The Action Coalition for Media Education (“ACME”) is a left-of-center organization which under the guise of promoting so-called “media literacy” engages in efforts to shepherd individuals, and especially students, away from large scale media networks towards social media and non-corporate-owned news formats. ¹ ACME was created in 2002 by a group of professors of media communications and journalism and media literacy educators from across the country. ²

Educational Pamphlets

Action Coalition for Media Education provides educational pamphlets to teachers, who can introduce ACME-prepared pamphlets to college and high school classrooms. ²

ACME educational pamphlets teach students that “corporate media,” a term which when used by ACME is shorthand for any large media company, intends to influence the way they “think, feel, behave and buy.” ³ The organizations pushes students towards seeking information from non-conventional sources such as social media and non-corporate-owned news organizations. ⁴

Advocacy

Criticism of Fox News

ACME maintains a blog where it offers further guidance regarding promoting ACME’s message. For instance while ACME accuses the generally right-of-center outlet Fox News of promulgating fake news, referring to the news company’s reporting on fake news as an “absurdity of the highest level.” ⁵

Criticism of Iraq War reporting

ACME criticized the reporting of the New York Times on the apparent presence of chemical weapons in Iraq prior to the Iraq War as a being “based on lies from the White House, the Pentagon, and the CIA, which they dutifully reported as if it were all verifiable.” ⁵ These outlandish claims fly in the face of actual reporting, where the best information available at the time based on intelligence indicated that Iraq possessed chemical weapons, though far fewer than predicted were ultimately discovered. ⁵

Race-Relations Education

Susan X Jane, the director of the Communications and Literacy undergraduate program at Wheelock College and member of ACME, argues that ACME should push for increased application of ACME pamphlets and other tools to develop critical thinking skills regarding police brutality. ⁶

Jane also advocates that ACME should seek to not only educate students on how to analyze conventional and unconventional reporting on police brutality, but that students must be taught though ACME to “decode” and “dismantle” supposedly oppressive systems. ⁶

Criticism of Depiction of Violence in Conventional Media

Despite claiming to be a non-partisan organization devoted to enhancing critical thinking in consuming media, Action Coalition for Media Education relies on academic left-wing criticisms of media. Specifically, ACME accuses corporate media and other conventional sources of media of numbing the public to the plight of the world outside the United States by overloading the news with depictions of terrorism and violence as a means of exerting control and influence over the individuals consuming the information. ⁷

Funding and Expenses

Action Coalition for Media Education receives under $50,000 in annual contributions, which allows the organization to file less information than larger non-profit organizations. ⁸

Leadership

Julie Frechette, a professor of media studies at Worcester University in Massachusetts is the current principal officer of Action Coalition for Media Education. ⁹

Frechette teaches media studies, critical cultural studies, media education, and gender representation. ⁹

1. Yousman, Bill. “Critical Media Literacy: The Way Out of the Maze of Fake News” AMCE. July 4, 2017. Accessed May 7, 2020. https://acmesmartmediaeducation.net/2017/07/14/critical-media-literacy-the-way-out-of-the-maze-of-fake-news/
2. “Mission & Vision” AMCE. https://acmesmartmediaeducation.net/our-mission/
3. “Understanding SEVEN Basic Principles/Questions To Ask Of Media” AMCE. https://acmesmartmediaeducation.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/7principals_questions.pdf
4. “Understanding the ABCs of Media Convergence” AMCE. https://acmesmartmediaeducation.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/abcs.pdf
5. Yousman, Bill. “What’s ‘Fake’ About ‘Fake News’? A critical media literacy perspective” AMCE. December 14, 2016. Accessed May 19, 2020. https://acmesmartmediaeducation.net/2016/12/14/whats-fake-about-fake-news-a-critical-media-literacy-perspective/
6. Jane, Susan X.  “Critical Media Literacy: An Educational Tool to Respond to Racial Violence” AMCE. July 14, 2017. Accessed May 19, 2020.  https://acmesmartmediaeducation.net/2017/07/14/critical-media-literacy-an-educational-tool-to-respond-to-racial-violence/
7. Brodeur, Jacques. “Never Let Media Violence Kill Empathy, Compassion” AMCE. August 3, 2016. Accessed May 20, 2020.  https://acmesmartmediaeducation.net/2016/08/03/never-let-media-violence-kill-empathy-compassion/
8. Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax” IRS.gov Accessed May 1, 990-N (e-Postcard).
9. “Julie Frechette” Worcester State University. https://www.worcester.edu/Julie-Frechette/