That’s an interesting question, though I suppose my response would be media literacy and criticism doesn’t have to necessarily imply traditional media in a singular breadth. In suggesting media literacy it was encompassing a spectrum.
I'm definitely not suggesting that "media criticism" is the wrong term. Just that people need a lot more background to understand what "media" actually is.
Maybe an approach to this could follow the model of algebra and calculus?
Students who take and show competency in pre-algebra qualify to move on to higher level maths building foundational knowledge for the more complex systems.
It wouldn’t necessarily have to be 1:1 in the model and structure of classes, but that’s my thinking. Media literacy shouldn’t be a one semester course, maybe not even a one year course, but instead a component of a radically different educational framework that informs our young students how to critique, analyze and reason their way through the digital frontier.
By no means would this kind of shift in education be easy, but in my mind ease is as much a threat to progress than hardship in some cases.
Still: good question!