navigating their way through an increasingly mediated culture, there has been no long-term sustained funding of media literacy as a national educational agenda. Nor has there been funding for the creation of a major national organization that would provide leadership and the organizational infrastructure (membership, communications, Board of Directors) needed to sustain and "call" an annual national conference for ongoing professional growth and long-term development.

 

As the field expanded during the early 1990's a national conference became ever more urgent. During the second half of the decade, four "national" media education conferences were held to attempt to meet the need, and additional organization-building activities filled non-conference years.