Ch01 Media Literacy Instruction

Module 1: Goals and Curriculum Frameworks for Media Literacy Instruction This course is designed to help you teach media literacy in your classroom. It is designed to help you achieve the following objectives, objectives that will be addressed in the different modules in this course. - understand different theoretical justifications of film, television, media study. Because media studies is often marginalized in school curriculum, you will need to be able to justify teaching media studies in the classroom, the focus of this first module. - use of a “media lab”/web-based approach to film, television, media study. One approach to learning to critically analyze the media is to transform the classroom into a “media lab” in which, as in a chemistry lab, “dissect” and critically analyze media texts—ads, film clips, TV program clips, websites, magazines, newspapers, etc. By bringing in and working with these texts into the classroom, they learn to employ various practices involved in critically analyzing texts. - understand and critique the uses and impact of digital media literacies, particularly the Internet. One of the most important new media tools is the Internet. Students need to be able to stand back and critically examine their own participation on the Internet, as well as how various digital literacies are changing society, for example, how on-line chat is shaping social relationships. Through having students participate in their own on-line exchanges as part of your course, you can then use that participation to have them reflect on the identities, social relationships, stances, and attitudes they adopt through their participation. - understand the purpose for the use of different film/video techniques and techniques for teaching these techniques to students; critically analyze the aesthetic aspects of film/television/video production. In order to critically analyze media representations, students need to have some understanding of effective uses of production techniques to examine, for example, the uses of fast-cutting in television ads, as a means of assigning certain meanings to a product. Students can best learn film/video techniques through their own productions employing new digital production techniques. - understand and apply different critical approaches to studying media: aesthetic, semiotic, genre, mythic, poststructuralist, psychological, discourse analysis, cultural studies, Marxist, feminist, and postcolonial. Students, particularly those at the high school level, need to learn different approaches to critically analyzing media texts. These different critical approaches provide students with insights into how media texts reflect and influence social and cultural practices. For example, applying a postcolonial perspective helps students understand the Western bias inherent in media representations of Africa, the Mideast, and Asia. - demonstrate the ability to conduct critical analyses of media representation, invited stances, value assignments, and genre characteristics. Media represents social and cultural practices in ways that reflect ideological and cultural orientations. Representations of gender, class, and race in the media often reflect traditional white, male ideological constructions of gender, class, and race. Western media representations of African, Mideastern, and Asian societies portray these societies as backward, uncivilized, and unsophisticated relative to European or American value systems. Unpacking the ideological assumptions and biases behind these representations provides students with a more complex understanding of their world. - understand various genre conventions constituting film and television genres constituting prototypical roles, settings, storylines, conflicts, themes, and value assumptions. Understanding the genre conventions helps students learn to critique the effectiveness in employing genre features, as well as the ideological perspectives underlying genres, for example, the ways in which crime/detective genres reflect an “eye-for-an-eye” conservative perspective on crime. - understand and study ways in which audiences construct the meaning of media texts through specific social practices within specific cultural contexts, for example, the ways in which participants in on-line chat rooms construct their identities and status through their language use and knowledge of the norms operating in the chat room. - understand the ways in which popular music and musicians achieve emotional and cultural appeal and popularity, particularly in terms of audiences’ own music tastes, knowledge of specific music genres and the history of those genres, and autobiographical experiences with music. - understand and critique print and television news presentation and analysis of news, particularly in terms of their objectivity, depth of coverage, and contextualizing of news events in terms of background historical, economic, and political perspectives. - understand and critique documentaries in terms of their objectivity, accuracy, multiple perspectives, use of interviews, and editing; recognizes differences between traditional and cinema verite documentary conventions and philosophy. - understand the economic and consumer forces shaping commercial media and the impact of the increasing consolidation of media ownership by corporate conglomerates on the content and distribution of media texts. - develop instructional activities and curriculum that involve students in responding to and critically analyzing media texts; develop methods for helping students define similarities and differences between the experiences of different types of media, as well as intertextual connections between media. Develop curriculum based on strategies related to understanding and producing media. What does it mean to teach media literacy? Teaching media literacy means helping students: Objectives: From participating in this first module, you should be able to do the following: Identify the types of media/visual literacies employed in print and non-print media texts described in this module that you want students to learn in your classroom. Identify the value of acquiring these literacies in terms of students’ development as critical viewers. - For each of these literacies, define how you would teach these literacies to students. Identify each of four different approaches to teaching media studies described in this module: interventionist/control, critical thinking, critical pedagogy, art/aesthetic. Define your own beliefs about the value and benefits of these different approaches. - Formulate a specific rationale for why media studies should be taught in the schools in a manner that is convincing to both administrators and parents. Justifying Media/Film Study in the Curriculum In many school districts, media/film study is perceived as peripheral or even irrelevant to teaching “basic skills” or “subject content.” It is further assumed that classroom time should not be devoted to viewing videos or DVD’s when students are or can view media texts “outside” of the classroom or if such viewing is simply being used by teachers to entertain students or substitute viewing for “instructional” activities. The problem with focusing simply on “basic skills” or “subject content” is that these aspects of the curriculum are necessary, but not sufficient to prepare students for participation in social contexts mediated by new media and digital technologies related to ICT (informational and communication technologies). Given their active use of various media and digital technologies, adolescents have gone beyond simply consuming media texts to becoming actively engaged in participating in and with technology tools such as video/computer games, on-line chats, websites, PowerPoint presentations, and I-movie productions. In both consuming and producing media texts, students also need to be able to critically examine differences in their ability to communicate experiences and ideas to intended audiences. In doing so, they are learning that various ICT tools are particularly effective for achieving certain purposes, for example, that they can enhance their audience’s engagement through multi-media presentation using PowerPoint or websites. However, one of the challenges facing schools is that given their high level of participation with ICT’s outside of school, many adolescents perceive the traditional school curriculum and structure as no longer meeting their needs. Many adolescents have developed sophisticated media literacies through use of media texts outside of school. Media texts afford adolescents with various pleasures through not only responding to engaging media texts, but in also producing these texts. (For a discussion of adolescents’ uses of media: http://www.ci.appstate.edu/programs/edmedia/medialit/ml_adolescents.html In a large study of British adolescents’ media uses by Sonia Livingstone (2002) (for an earlier report of the data: http://psych.lse.ac.uk/young_people) found that interactive computer technologies are becoming part of the infrastructure of the home although new media have not displaced children’s current leisure activities and the use of media is a highly individualized matter. Adolescents in the study spend 4 1/2 - 5 hours daily on average on the computer, playing computer/video games, watching TV/videos/DVD's, listening to music, reading magazines, etc. The percentages of 6-17 year-olds use of media: 99% TV, 86% Music, 81% video, 64% computer games, 57% read non-school book , 36% non-game computer, 28% comics, and 19% Web. However, there are different types of media users: - “Traditionalists” are typically12-14 and focus their uses primarily on TV, books, magazines - “Low media users” are typically under 12, and have few media in their bedrooms -“Screen entertainment fans” are typically males ages 12-14 and focus primarily on TV, video, and computer games -“Specialists” are primarily book lovers - “PC fans” focus more on uses of the computer and tend to be living in media-rich homes - “Music lovers” are typically15-17 year-old females Adolescents’ media use in the study also varied by the type of day in terms of their media uses outside versus inside the home. On a “really good day,” 41% go to movie, 39% see friends, 35% play sports, and 23% do homework and/or go on the computer. On a “really boring day,” 41% watch TV, 28% read a book, and 22% play tapes or watch video. Their media use are varied according to the types of family interactions. “Low interaction” families had low media use, while “high interaction” families shared media uses. “Intimate” families focused more on screen entertainment, while “talkative” families were more likely to discuss the news. Another study by Knowledge Networks/SRI found that close to two-thirds (61%) of kids now have a TV set in their bedrooms, 17% also have their own PC, 35% of kids have videogame systems, 14% have their own DVD player, and 9% have internet access in their own bedrooms. The study also found that 46% of kids with TVs in their rooms do at least half of their TV viewing on that set; 75% report multitasking while watching TV; 43% have visited a website as the result of a TV ad within the past week; and 50% of those surveyed say they have parental rules for their TV use (vs. 61% of kids without their own sets). Kids with their own in-room Internet access reported doing a majority of their Internet visits (57%) in their rooms, with 61% having parental rules restricting their web use, compared to 69% of Internet-using kids who do not have own-room Internet connections. http://www.knowledgenetworks.com/sri/ And, a 2003 survey by Grunwald Associates, found that more than 2 million American children ages 6 -17 have their own personal websites (44% of those were ages 13-17) that 23 million kids have Internet access from home. http://www.grunwald.com/surveys/cfi/overview.html The home is therefore changing as a result of media and the media rich home is replacing street culture in children’s experiences and the bedroom media culture is replacing shared family spaces. As adolescents are using media in the own bedroom, they may be less likely to participate in shared, community media uses with the family. Their increased participation in virtual communities, chat rooms, IM buddy-chat, and computer games has resulted in the creation of a segregated, adolescent niche audience built on adolescent consumer power and demand. As they gain expertise and agency through uses of these ICT’s, they acquire the mindset of “insiders” in communities organized around ICT’s, while many teachers and peers still have the mindset of “newcomers” to these communities (Lankshear & Knobel, 2003). This suggests the need to revise traditional school communities in ways that build on these adolescents’ expertise so that they can be recognized for their competence in schools, enhancing their sense of agency in schools. Many teachers remain “newcomers” because they have not received training on current aspects of media education and technology use. A recent report by the Henry J. Kaiser Family foundation on teaching of media education in schools http://kff.org/entmedia/Media-Literacy.cfm indicated that while teacher education programs are including more media literacy in their programs, training for inservice teachers is often limited to workshops and conferences. One often cited reason for the lack of training in media education is that teachers, given the need to address the mandates of No Child Left Behind One, need to focus on the “basics” of reading and writing so that students test scores will improve. However, one study cited in The Kaiser Family report indicated that incorporating media education into the curriculum can enhance the development of reading and writing skills (Hobbs & Frost, 1999; 2003). 11th-grade students in an English class received media literacy instruction over a one-year period that was designed by English teachers and integrated into their curriculum. Students in this course improved in their reading, viewing and listening comprehension of print, audio and video texts, message analysis and interpretation, and writing skills to a greater degree than did students in a control group. http://interact.uoregon.edu/MediaLit/mlr/readings/articles/hobbs/instpractice.html http://www.mpls.k12.mn.us/departments/media/curriculum/COW/hobbs-andfrost%20.pdf This research suggests that when students are actively engaged in media literacy activities that include uses of reading and writing for definite purposes, that students can improve in “basic skills.” The research also points to the importance of integrating media literacy and ICT activities into the curriculum, as opposed to perceiving it as an extra add-on. All of this points to the centrality of media literacy in the curriculum. The centrality of media literacy in other countries. Media education is taken far more seriously in other countries than in the United States. In Australia, students study media from K – 12th grade. One key factor is Australia is that the curriculum itself has, in certain provinces, been redefined to focus on the importance of media literacy. For example, The Queensland “New Basics” Project formulates a new organization of the K-12 curriculum around the realities of students’ lives in contemporary society. http://education.qld.gov.au/corporate/newbasics/html/library.html#nbdesign The “New Basics” curriculum is organized around four basic topics: Life pathways and social futures Who am I and where am I going? • Living in and preparing for diverse family relationships • Collaborating with peers and others • Maintaining health and care of self • Learning about and preparing for new worlds of work • Developing initiative and enterprise Multiliteracies and communications media How do I make sense of and communicate with the world? • Blending traditional and new communications media • Making creative judgments and engaging in performance • Communicating using languages and intercultural understandings • Mastering literacy and numeracy Active citizenship What are my rights and responsibilities in communities, cultures and economies? • Interacting within local and global communities • Operating within shifting cultural identities • Understanding local and global economic forces • Understanding the historical foundation of social movements and civic institutions Environments and technologies How do I describe, analyze, and shape the world around me? • Developing a scientific understanding of the world • Working with design and engineering technologies • Building and sustaining environments To address these four areas, students learn to employ various intellectual activities, including: • inquiry and expression • reflection and thoughtfulness • persistence • organization and time management • reading efficiently and accurately • using both written and spoken English clearly, economically and with grace • understanding, appreciating and expressing ideas in other languages • receiving nonverbal communication accurately and delivering it with sensitivity and color • organizing, sifting through, arranging wisely and making sense of ideas and data • using computers (including word processing), with an emphasis on the capabilities of the computer for communicating and expressing in multiple media • studying and memorizing • civic behavior • applying knowledge well beyond the confines of the school • figuring out how to think and act in unpredictable situations This concept of the “new basics” still retains some aspects of the “old basics” associated with literary learning and numeracy. However, it posits that given the demands of life in the 21st century, students also need to acquire the “new basics,” particularly in terms of learning to employ and understand various communication and media literacy tools. In Ontario, Canada, media education has been required in grades 7-12 since 1987. Their curriculum is available at The Center for Media Literacy: 10 Classroom Approaches to Media Literacy, a summary of the Media Literacy Resource Guide published by the Ontario Ministry of Education http://www.medialit.org/reading_room/article338.html In Britain, there is a national media studies curriculum students take national exams in media studies, including a portfolio with writing that reflects their ability to critically analyze the media and the role of media industries in shaping media content. http://www.wjec.co.uk/almedia04.pdf. Students also need to examine the spiritual, moral, ethical, social and cultural dimensions of media production, particularly related to cultural imperialism, globalization, and environmental issues. This includes their ability to recognize the limitations of the British media relative to perspectives provided by other global media outlets. In the United States, in which state curriculums prevail, according to a study by Robert Kubey and Frank Baker, few states have any distinct media studies curriculum strand, http://www.med.sc.edu:1081/statelit.htm For a more elaborate set of media literacy standards, see the MCREL students for grades 6-12 for: Viewing: http://www.mcrel.org/compendium/Benchmark.asp?SubjectID=7&StandardID=9 Media: http://www.mcrel.org/compendium/Benchmark.asp?SubjectID=7&StandardID=10 Most states include some media literacy standards within their larger standards framework, or integrate media literacy standards into the language arts curriculum. For example, Minnesota’s media literacy standards for grades 9-12 are part of the language arts standards: (At the high school level, media literacy should be addressed across content areas and integrated into the curriculum at the discretion of the local district.) Standard: The student will critically analyze information found in electronic and print media, and will use a variety of these sources to learn about a topic and represent ideas. A student will be able to: 1. Evaluate the accuracy and credibility of information found on Internet sites. 2. Evaluate the logic of reasoning in both print and non-print selections. 3. Evaluate the source’s point of view, intended audience and authority. 4. Determine whether the evidence in a selection is appropriate, adequate and accurate. 5. Evaluate the content and effect of persuasive techniques used in print and broadcast media. 6. Make informed evaluations about television, radio, film productions, newspapers and magazines with regard to quality of production, accuracy of information, bias, purpose, message and audience. 7. Critically analyze the messages and points of view employed in different media, including advertising, news programs, web sites, and documentaries. 8. Formulate critical, evaluative questions relevant to a print or non-print selection. 9. Critically analyze and evaluate the strategies employed in news broadcasts, documentaries, and web sites related to clarity, accuracy, effectiveness, bias and relevance of facts. 10. Demonstrate an understanding of ethics in mass communication and describe the characteristics of ethical and unethical behavior. They are also integrated into the Minnesota Arts Standards: A student will be able to demonstrate 1. how a synthesis of the components of media arts is used to define a work in media arts: a. elements, including image, sound, space, time, motion, and sequence; b. principles (for example, repetition, unity, or contrast); c. vocabulary; d. structures (for example, chronological or spatial); e. styles (for example, documentary, narrative, or abstract); and f. technical skills (for example, selection and use of the tools of the medium); 2. the similarities and differences among the structures and styles within media arts; 3. how the selection of criteria affects criticism of a work in media arts; and 4. the connections between media arts and other disciplines outside the arts (for example, mathematics, science, or history); A student will be able to: 1. select criteria for evaluating works in media arts; 2. analyze and interpret media art through its historical, cultural, or social context; 3. support personal reactions to media art works using the components of media arts; and 4. articulate informed evaluations of media art works using selected criteria; One state with a distinct media literacy strand is Texas. In a curriculum framework, Viewing and Representing: Media Literacy in Texas developed by Renee Hobbs and others, the Texas curriculum revolves around critically analyzing media representations focusing on topics such as the following: http://www.med.sc.edu:1081/texas.htm 1. Asking critical questions Ask questions to discover the purpose, point of view, target audience, and subtext of different types of media messages; and explore the power of product placement as a form of hidden persuasion. 2. Who do you trust? Analyze different strategies that can be used to judge the realism, authenticity, and authority of media messages found on tv, newspapers, the Internet, and in the library. 3. Crime reporting Examine how the news media’s coverage of crime affects our perceptions of reality and our beliefs about the criminal justice system. 4. Reading the romance Explore the structure and characters common to media romances and how they affect our perceptions of romantic love. 5. The language of politics Analyze political communication strategies and evaluate the impact of the mass media on the political campaign process. 6. The culture of celebrity Explore the power of celebrities in contemporary society and how celebrities shape our expectations of ourselves and the world around us. A central approach in the Texas curriculum is that students learn to work together on small-group inquiry-based projects involving both critical analysis of media texts, as well as production of their own texts. It also assumes that teachers, rather than demeaning or trivializing students’ media choices and uses as unsophisticated, recognize that adolescents differ in their uses and choices of media from adults and provide a classroom context that allows students to share their responses to media in a safe, supportive manner. Unfortunately, schools themselves are often structured in ways that foreclose or limit new ways of learning consistent with how people learn in activities and computer-mediated contexts outside of schools. As later illustrated by the example of video games, video players are actively learning in highly interactive ways that are quite different from the often- passive modes of learning in schools. However, none of this should be framed as an either/or opposition—schools are entertaining new ways of fostering learning as mediated by new forms of media, as evident in work being done at the MIT Media Lab on new forms of learning: http://www.media.mit.edu/research/ResearchPubWeb.pl?ID=22 Educators and media producers interested in fostering media education in schools have formed two national organizations that serve to promote interest in media literacy instruction in schools, the Alliance for a Media Literate America (AMLA) http://www.amlainfo.org and the Action Coalition for Media Education (ACME), http://www.acmecoalition.org Other important media education sites include: Center for Media Literacy http://www.medialit.org Media Literacy Clearinghouse http://www.med.sc.edu/medialit Media Literacy Online Project http://interact.uoregon.edu/MediaLit/mlr/home/ National Telemedia Council http://www.nationaltelemediacouncil.org The New Mexico Media Literacy Project http://www.nmmlp.org/medialiteracy.htm Project Look Sharp http://www.ithaca.edu/looksharp Recognizing the role of adults and parents in media education. Because most of students’ media use occurs in home contexts, there is a strong need to assist adults or parents in ways to critically engage students in media use (Hogan, 2001; Strasburger & Wilson, 2002). This suggests the value of teachers involving parents in assignments associated with critically responding to or producing media texts. In a series of articles (PDF files) based on forging ties between school and parents published in an issue of Cable in the Classroom, Thinking Critically about Media: Schools and Families in Partnership, http://www.ciconline.com/Enrichment/MediaLiteracy/ThinkingCritically/default.htm educators describe ways of helping parents foster discussions with adolescents through responding to the same media texts, recognizing that adults and adolescents often deliberately choose different texts. For example, Folami Prescott-Adams, in her article, “Empowered Parents: Role Models Empowered Parents: Role Models for Taking Charge of TV Viewing,” surveyed 222 of her college students who reported largely counterproductive parental strategies related to their viewing of television. In many cases, there was little or no guidance or restrictions. Restrictions that were adopted often took the form of regulations about amount and type of viewing, restrictions on viewing certain programs or networks, and viewing only after completion of homework or chores. Prescott-Adams’s participants also recalled more constructive strategies as involving: • Co-viewing – intentional viewing by parent and child together • Instructive mediation – the use of TV viewing to reinforce values and critical thinking • Construction – the selection of specific programs to teach specific lessons and history to children Active mediation can be positive, when comments tend to reinforce content, or negative, when comments are disapproving of television content. Most of the coviewing that occurred among the respondents’ families was more coincidental than intentional. In the early ‘90s, for example, The Cosby Show was a co-viewing magnet because it attracted both adult and child viewers. When co-viewing did elicit discussion, it was often limited to comments from parents about objectionable content, such as these reported by a student from Emory University: Any time there was a cuss word my father would say a grunt or groan, and if there were too many he would change the channel. If there were three [cuss words] he’d change it. Not an adult-themed program but any show that had cursing like “get the hell out.” In addition to sideline commentary, many parents resorted to ineffective mediation strategies such as covering children’s eyes during violence and sex. But the children could still hear the dialogue, so their curiosity and fascination with this halfway-forbidden content increased while their understanding of its meaning remained unchanged. As long as parents are involved in discussions with their children while co-viewing –whether the viewing is planned or coincidental – they are actively mediating their children’s viewing. She recommends that parents pose one of more of the following questions to foster adolescents’ critical response: 1. What do you see/hear? 2. Tell me about the main characters (personality, lifestyle, motives, and relationships). Which characters do you connect with and why? 3. What values are represented by the content? 4. How do you feel about the content? 5. Who created this message and why are they sending it? 6. What production decisions were made long before the program was available to us? 7. How would you have told the story differently? 8. How might different people understand this message differently from you? Teachers can include parents in media literacy activities by inviting them to co-view/read media texts and share their reactions. Teachers can also send home instructions or information about classroom activities that involve media production so that parents can assist with those production activities. And, teachers can provide parents with useful resources available on the following sites: Media Literacy 101 (from the Cable in the Classroom site). http://www.ciconline.com/Enrichment/MediaLiteracy/TakingCharge/MediaLiteracy101/default.htm Center for Media Literacy: Parents, Kids, and the Media http://www.medialit.org/focus/par_home.html Smart TV Viewing Tips http://school.dicvoersty.com/ontv/viewtips.html Alliance for a Media Literate America http://www.AMLAinfo.org Activity: Addressing Opposition to Media Education However, there continues to be some opposition from many quarters to media education. (See Robert Kubey, “Obstacles to the Development of Media Education in the United States” http://www.amlainfo.org ) It is often assumed that studying media texts does not entail the intellectual rigor of having to respond to, compose, and discuss print texts, particularly if students are perceived to lack “literacy skills” and are failing the basic skills tests. As reported in the Minneapolis StarTribune, a school board member of the Eden Prairie School District, Eden Prairie, Minnesota complained that teachers in the district were using videos and DVD’s inappropriately: To me, showing movies is a pretty low skill level. I would rather that teachers use the skills they have to get students involved in reading and discussing topics. . . . If we're showing a lot of videos in the classroom, then I view it as a problem. We do get parents calling us, saying: “Why are they showing Schindler's List? Why are we showing Pippi Longstocking?” If you were a teacher in the Eden Prairie district, how would you respond to this school board member’s perception of the “problem?” What are the assumptions he is making about the role of media literacy in schools? Defining the Importance of Media Literacy What then are some arguments that can be made for the inclusion or integration of media education in the curriculum. Decisions about school curriculum are often based on the importance of learning certain practices to function as active, critical participants in society. Certainly, learning to use and critique the media is central to being a contributing member of society. To justify including media literacy in the schools, you need to consider the importance of media in shaping participation in culture and society. The following are some of the important functions of media in society. The role of media in constructing mass, popular culture. Media plays an important role in constructing mass, popular culture (Freccero, 1999; Ogdon, 2001; Simon, 1999). With the rise of a mass media during the 20th century accessible to millions of people, people were able to share the same media texts, resulting in a shared, common set of experiences related to the construction of a mass popular culture. For example, during the 1950s, most Americans had access to mass-circulation magazines such as Life, Look, The Saturday Evening Post, Colliers, Time, and Readers’ Digest. These magazines contained articles and ads portraying Americans as active consumers, particularly in terms of gender roles. Men were shown driving new cars with large fins and a lot of chrome; women were shown cooking in their kitchens with a lot of new appliances. These images function to construct a shared sense of a mass culture based on shared knowledge and practices associated with being an active American consumer. Members of society share the same news broadcasts, television programs and films, sports broadcasts, advertising, newspapers, magazines, and websites. This can create a cultural sameness that stifles alternative or deviant perspectives that challenge the homogenization of society. Understanding the ways in which media functions to. All of this creates a tension around the concept of “popular.” The construction of mass, popular American consumer culture contrasts with local popular or “folk” culture associated with specific regional cultures—the Maine fishing village culture, the rural Appalachian culture, the Native American culture of the Hopi Indian, the African American culture of Harlem and South Chicago, which have their own unique culture practices and values, many in opposition to mass, popular culture portrayed in the media. Large media conglomerates such as Disney, Time Warner, and the Murdock News Corporation create media texts that have a universal appeal across the globe, but often mask over or misrepresent unique features of local cultural practices. For example, Disneyworld http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/wdw/index?bhcp=1 contains exhibits portraying different global cultures and regional culture practices. However, these representations homogenize and mask unique cultural features of these regions in ways that do not challenge Western values of Disneyworld visitors. The result is a loss of a local, popular culture associated with local or regional values that define people’s identities and worth. For example, adolescents raised in a small town may no longer value the local practices of the small town relative to those practices associated with glamorized versions of “the big city” portrayed in the media. Moreover, arguments by environmentalists about the need to preserve local natural habitats may be dismissed as inconsistent with the consumerisms celebrated in the media. This suggests the value of challenging the roles of media industry in its attempt to homogenize unique, local differences in its media representations. It also suggests the need to value deviant, unusual voices in the media that are often marginalized, suppressed, or censored by the media industry, voices that serve to challenge privilege status quo forces. Another tension associated with the “popular” revolves around differences between “high” versus “low” art or media texts. Certain classic films such as Grand Illusion, Citizen Kane, or North by Northwest could be considered “high” art, while B-movie horror films or horror fiction could be considered “low” art. While it is certain possible to judge differences in the cinematic and aesthetic quality of media texts, this distinction raises questions as who assumes the power or status to define constitutes “high” versus “low” artistic value in media texts. Films, television, or music considered to be “popular” is often associated with commercial promotion and distribution, which are largely controlled by larger media conglomerates. As a result, small, independent productions may not achieve popular status simply because they are not sponsored by a media conglomerate and therefore have not been promoted, even though they be high quality productions. Media education plays an important role in helping students understanding the ways in which media texts become popular and the role of the media industry in shaping popularity. Professor T. V. Reed, Washington State University: Popular Culture: Resources for Critical Analysis http://www.wsu.edu/~amerstu/pop/tvrguide.html (resources for the critical analysis of popular culture) Sarah Zupko’s Cultural Studies Center: Popcultures.com http://www.popcultures.com/ Popular Culture Magazine http://www.popcultmag.com/ Cultural Analysis: An Interdisciplinary Forum on Folklore and Popular Culture http://socrates.berkeley.edu/%7Ecaforum/ Images: a journal of film and popular culture http://www.imagesjournal.com/ Manchester Institute for Popular Culture http://www.mmu.ac.uk/h-ss/mipc/ University of Iowa Department of Communications Studies: Popular Culture http://www.uiowa.edu/~commstud/resources/POP-Culture.html Popular culture library: Bowling Green University http://www.bgsu.edu/colleges/library/pcl/pcl.html Russell Nye Popular Culture Collection: Michigan State University Library: Popular Culture Vertical File (PCVF) http://www.lib.msu.edu/coll/main/spec_col/nye/pcvf.htm Recognizing the relationship between media and “reality.” Another important role of media education is that it helps students interrogate the relationship between the media and “reality.” It helps students interrogate the media as a construction tool that can be used to construct realities based on certain ideological, political, or economic perspectives. All of this requires students to learn how the media “mediates” reality by constructing that reality in terms of its own particular purposes and agendas. For example, studying media representations of gender, class, and race http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Modules/MC30820/represent.html helps students recognize that gender, class, and race are social and cultural constructions, as opposed to biological givens. By understanding that what it means to be masculine or feminine are often constructions driven by commercial interests to sell products associated with being or becoming what the culture considers to be masculine or feminine means that students recognizes the role of the media in mediating reality. http://www.mediaed.org/events/articles/AMforum The role of the media in providing entertainment and pleasure. Much of media education is often with adopting critical stances about media experiences. While adopting critical stances is central to media education, it is also important for teachers to recognize the ways in which students derive pleasure from the entertainment provide by the media. This means that the classroom should also become a site for students to share their pleasures in using the media and reasons for those pleasurable experiences. In responding to films, students experience the pleasure of engaging in well-developed stories and characters or from the aesthetic quality of media texts they perceive as having high levels of cinematic, production, or sound quality. Students often define their identities through these uses of the media, so negative judgments of that media can be read as judgments of their identities. A more positive approach is to help students recognize the nature of those pleasures and the reasons for those pleasures. One reason for the high appeal of, for example, horror fiction, is that these texts “bring readers of both print and images into contact with culturally forbidden practices. Readers can imagine themselves both the victims and victimizers in horror fictions generated to bring out themes of repression.” (Alvermann, Moon, and Hagood, 1999) http://www.reading.org/store/content/book_245.html Fostering critical analysis of media as an alternative to media censorship. The increased exposure of adolescents to a range of different media texts that contain violent or sexual material has called for increasing censorship of the media. These “moral crisis” calls for censorship presuppose a cause and effect relationship between reading or viewing this material and adopting violent behaviors or engaging in sexual activity. While there is some research indicating some cause/effect relationship between children’s viewing of violence in cartoons and violent action, that research is inconclusive and applies particularly to children who are already violently orientated. Assuming these cause/effect relationships fails to consider what readers or viewers bring to media texts as central to the construction of the meaning of that text. Moreover, advocating for censorship can actually enhance adolescents’ interest in certain texts given their need to resist markers of adult authority. One alternative to censorship is to foster critical analysis of media texts so that adolescents are responding critically to portrayals of violence and sexuality in the media. Marjorie Heins and Christina Cho in Media Literacy: An Alternative to Censorship http://www.fepproject.org/policyreports/medialiteracyfull.html posit the value of having students examine the assumptions and beliefs inherent in media portrayals of violence and sexuality, for example, the degree to which the causes or consequences of portrayals of violence and sexuality are shown. What is Literacy?: The Need for A New, Broader Definition of Literacy and Texts There are a number of problems with this school board member’s assumptions about literacy, problems related to limited notions of “literacy” and “texts.” This school board member assumes that “reading” is a “high-level skill,” while viewing is a “low-level skill” unrelated to teaching reading. He is presupposing that “reading” of print texts is not related to “viewing” media texts. However, in reading texts, readers are employing a range of “reading” practices—comprehending messages, defining links, critiquing assumptions, etc., that viewers also employ in viewing media texts. There is also the assumption that there’s clear distinction between print and non-print texts and that schooling should be focused on teaching students to learn to “read” print texts. However, many texts could now be described as “hybrid texts” (Stroupe, 2000). Many texts--Web pages, magazine articles, CNN news broadcasts, computer games, etc., combine images and print, along with sound and digital clips. Responding to these “hybrid texts” requires a new set of literacies associated with learning to respond to and create these texts. For a discussion of multiple/hybrid literacies: http://www.edc.org/spotlight/mosaic2/newmedia.htm A broader definition of literacy recognizes that students acquire a range of different literacies through their active participation with interactive media that involve acquiring a range of “new literacies” or digital literacies, to be discussed in more detail in Module 2. Visual literacy. One central set of literacies revolves around the ability to understand the meaning of visual images. Visual images consist of signs, icon, or symbols that assume symbolic meanings operating in certain cultures, meanings relating to power, status, sexuality, death, etc. The meaning of signs depends on the relationships between the signifier (the image, word, object, or practice), the signified (the implied meaning), and the referent (what the image, word, object, or practice refers to) (Scholes, 1982). A yellow yield sign is a signifier that conveys the meaning--the signified, to yield to other cars. The referent is the actions referred to, in this case, yielding to other cars. People learn that the colors red and green as signifiers have certain signified meanings--stop and go, with the referent being stopping and starting a car on the street based on a set of cultural codes and conventions (Peim, 1993). The meaning of images of beauty as portrayed in romance novels, soap operas, romantic comedies, or song lyrics are constituted by what Linda Christian-Smith (1990) describes as "codes of beautification"--that being physically attractive contributes to building a love relationship with a male. These codes specify what it means to be beautiful as defined by the cosmetics, fashion, and hair-product "beauty industry" and represented in teenage magazine advice columns and articles on ways to attract males (McRobbie, 1991). In responding to texts, readers draw on their cultural knowledge of codes to define the meanings of signs. Students most readily understand this sign/code relationship by constructing collages of images from magazine ads and then inferring the code system constituting the meaning of the images. For examples, advertising images of SUV’s in remote, open spaces are based on a code system of individualism and “freedom” from constraints associated with SUV’s. Students can then identity the code systems operating in literary texts. The images employed in advertising and the media can be a powerful force in a society. J. Francis Davis argues that images assume a powerful role in the culture by perpetuating certain myths: http://www.medialit.org/reading_room/article80.html MYTH #1. The world is a dangerous place and we need guns, police and military to protect us. But graphic reports of crime and terror on the news probably have a greater influence in creating our feeling that the world is unsafe. MYTH #2. Leave it to the experts (who are usually white men). The authority figures we see presenting the national news are white, middle-aged men…the views of women, persons of color and representatives of alternate voices of all kinds are customarily absent. MYTH #3. The good life consists of buying possessions that cost lots of money. Living well is synonymous with wealth, according to the pictures and advertisements we see of homes and yards and cars. MYTH#4. Happiness, satisfaction and sex appeal, just to name a few, are imminent-and available with the next consumer purchase. A whole group of images imply that we are on the verge of being happy. These images are largely advertisements. For example, Hope perfume. Joy dishwashing detergent, or "Oh what a feeling-Toyota!" People in these advertisements are gleefully happy, surrounded by lovers, leaping into the air in rapturous joy. MYTH #5. Your body is not good enough. Many-if not most-of the women and men we see in the media are slim, muscular and good-looking. We, on the other hand, are always too fat, out-of-shape and smelly-though our friends don't always tell us so forthrightly. MYTH #6. Businesses and corporations are concerned for the public welfare. Given the power of images to shape people’s lives, it is important that students learn to critically analyze these images and how they are being used to influence perceptions of the world. In this course, we will be examining the different literacies involved in understanding and producing these different types of media texts. By understanding these different literacies, you can then develop instruction to help students acquire these literacies (see Module 2 on planning instruction). Another important set of literacies involves uses of e-mail or computer chat. There are two kinds of computer-based exchange formats: synchronous—which is chat in real time, and asynchronous—which involves responding to bulletin board messages. Another advantage of computer exchanges is that students can exchange with not only a partner, but also with a different audiences, including students in other schools. For example, students in the classrooms of Melissa Borgman of North High School in Minneapolis, and Joy Hanson of Eastview High School in Apple Valley, Minnesota, were both studying Their Eyes Were Watching God. Because the students in these schools were from very different worlds—the students at North High School were largely urban African-American students and the students from Apple Valley were largely suburban white students, these two teachers wanted their students to mutually wrestle with issues of racism portrayed in the novel. Students initially shared background information about themselves—their interests, hobbies, extracurricular activities, family, friends, etc. They then exchanged responses to the novel, specifying the topic in the subject line. Students were instructed on ways of replying to responses, perhaps one of the most important elements of fostering exchanges. They were told to first greet their partners and then to respond to specific lines in their partner’s message that they cut and paste into their own message. They were also asked to note if they agree or disagree with their partners’ responses and to give reasons for their agreements or disagreements. Through engaging in on-line peer interactions, students are acquiring a range of different literacies. Analysis of these interactions by Choi and Ho (2003) http://www.readingonline.org/newliteracies/lit_index.asp?HREF=/newliteracies/choi/index.html found evidence of: * Their own thinking (ideas, opinions, and processes) * Their own learning (style, preferences, and processes) * Their own personal, social, and professional stories and experiences, hopes and ideas, and reflective thinking * Issues of personal relevance that range from personal to social to professional * Issues concerning all aspects of teaching, and how these have affected, were affecting, and might affect them personally and professionally Writing in readingonline.org, David O’Brien (2003), argues for the need to juxtapose more traditional school literacies with media literacies to address the issue of adolescents who disengage from print texts in schools: http://www.readingonline.org/newliteracies/lit_index.asp?HREF=/newliteracies/obrien2 Based on his research with disengaged high school students’ high levels of engagement in a high school media literacy project, O’Brien argues that adolescents often use media texts—Internet chat rooms, web-pages, computer games, film/video, music—to construct their own identities as people with high levels of competence in using these media texts: The content and form of popular media culture also implicitly coaches us on how to act and assume role identities -- how to behave like boys and girls, for example, or men and women (Luke, 1997). Hence, one of the key issues in looking at kids’ use of media is to find out what they are learning from media outside of school, to understand how they view their identities as constructions of this cultural pedagogy and how this understanding relates to their school lives. A relatively underdeveloped aspect of this identity work is how the use of media can reframe the way students usually positioned as incompetent modify their identities of competence -- their abilities to tackle challenging tasks, and to persevere in engaging in future similar tasks. He begins with literacies involved in print literacies and uses those to make the transition to media/digital literacies. Print literacies: · Critical reading: Evaluating the source of information and judging authors’ motivations and purposes. · “Higher level” comprehension skills and strategies: Drawing inferences from texts. · Evaluating audiences: Thinking about how readers, as writers, judge the audience in composing a text. · Levels of reading and text structure: Reading the text for literal understanding vs. reading the subtext (the text that isn’t explicit or that holds the meaning “behind” the text). · Writing with an audience in mind: Targeting an audience or anticipating an audience’s choices in pursuing a narrative structure or selecting types of information. Moving from Print Literacies to Media/Digital Literacies: · Critical literacy: “Reading” and writing as cultural practice. The ability to explore subcultural identities as portrayed in media, the ability to critique and re-represent the representation. Mediacy, the ability to create media texts (e.g., Semali & Watts Pailliotet, 1999) Awareness and critique of how youth, as users and consumers of media, contribute to the construction of their own identities and develop agency in deciding which positions to assume (e.g., Alvermann et al., 1999). · Media studies: The ability to critique the media by engaging in literate activities to make sense of media texts and, hence, the world we live in (e.g., Livingstone, 2002); for example, how do TV or the Web portray adolescents? How do the respective media’s delivery methods and attention-getting capabilities work to shape the way the audience responds? What are our roles as audience and users of digital media? · Globalization/marketing: The ability to engage in multiliteracies connected to new capitalism (Gee, 2002) and the ways new technologies and networks work to shape global economic, political, and cultural life; for example, what types of images of youth do the global media create to commodify kids’ values, beliefs, leisure activities (e.g., Nixon, 1998)? How does marketing cause youth to reshape their own images of themselves to feed the global market? · Promoting the use of print text to explain or support the understanding of digital media (e.g., writing about pictures, writing about video clips to explain producers’ intentions and how images work to produce certain responses). · Exploring and critiquing multiple types of representation (juxtaposition of pictures, video, print, using both print and visual representations to convey an idea; e.g., Semali & Watts Pailliotet, 1999). · Inquiry projects: Producing presentations from projects in which print text and media texts are used to explore popular culture topics imported into school as part of academic work. Doing research in the library or media center, doing research on the Web. Planning, storyboarding, and constructing multiple media text presentations that use media to critique media and to show how media constructs who we are. · Opportunities to position, spatially and in terms of relative cultural importance, print texts in relation to other media texts; for example, promoting books with Web-based advertising campaigns, promoting writing that results in Web-based publishing. Rather than using media literacies as an additional tack-on to the curriculum, this suggests the value of integrating media/digital literacies into all aspects of the curriculum. For example, many urban youth engage in literacies associated with hip-hop culture. Ernest Morrell http://www.readingonline.org/newliteracies/lit_index.asp?HREF=/newliteracies/jaal/9-02_column demonstrates how to incorporate the literacies of hip-hop culture with the study of poetry: Given the social, cultural, and academic relevance of hip-hop music, a colleague and I designed a classroom unit that incorporated hip-hop music and culture into a traditional high school senior English poetry unit. We began the unit with an overview of poetry in general, attempting to redefine poetry and the poet's role. We emphasized the importance of understanding the historical period in which a poem was written in order to come to a deep interpretation. In the introductory lecture, we laid out all of the historical and literary periods that would be covered in the unit (e.g., the Elizabethan age, the Puritan Revolution in England, the Civil War, and the Post-Industrial Revolution in the United States). We placed hip-hop music and the Post-Industrial Revolution right alongside other historical and literary periods so that students could use a period and genre of poetry they were familiar with as a lens to examine the other literary works. We also wanted to encourage our students to re-evaluate how they view elements of their popular culture. The second major portion of the unit was the group presentation of a poem and a rap song. The groups were asked to prepare a justifiable interpretation of their poem and song with relation to their specific historical and literary periods and to analyze the links between the two. After a week of preparation, each group was given a class period to present its work and have its arguments critiqued by peers. In addition to the group presentations, students were asked to complete an anthology of 10 poems, 5 of which would be presented at a poetry reading. Finally, students were asked to write a five- to seven-page critical essay on a song of their choice. - learning to critically examine the new media. Much of the hyperbole about the new digital media as transforming the world in positive ways needs to be continually examined and interrogated. The belief that the Web would serve as an information portal has not been fulfilled because much of the Web, as was the case with television, which was originally not a commercial medium, has been highly commercialized. Much of the information provided on the Web is mediated by commercial interests who are more interested in financial gains than in providing relevant, valid information. And, when participation in virtual connections replaces actual face-to-face contact may not necessarily foster healthy social development and personal relationships. These information, media, multicultural, and visual literacies are further described in the next Module 2 and on the 21st Century Literacies site: http://www.kn.pacbell.com/wired/21stcent/index.html The Learning for the 21st Century Report http://www.21stcenturyskills.org/reports/ Media Literacy as Literacy Education (Winston Emery and Lee Rother, Screen Education) http://www.enhancetv.com.au/articles/article9_1.html Activity: List some of the different types of print and non-print media texts that you employ on a regular basis. For each of these media texts, describe the various literacies involved in using these media texts. Then, consider how you would teach students to employ one or more of these literacies based on your own uses of these media texts. Media Education: Different Goals and Approaches All of this makes it necessary to provide a strong justification or rationale for the inclusion of media study into the curriculum—be that English/language arts, social studies, second languages, science, math, art, music, or physical education. In formulating such a justification, you need to consider the particular curriculum goals operating in your school district, as well as the cultural context of the school and community.   In formulating a rationale for media, you also need to recognize that media educators do not all agree on same goals and approaches. Media educators propose a range of different purposes and goals, differences that reflect differences in these theorists’ perceptions of media texts and their role in society (Anderson, 2002; Gitlin, 2001; Kellner, 2000). Throughout this course, you will encounter educators advocating for these different approaches. Siri Anderson (2002): describes three different groups of media education theorists: Media control/intervention: These theorists argue that given the extensive amount of time devoted to media use detracting from reading or social life and given the portrayal of violence, sexuality, or anti-social behaviors, that there is a need for reducing time devoted to media use and greater scrutiny of media content (Postman, 1985; Walsh, 1994). They frequently cite statistics of excessive uses of the media, for example, the following data regarding uses of television: http://www.chamisamesa.net/tvoff.html I. TV Undermines Family Life 1) Amount of television that the average American watches per day: over 4 hours 2) Percentage of US households with at least one television: 98 3) Percentage of US households with exactly two TV sets: 35 4) Percentage of US households with three or more TV sets: 41 5) Time per day that TV is on in an average US home: 7 hours, 40 minutes 6) Percentage of Americans who always or often watch television while eating dinner: 40 7) Chance that an American falls asleep with the TV on at least three nights a week: 1 in 4 8) Percentage of Americans who say they watch too much TV: 49 9) Percentage of US households with at least one VCR: 85 10) Number of videos rented daily in the US: 6 million 11) Number of public library items checked out daily: 3 million 12) Number of hours of media consumed daily by the average American in 1998: 11.8 II. TV Harms Children and Hampers Education 1) Average number of hours per week that American one year-old children watch television: 6 2) Number of hours recommended by the American Pediatric Association for children two and under: 0 3) Average time per week that the American child ages 2-17 spends watching television: 19 hours, 40 minutes 4) Time per week that parents spend in meaningful conversation with their children: 38.5 minutes 5) Hours of TV watching per week shown to negatively affect academic achievement: 10 or more 6) Percentage of children ages 8-16 who have a TV in their bedroom: 56 7) Percentage of those children who usually watch television in their bedroom: 30 8) Percentage of television-time that children ages 2-7 spend watching alone and unsupervised: 81 9) Percent of total television-time that children older than 7 spend without their parents: 95 10) Percentage of children ages 8 and up who have no rules about watching TV: 61 11) Percentage of parents who would like to limit their childrenÌs TV watching: 73 12) Percentage of day care centers that use TV during a typical day: 70 13) Hours per year the average American youth spends in school: 900 14) Hours per year the average American youth watches television: 1,023 15) Percentage of self-professed educational TV that has little or no educational value: 21 16) Chance that an American parent requires children to do their homework before watching TV: 1 in 12 17) Percentage of teenagers 13-17 who can name the city where the US Constitution was written (Philadelphia): 25 18) Percentage of teenagers 13-17 who know where you find the zip code 90210 (Beverly Hills): 75 19) Average time per day American children spend in front of a screen of some kind: 4 hours, 41 minutes 20) Percentage of 4-6 year-olds who, when asked, would rather watch TV than spend time with their fathers: 54 21) Percentage of young adults who admit to postponing their bedtime for the Internet or TV: 55 In his book, Bowling Alone, Robert Putnam (2000) argues that excessive television viewing is related to a decline in civic participation—voting, attending public meetings, or serving in local organizations. Putnam and others argue for the need to reduce reliance on viewing through fostering more critical analysis, presumably leading to reduced time use of the media. Other media controllers/interventionalists promote filtering programs, parental monitoring of viewing, and rating video/computer games (Anderson, 2002). The concerns expressed about the excessive, even additive uses of the media, are certainly important and deserve educators’ attention. One organization that promotes these concerns is the Minneapolis-based National Institute on Media and the Family http://www.mediafamily.org/index.shtml They focus on research related to portrayal of violence in television and video games. One of their studies (2002) found high correlations between television viewing and playing of video games and attitudes towards/display of hostile behaviors (“What Goes In Must Come Out: Children's Media Violence Consumption at Home and Aggressive Behaviors at School” http://www.mediafamily.org/research/report_issbd_2002.shtml): Findings revealed that children who watched more television and played video games more often were more likely to view violence and exhibit hostile attributional biases. Perhaps those spending more time engaged in these media forms have less parent supervision of their activities and viewing material, and the children are left to their own devices. Secondarily, perhaps these children are inadvertently exposed to television violence, due to the sheer number of hours they report spending with these media forms. Hostile attributions were associated with multiple indices of exposure to violent media and teacher and peer ratings of violent behavior. It appears that those children who engage in violent media viewing and play tend to assume the worst in their interactions with others. While the direction of effect is not clear, this finding merits additional investigation. Interventionists cite studies that demonstrate that media literacy activities can reduce potentially harmful effects of TV violence on young viewers. For example, in one study, as a result of a instruction in media literacy, 3rd and 4th graders watched less television and played fewer video games as well as reduced their use of verbal and physical aggression as judged by their peers (Robinson, 2001). Or, a program for juvenile offenders to help them think critically about the consequences of risky behaviors as portrayed in the media helped them adopt more responsible decision-making skills in their own lives. One limitation of this perspective is that, in some versions, it adopts a behavioral perspective on audience uses of the media (see Module 4) that assumes a cause/effect relationship between viewing or media use and certain attitudes or behaviors—that, for example, viewing of violence will lead to violent behavior. It also assumes that it is possible to control adolescents’ media uses, when often attempts to increase control only serves to enhance the value of media as a means of challenging adult authority. In trying to “protect” adolescents from “harmful effects” of the media, educators may not be considering the adolescents’ extensive uses of the media to for pleasure and as a tool for defining their identities. (For a critical analysis of the research on the effects of media violence on children and adolescents, see Kirsch, 2004). On the other hand, it is also important for educators to consider some of the adverse effects of excessive viewing or media use, particularly of violent content. In using various types of media texts, adolescents are making choices about these uses based on reasons why they chose one television show or DVD over another, choices based on peer recommendations, advertising, promotions, availability, reviews, etc. Making informed choices about media use, as opposed to simply watching “whatever’s on,” involves defining modes of engagement with and making judgments about the characteristics of a certain media text—the fact that a computer game is well designed or that a television show has quirky characters. Helping students recognize the ways in which they use the media (through completing media logs) and reasons for media choices helps to foster an awareness of their uses of media. The PBS site: Growing with Media—designed primarily for parents, but useful for teachers, provides information on strategies for helping adolescents examine their own media uses: http://www.pbs.org/parents/issuesadvice/growingwithmedia/teen/index.html For further reading on issues of the influence of the media on behavior, see the 2003 Yearbook from the International Clearinghouse on Children, Youth and Media, Promote or Protect? Perspectives on Media Literacy and Media Regulations, Edited by Cecilia von Feilitzen & Ulla Carlsson (Eds), http://www.nordicom.gu.se/unesco The National Institute on Media and the Family: advocates for more parental control of television viewing practices http://www.mediafamily.org/ CRETV: Center for Research on the Effects of TV CRETV has two components: an archive of television content and a research lab conducting studies of the content of television and its effects on viewers. http://www.ithaca.edu/cretv/ MediaScope: advocates for constructive depictions of health and social issues in the media http://www.mediascope.org/ Teen Health and the Media http://depts.washington.edu/thmedia/ TVTurnoff Network: advocates less TV viewing http://www.tvturnoff.org/ Lots of links on the negative effects of television http://www2.localaccess.com/hardebeck/killtv4.htm Kill Your Television http://www.turnoffyourtv.com/ Websmart Kids: focuses on children’s uses of the Internet http://www.websmartkids.org/ Critical thinking. A second group of identified by Anderson are interested in fostering critical thinking skills, particularly in the English classroom, through critical analysis, interpretation, and production of media (Teasley & Wilder, 1997). These theorists argue that given adolescents’ high level of knowledge and interest in media and film, that media texts can serve as a platform for engaging them in critical analysis, particularly in ways that transfer to analysis of literary texts. These theorists are skeptical of attempts either by media controllers/interventionists to regulate media use. They make the useful argument for the need to integrate media studies throughout the language arts or social studies curriculum around critical thinking skills and thematic issues of concern to adolescents. Teasley and Wilder (1997) describe various ways to integrate films into thematic units in the curriculum. They posit that the critical thinking skills involved in teaching analysis of literature also apply to analysis of media texts, suggesting the value of organizing the curriculum in terms of the critical thinking strategies involved in analysis of all texts, strategies such as inferring perspectives, interrogating biases/value assumptions, and examining author’s or producers’ agendas and motives. This also has more recently involved critical analysis of websites, which often contain misleading or misinformation reflecting certain biases or ideological perspectives. Popular Culture: Resources for Critical Analysis http://www.wsu.edu/~amerstu/pop/tvrguide.html The New Mexico Media Literacy Project http://www.nmmlp.org/ Media Education Organization: European organization http://www.media-educ.org/html/en/default.htm Media Literacy Review, University of Oregon: lots of resources http://interact.uoregon.edu/MediaLit/mlr/home/index.html The Media Literacy Clearinghouse (Frank Baker, webmaster): lots of resources http://www.med.sc.edu:1081/default.htm The National Telemedia Council: America’s oldest media literacy organization http://www.nationaltelemediacouncil.org/ Alliance for Media Literate America: active media education organization (also deals with critical pedagogy perspectives). http://AMLAinfo.org/ Columbia Journalism Review: critical analysis of journalism http://www.cjr.org/ Evaluating information from the World Wide Web Montgomery College Library http://www.mc.cc.md.us/library/webevalintro.htm Cornell Library http://www.library.cornell.edu/okuref/research/skill26.htm Critical pedagogy. A critical pedagogy approach builds on a critical thinking approach but goes beyond that approach to address issues of social justice portrayed in media texts or through uses of media texts that lead to improvements in society. Critical Pedagogy on the Web http://mingo.info-science.uiowa.edu/~stevens/critped/page1.htm Definitions of Critical Media Literacy http://www.21stcenturyschools.com/critical_pedagogy.htm Critical Pedagogy: Who has power and why? http://www.loretonh.nsw.edu.au/Curriculum/pedagogy/critical.html Douglas Kellner, Media Literacies and Critical Pedagogy in a Multicultural Society http://www.gseis.ucla.edu/courses/ed253a/newDK/medlit.htm Martin Ryder: critical theorists: lots of links http://carbon.cudenver.edu/~mryder/itc_data/postmodern.html#resources Cultural Studies database http://eserver.org/theory/ Guerrilla Media: media projects based on social justice http://www.guerrillamedia.org/ Media Reform: critical analysis of issues of media ownership http://www.mediareform.net/ Action Coalition for Media Education: lots of useful resources http://www.acmecoalition.org/resources.html The Center for Public Integrity: watchdog organization on the media http://www.publicintegrity.org/default.aspx FAIR: Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting http://www.fair.org/ Freedom Forum: Focus on free speech/1st Amendment rights http://www.freedomforum.org/ The Independent Media Center http://www.indymedia.org/en/index.shtml The Media Channel http://www.mediachannel.org/ k.i.s.s. of the panopticon  (Keep it simple stupid): cultural studies/critical theory perspectives on the media http://www.geneseo.edu/~bicket/panop/home.htm The Media Monopoly Index http://www.mediaspace.org/MMI/mmi_frame.html Journal of Critical Pedagogy http://www.coedu.usf.edu/chandler/Critical_Pedagogy/critical_pedagogy.html Radical Teacher http://www.wpunj.edu/radteach/ Radical Pedagogy http://radicalpedagogy.icaap.org/ Rethinking Schools http://www.rethinkingschools.org/ In this approach, the teacher’s role is to demonstrate ways to not only interrogate beliefs and ideologies associated with institutions portrayed in texts, but to also link that interrogation to addressing and acting on injustices inherent in these institutions. Students also need to understand how various economic, institutional, and political forces are defining the nature and variety of commercial media, particularly in terms of contemporary media conglomeration of fewer corporations owning more media outlets. Understanding the economics of ownership and control helps them consider the degree to which alternative political or ideological perspectives are being communicated through commercial media, for example the pro-Western values promoting by Disney films (Alvermann, Moon, & Hagood, 1999; Giroux, 1999; Hooks, 1996). A critical pedagogy approach argues that simply analyzing media texts themselves fails to consider the institutional forces shaping the production and audience reaction to texts, particularly in terms of how commercial media institutions promote and shape audience reaction. For a discussion by Justin Lewis and Sut Jhally, “Text vs. Context in Media Literacy: A Continuing Debate” on how media educators should not separate out media texts from the political contexts shaping the production and reception of these texts: http://www.medialit.org/reading_room/article363.html One basic approach in critical pedagogy is to have students study how they are positioned by media texts to adopt certain stances. Elizabeth Ellsworth (1997) describes how texts employ “modes of address” to position readers or viewers to adopt certain desired responses consistent with certain stances For example, a text may position a viewer to adopt a sexist or racist stance which a reader or viewer may accept or reject. In this approach, you ask students, how are you being positioned to respond by the text or context? Do you accept or reject how you are being positioned to respond? In addressing these questions, you are encouraging students to adopt an oppositional stance that resists a text’s implied positions. Stuart Hall (1993) describes three alternative positions readers or viewers may assume relative to the text: 1). Dominant-hegemonic reading: students may simply accept or identify with the dominant value stance without challenging that stance; these students are unlikely to interrogate the text. Students may simply accept what Bakhtin (1986) described as “externally authoritative discourses” or stances because they lack their own “internally persuasive discourse”—a sense of their own agency to challenge dominant stances. 2). Negotiated reading: Students may negotiate or struggle with the dominant stance, applying some of their own value stances. Students assume a more active role in consider the implied stance, but may also accept the implied value stances. They are therefore negotiating the disparities between their own and the text’s implied value stance. 3). Oppositional reading: Students resist, challenge, disagree with, or reject the dominant value stance. Readers and viewers create a “space of difference” (Ellsworth, 1997, p. 84) in which they resist or reject the invited value stance based on allegiances to opposing value stances. Adopting this critical stance involves the ability to perceive the social worlds portrayed in texts as larger institutional systems. As Edelsky notes, "Studying systems—how they work and to what end—focusing on systems of influence, systems of culture, systems of gender relations…being critical means questioning against the frame of system, seeing individuals as always within systems, as perpetuating or resisting systems. Being noncritical…means seeing individuals as outside of…[and] separate from systems and therefore separate from culture and history” (Edelsky, 1999, p. 28). Critical pedagogy approaches in media education are often based on studying issues or problems portrayed in media texts or operating in the media industry. For example, students may study the issue of media coverage of certain events, contrasting, for example, Fox News coverage of an event with that of PBS, National Public Radio, or the New York Times. Inquiry-based instruction revolves around helping students learn to pose tough questions based on their concerns, doubts, and interests; for information on inquiry-based instruction: http://www.roanoke.edu/msci/linksInquiryInstruction.cfm Critical analysis of the media also examines the ways in which media texts employs stereotypical representations of certain groups according to race, ethnicity, class, gender, size, and age, institutions (the family, school, religion, government, business, the law, etc.), roles (teachers, lawyers, law enforcement, fathers/mothers, etc.), regions (“the South,” “the West,” etc.), environments (“the city,” “suburbia,” “small towns,” etc.), and social practices (gambling, shopping, travel, dating, etc.) (see Module 5 on Media Representations). In critiquing these representations, students begin to recognize how these representations do more than simply mirror and shape reality—they serve to create social or cultural realities (Hall, 1997). Media representations of “femininity” as a gendered practice serve to construct cultural notions of what it means to be female in the culture. By understanding the constructed nature of reality, students are more likely to critique the oversimplifications and reductionism in these representations. And, a critical pedagogy approach also involves critical analysis of institutions and political forces shaping the media. For example, students may examine the ideological perspectives reflected on talk-radio programs. An analysis by participants on the PBS News Hour program http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/media/july-dec03/righttalkradio_10-13.html indicated that on the 45 top-rated talk radio stations, there are 310 hours of conservative talk versus 5 hours of talk from a “liberal” perspective. The program cites the example of Rush Limbaugh with an audience of 14 million on 600 stations as having a strong political influence. Some of this conservative bias reflect a change in by the Federal Communications Commission the 1987 when it repealed the so-called "fairness" doctrine that radio stations need to present differing views on controversial issues, no longer requiring them to provide “balance” with both conservative and liberal perspectives. A critical pedagogy approach notes the ways in which larger institutions, in this case, the FCC, is influenced by political organizations and lobby groups, to change their policies to fit the agendas of these organizations and groups, as opposed to the larger public good. It therefore perceived media as very much controlled by commercial and political interests. Art/aesthetic approaches. A fourth approach involves the study of film, television, or media as art forms. Students also need to be able to recognize and appreciate the artistic and aesthetic aspects of film, television, or media. This involves knowing how to evaluate the quality of cinematography, directing, scriptwriting, acting, and casting based on certain criteria for assessing media texts. In making such judgments, students need to be able to cite reasons for their assessment based on knowledge of these criteria. For example, if they note that the director made effective use of close-up shots to display the characters’ faces in a horror film, a student needs to also be able to note that such display of faces contributed to understanding the characters’ conflicts and anguish. Knowing these criteria often involves knowing the norms operating in a particular genre or type of media; knowing the norms of an effective horror genre helps a student judge the uses of close-up shots in that genre. Students need to acquire knowledge of these aspects of production through understanding their purpose—what they are being used to portray or communicate. Inferring the intended purpose can then be used to judge whether that intention has been fulfilled or not (although there is considerable debate as to whether imputed intention can be used as the primary basis for judging artistic quality.) This suggests that having students produce their own media texts helps them understand the relationship between purpose and text. In creating their own ads, students assess the degree to which their intended message has been conveyed in the ad, judgments based on their intentions. One study of preservice teachers use of video productions found that these productions enhanced their understanding and enjoyment of production techniques (“The Pleasure of Movie Making: Reflecting on Integrating Video Production Technologies into The Teacher Education Curriculum,” Journal of Computing in Teacher Education, Spring 2003) http://www.iste.org/jcte/pdfs/te193082hay.pdf Students are most likely to develop appreciation for certain media/film types or genres through extensive exposure to examples of that type or genre so that they can experience the range of difference in quality. They also need to acquire a critical vocabulary for analyzing media texts in order to make judgments about those texts. Such vocabulary can be taught through your modeling your application of the vocabulary to media texts and then letting students engage in their own application. Understanding the artistic quality of media texts also involves studying the historical development of different media forms and genres. Understanding how these forms and genres were transformed through the development of new techniques and tools helps students appreciate the quality of new, transforming uses of techniques and tools. It is also important to understand how changes in media reflect different cultural and historical values—how, for example, television in the 1950s served as a primary force in creating new consumer markets. Activity: These four perspectives differ considerably in their beliefs about and focus on certain aspects of media education. What are your own beliefs about the overall purpose or value of media education? To help clarify your own beliefs, read Renee Hobbs’s discussion of “The Seven Great Debates in the Media Literacy Movement” http://www.medialit.org/reading_room/article2.html Then, formulate your own beliefs as to what you believe to be the most import goals of media education. What students report about what they learn from media education One approach to considering the value of media education is to ask students what they learn from media literacy activities. Mike Gange of Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada asked his high school students at the end of his media literacy course to address the following questions in their journals: "How have you become more media literate? How have you changed since the beginning of this course?” He quoted some of his students’ journal comments: “What I learned in media studies is that the media portrays something that everyone wishes they were. Now I find when I watch TV, I scan what happens and what they do to make things or effects better. I can’t watch TV without critiquing to some extent. A PSA we watched of VIAGRA was hot. They called it the little blue pill and you constantly saw blue in the video. You saw sexually suggestive features in the video that all had some kind of symbolism to it. I can’t just zone out now for a few hours like I used to.” "Since the beginning of the school year, I have changed the way I watch television. I now notice all the little things like camera shots, commercials, and just little things I wouldn’t have thought of or noticed. I am now bombarded with things when I am watching TV." "After taking this media studies class, I still watch the same things I used to watch, but now I watch them differently. I now watch things more critically, and deconstruct things more. I do not particularly enjoy this as I can no longer mindlessly watch a program, I find I am constantly analysing what I see. I blame you for this Mr. Gange!" "Thinking back I can’t believe how much stuff I’ve learned in [Mr. Gange’s] class. I’ve learned that we are completely immersed in advertising and there is no way of escaping it. I was shocked to learn that we, the audience, are sold to advertisers but it kind of makes sense when I think about it. It’s amazing to think how much money companies will pay for just one thirty second add.. I know I’ve learned many other things in the class. Even stuff about classic television, that I thought I’d never remember. We were having supper with one of my dad’s friends and he asked a trivia question about MASH. I was the only one who knew the answer." "I think we have learned a lot of valuable things in this class, like how to express our opinions and that is ok to do it. I’m glad you encouraged freedom of speech and accept opinions of everyone. I like that we have the chance to have class discussions and discuss issues in the world as well as the things we learn. You usually gave us a reason for why we are learning what we are learning. The atmosphere is relaxed and inviting and I think that’s really great." Final Task A school district has decided to revise its entire overall language arts curriculum. The district is under a lot of pressure to go “back to the basics” in order to improve tests scores in reading and writing. The school board is therefore skeptical about focusing on media studies which is perceived to be as “outside” or a deviation from a needed focus on reading and writing “basic skills.” You need to formulate a rationale for teaching media studies that you would present to the school board that identifies specific reasons for why media studies should be taught in the district. To do so, you first need to provide a summary description of the nature of your district’s current curriculum in the subject matter you teach or are/plan to student teach and when as the school’s/community’s presumed attitudes towards the value of media studies (If you are not a teacher, create a fictional summary or use your own high school as an example). In your rationale, you may want to provide some formulation on how you would frame your curriculum content in a manner that serves to bolster your argument. This would include: - formulating the curriculum in terms of 4 literacies students would acquire through participating in the curriculum - the ways in which 2 components of your media studies curriculum would help students acquire these literacies. - the value of acquiring each of these literacies in terms of larger curriculum goals and outcomes (“critical thinking,” “production and understanding of texts,” etc,), particularly in relationship to the language arts curriculum. You will then present your rationale on the chat room to your peers, who, based on your description of the school’s curriculum and community, will provide feedback in terms of whether your rationale is convincing to an audience of administrators and/or parents. In formulating your rationale, you will be evaluated in terms of your ability to: - specify and elaborate on your formulation of the 4 types of literacies that students would acquire through participating in your curriculum. - define specific links between the 2 components of your curriculum with the 4 types of literacies. - specify and clearly connect the components of your media studies curriculum to students acquisition of these literacies. References Alvermann, D., Moon, J., & Hagood. M. (1999). Popular culture in the classroom: Teaching and researching critical media literacy. Newark, DE: International Reading Association/National Reading Conference. Alvermann, D., Young, J., & Green, C. (1997). 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