She wrote Reading the Media: Media Literacy in High School English (2007, Teachers College Press), the first large-scale empirical evidence of the impact of media literacy education on reading comprehension skills. Influenced by the work of John Dewey and Marshall McLuhan, her research uses a mix of quantitative and qualitative methods to examine the impact of media literacy education on student academic achievement. One reviewer wrote, “For Hobbs, present-day media literacy practices must move beyond protecting youth from adverse television and Internet encounters. Instead, she values media literacy pedagogy that teaches today's students how to make informed choices about the variety of texts they have at their disposal. For Hobbs, making an informed or media literate choice about media consumption and creation requires that students critically engage with new media forms, or “symbol systems, tools, and technologies” (p. 159), by asking questions about texts; learning to compose through digital, electronic, and virtual means; and sharing ideas through new modes and mediums of representation. With this in mind, Hobbs reiterates the need for people (teachers, parents, students) to take greater responsibility for their own reading and uses of texts."