JAMMO ISSN 2146-3328

This article introduces the Metatheme Framework for Communication and Mass Media Education, a curriculum model that embeds universal yet culturally grounded themes—identity, belonging, alienation, cultural relevance, resilience, and time—at the heart of media pedagogy. Drawing on Paulo Freire’s critical pedagogy (Freire, 1970), Paul Ricoeur’s theory of narrative identity (Ricoeur, 1984), Fredric Jameson’s concept of the political unconscious (Jameson, 1981), and James A. Banks’s principles of culturally responsive education (Banks, 2015), the framework advances beyond existing critical media literacy models by systematically pairing canonical theories (e.g., Hall’s encoding/decoding, Herman & Chomsky’s propaganda model) with grassroots and community-produced media artefacts.