Traditional media literacy models are mostly left-brained inherited from the legacy of
alphabetic literacy the Gutenberg press revolution and industrial mass media production. New
digital media radically alter the environment: their nonlinear multisensory field-like
properties are more right-brain oriented. Consequently rather than focus exclusively on
deconstructing the products of design objects (such as an advertisement «text») digital
learning should respond to the design of the system itself including cultural and cognitive
bias. Mediacology proposes a design-for-pattern approach called «media permaculture» which
restructures media literacy to be in sync with new media practices connected with
sustainability and the perceptual functions of the right brain hemisphere. In the same way that
permaculture approaches gardening by establishing the natural parameters of its ecological
niche media permaculture explores the individual's «mediacological niche» in the context of
knowledge communities. By applying bioregional thinking to the symbolic order media
permaculture redresses the standard one-size-fits-all literacy model by taking into account
diverse cognitive strategies and emerging convergence media practices. Antonio López applies a
practical knowledge of alternative media cross-cultural communication and ecology to build a
meaningful theory of media education.
