Hobbs, R. (1998). The seven great debates in the media literacy movement. Journal of Communication, 48(1), 16-32.

Johnson, S. (2005). Everything bad is good for you. New York: Riverhead Books. 

Definition:  Hobbs uses Aufderheide's 1993 definition of media literacy and then expands on it: "It is a term used by a growing number of scholars and educators to refer to the process of critically analyzing and learning to create one's own messages in print, audio, video, and multimedia" (p. 16).  I was reminded of a statistic from the Pew Internet and American Life Project: Some 57% of teens have created some kind of content on the Internet from a webpage to a video to a blog.  And rather than helping the teens figure out how to do this type of creation safely and creatively, many schools are simply banning it.  Some are even attempting to punish students for the things they produce outside of school.  

Seven Great Debates:

Hobbs points out that media literacy has a "broad definition and range of application" (p. 16).  This diversity can cause disagreement and thus the 7 great debates:

1. Should media literacy education aim to protext children and young people from negative media literacy? Hobbs suggests that this notion of protection may be simply rhetorical, a reaction to "the inability of adults to control children's access to the media" (p. 19).  Bazalgette says that the assumption is that students who are taught media literacy won't be taken in by the manipulations of the media: "Media education, in this scenario, is the pedagogic equivalent of a tetanus shot" (quoted in Hobbs, p. 19). Hobbs goes on to say, "Many teachers at both the K-12 and university levels have found that students are unresponsive to the idea that they are helpless victims of media influence who need to be rescued fromt he excesses and evils of their interest in popular culture" (p. 19). In fact, in his recent book Everything Bad is Good for You, Stephen Johnson makes the argument that "popular culture has, on average, grown more complex and intellectually challenging over the past thirty years" (p. xiii).  Indeed, the digital natives who have grown up in the shadow of the Internet and video games expect much more from their media than ever before.  Tom Friedman tells the story of the video gamer who prefers to play Koby Bryant in the NBA video game than watch Koby Bryant play "real" basketball because when he plays Koby, he can make Koby pass, something he evidently doesn't do all that much for real.

2. Should media production be an essential feature of media literacy education?  One quick note here that shows the changing times.  Hobbs writes about the limitations of video production, "For example, video and multimedia production often requires more equipment, classroom time, personnel, and teacher training than is available in many schools" (p. 20).  The availability of sophisticated but easy to use software such as iMovie allows almost anyone to create video using a laptop and a camera.

3. Should media literacy focus on popular culture texts?  In his media and society courses, Jacobs used what he called "strange texts" including the film Space Traders and an episode of The X-Files. 

4. Should media literacy have a more explicit political and ideological agenda?  Lessig says we have a "second best" world; would making media literacy more political lead towards a first rate world?  In his classroom, Jacobs wanted to create a true democracy. When media literacy focuses on popular culture in which students are much more expert than teachers, it can bring about new kinds of classroom environments.  The problem is that both liberals and conservatives have ideas about media literacy and teachers do not see themselves as forces for change: "Instead, teacher generally value the concept of promoting students' critical autonomy, which is the process of internalizing the tools of self-reflection, critical analysis, and communication for one's own purposes and motives.  The pluralism that underlies this argument invites teachers to maximize the students' potential for discovery and the realizaiton of personal, social, or political action without pushing a specific agenda on students" (p. 23).  Since the teacher often chooses the texts, however, some form of agenda may creep in with the media itself.

5. Should media literacy be focused on school-based K-12 educational environments?  Hobbs questions whether schools could really change in the radical ways demanded by media literacy: "For example, instead of reading eight classic novels in the 10th grade, how many communities will accept the practice of students reading four books, studying two filsm, and analyzing a newsmagazine and a website" (p. 24).

6. Should media literacy be taught as a specialist subject or integrated within the context of existing subjects?  I think it gets taught as a specialist subject because the content area teachers don't want to make the necessary changes to successfully integrate media literacy into their courses. 

7. Should media literacy initiatives by supported financially by media organizations? The worry here is that media organizations may not have a stake in looking at ways to really critically analyze what they are doing: "Some believe that media organizations are effectively taking the antimedia stand out of the media literacy movement to serve their own goals, co-opting the media literacy movement and softening it to make sure their public criticism of the media never gets too loud, abrasive, or strident" (p. 26).

Jacobs, W.R. (2005). Speaking the lower frequencies: Students and media literacy. Albany, NY: State University of New York.

This was the first book to arrive so I dove in.  Jacobs describes some undergraduate courses "media and society" courses he taught at University of Indiana.  He constructed the courses around the concept of the Pensieve, created by JK Rowling in the 4th Harry Potter book.  This stone basin filled with water stores human ideas and experiences.  Users can enter the basin to critically examine these ideas.  So, Jacobs wanted his class to be just such a place where "the instructor deconstructs the participants' (instructor and students) understandings in a way that makes invisible components visible.  Specifically, instructors establish themselves as models for possible articulation of ideas and experiences in a particular time and place, in such a way that students can explore these ideas and experiences in other times and places" (p. 2).  He outlines the three EXs: "teachers expose students to multiple narratives that involves the teachers' own lived experiences, explode those narratives into their constitutive parts based on structural locations (race, class, gender, sexual orientation, etc.), and explicate possible new narratives that explore implications of combination of the constitutive parts" (p. 2).  Using this new form, Jacobs suggests, will make the classroom more democratic and encourage students to be critical and engaged citizens.

I'll comment on the book further in future posts, but right now, I'm still digesting.  My graduate work so far has been pretty non-controversial.  Critical pedagogy was mentioned as part of a curriculum course, and I am familiar with more traditional ethnography, but Jacobs gave me a much wider vision of media literacy than I think I had before.  Plus, Jacobs uses lots of words I've heard, possibly used myself, yet don't have firm definitions for: postmodern, heuristic, and hermeneutics.  He quotes Kellner quite a bit on media culture so he is next on my list.

Here's one quote from Jacobs: "I try to teach students that in late modern/postmodern conditions electronically mediated discourse is integral to the production of reality" (p. 99).  And Jacobs quotes Kellner, who uses an idea of media that I really like: "Media culture not only takes up always-expanding amounts of time and energy, but also provides ever more material for fantasy, dreaming, modeling thought and behavior, and identities" (p. 99).

From the Editor's Note, March 1998 edition of Journal of Communication dealing with media literacy:

"Media literacy, then, is about understanding the sources and technologies of communication, the codes that are used, the messages that are produced, and the selection, interpretation, and impact of those messages."

Christ, W.G., & Potter, J.W. (1998). Media literacy, media education, and the academy. Journal of Communication, 48(1), 5-15.

The introductory essay in the Media Literacy Symposium discusses conceptual and application issues. The central conceptual issue is the definition of media literacy. Christ and Potter list the following uses of the term:

• public policy issue
• critical and cultural issues
• set of pedagogical tools for teachers
• suggestions for parents
• "McLuhanesque" speculation
• topic of scholarly inquiry from a physiological, cognitive or anthropological tradition
• applied to study of textual interpretation, context and ideology and audience
• used synonymously with media education

Both terms–media and literacy–are contested. Media can refer to oral and written language, still and moving images, television, computers, or multimedia. Literacy is also being debated: what does it mean to be literate?

The National Leadership Conference on Media Literacy (1992) defined literacy as the ability "to access, analyzse, evaluate and communicate messages in a variety of forms" (Aufderheide, 1993, p. xx). A media literate person can "decode, evaluate, analyze, produce both print and electronic media" (Auferheide, 1997, p. 79). Also, the report suggested that media:

• are constructed and construct reality
• have commercial implications
• have ideological and political implications
• form and content are related in each medium "each of which has a unique aesthetic, codes, and concvention" (Aufderheid, 1997, p. 80).

Media literacy is more than just skills; it is the "acquisition of knowledge structures, especially about the media industries, general content patterns, and a broad view of effects" (Christ and Potter, p. 8). Potter also argues that media literacy is not just cognitive but also requires aesthetic, emotional and moral development.The application issues related to media literacy address curriculum, teaching, and assessment. Christ and Potter identify three questions: what is the purpose of the curriuclum? how should media literacy fit into the curriculum? and waht are the key elements or principles of media literacy that should be taught? For instance, many emphasize training students to be part of the media industries. But there are larger issues of media literate citizens and consumers who challenge the role of media rather than working for it.

Another debate involves the concept of practitioner. Should students be taught to produce media? Will knowing how make students more analytical or just lead the to be "seduced by and to imitate television" (p. (p. 1). In other words, do we want to teach them to produce in order to preserve the status quo or do we want to teach them to be critical consumers who will lead to change? In terms of teaching, media literacy is associated with a more democratic, nonhierarchical classroom. Finally, there are questions associated with assessment: what are the objectives and how do we know if they've been reached?

Aufderheide, P. (Ed.). (1993). Media literacy: A report of the national leadership conference on media literacy. Aspen, CO: Aspen Institute.

Aufderheide, P. (1997). Medi literacy: From a report of the national leadership conference on media literacy. In R. Kubey (Ed.), Media literacy in the information age (pp. 79-86). New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction.