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It Up |
What
is it?
"Media literacy is concerned with helping
students develop an informed and critical understanding of the nature of
mass media, the techniques used by them, and the impact of these techniques.
More specifically, it is education that aims to increase students’ understanding
and enjoyment of how the media work, how they produce meaning, how they
are organized, and how they construct reality. Media literacy also
aims to provide students with the ability to create media products."
From Resource Guide: Media Literacy, pp. 6-7, Ministry of Education,
Ontario, Canada.
Back to table
Media
Literacy Online Project
The above definition is obtained from The
Media Literacy Online Project , sponsored by the University Of Oregon’s
College of Education. Its mission is “to provide support service
for teachers, and others, concerned with the influences of media in the
lives of children and youth.” The site provides a “Gateway to Media
Literacy” which provides a multitude of resource material on the subject,
including the following topics:
Education's
Responsibility
In the process of learning about the topic
of media literacy, the Media Literacy Online Project was invaluable.
From the “Teachable Moment” section on "Integrating
Media Lessons into the Classroom” by Chris M. Worsnop to "The
Case for Media Education” by Robert Kubey, the field of education must
take on the responsibility for educating society’s children to become better
television watchers. In other words, “as literacy educators we have
the responsibility to make the familiar strange-not only to rethink the
uses of technologies, but also to know it again for the first time as we
consider where our students may be starting… We need to critically
examine what has become commonplace, normalized, and even invisible.”
B. Bruce, “The
Disappearance of Technology: Toward an Ecological Model of Literacy”
In his article, “The Case for Media Education,” Robert Kubey says, “Over 2,300 years ago, Plato wrote that a ‘sound education consists in training people to find pleasure and pain in the right objects.’ But though most Americans spend half their leisure time watching television and film, very few schools devote formal attention to helping students become more sophisticated media consumers.” He further points out that considerable instructional time is devoted to teaching students about poetry and short stories, but after graduation, they spend little time in that form of literature. Ideally in a similar way, students need to be receiving formal education in media.
The
Roadblocks
Why hasn’t this happened? Teachers
have been hesitant to delve into the world of media literacy. After
all, isn’t it simply a tool for learning about the world, for entertainment
and for relaxing? However, teachers are smart enough to realize it
is a powerful tool that shapes the minds of children and it sometimes takes
the place of parents as the resident educator in the home. Unfortunately,
the message from television can be very different from the one that is
given in the classroom.
From awareness of the need to the how to: Another one of the problems has been due to the fact that teachers need to be provided with the opportunity to develop their understanding of the complexities of mass media and how to critically analyze it. They need to be trained in this subject. Nevertheless, how and where? Kubey was asked by a teacher, who wished to pursue training to teach media literacy in public schools, where she might begin her graduate studies. His answer was that only a few schools would even allow her to utilize her skills and she might have to do an independent study in the field. To date, most media literacy degrees are offered by schools in Europe.
Progress
In spite of the negatives, things are seemingly
moving at a snail’s pace. As early as 1991, The Media Commission
of the National Council of Teachers of English at its annual conference
issued a “Trends
and Issues Statement” urging among other points that the NCTAE’s accreditation
standards “require teachers to be knowledgeable in critical analysis of
media and that this requirement is treated seriously through teacher workshops,
training, materials and guidelines for media education.” But has
it happened?
One of the courses at Harvard’s Field Based Master’s in Education as long ago as 1993 was Introduction to Media Literacy. It emphasizes the need for teachers to have an understanding of the “60 year legacy of social-scientific approaches to understanding the role of media in society and the impact of adults and youth.”
An
Example to Follow
The United States should follow the example
of Ontario, Canada, which achieved a first in North America. In 1987,
mandatory media literacy training in over 5,000 schools for grades 7-12
was adopted. However, one would have to question why the training
starts in grade 7 when the children in the previous grades are even more
impressionable and need just as much guidance in forming opinions about
the media.
An example of media education is provided by a Canadian media educator, Chris M. Worsnop. While it could be treated as a separate subject area, media literacy can also be integrated into the traditional subjects. For example, in music class, the teacher could investigate the influence of music TV and popular radio on the student’s musical taste. In science class, the students could investigate ecological or conservation news is hard to locate in the mainstream press. Language arts students could analyze different newspapers’ articles for objectivity, accessibility, readability, and vocabulary. “Media Education has been called the perfect curriculum: it's timely, it's multidisciplinary, it's easily assimilated into the classroom, and it promotes critical thinking skills,” states Rick Shepherd, Association for Media Literacy. The influence of media on current events and history is definitely a curricular topic in social studies classes. The examples are just a start and amazingly of the topics may already have been (in)formally addressed in some schools.
Summing
It Up
Just as teachers are beginning to demand
additional training in technical literacy, they also need to push for media
curricula. Administrators and curriculum directors need to recognize
that communication in our society has changed so much that instruction
in traditional literature and print communication is not satisfactory anymore.
As Worsnop sums up, “Modern
students are just dripping with media experience, but may be lacking some
of the savvy needed to make sense of the experience. Media education
is not about teaching kids how to watch TV, but about using the media to
help kids make sense of the world around them, and to help them be better
learners themselves. It’s about savvy.”