In this article we discuss why media literacies are being acknowledged as a key competence across a range of life functions and policy domains, and we propose that, in order to understand and help develop these literacies, researchers from media studies and education studies need to identify common theoretical and empirical grounds and systematically harness synergies where they may be found. As an inroad to such a process of identification, the article explores key trajectories within the two fields since the 1980s by considering the intensified interest in the people who are at the core of the activities under study (learners, audiences), their practices of meaning-making, and the scientific approaches employed. We argue that the trajectories toward studying meaning-making across contexts that have developed largely without interaction between the two fields of study now need to be acknowledged and aligned in order to strengthen the research base from which media literacies may be advanced. We present r...