Monthly Archives: May 2006

Speaking the Lower Frequencies

Media Literacy

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).

Media Literacy, Media Education and the Academy

Media Literacy

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.

Googling Media

Media

I am waiting for several books to arrive from Amazon. While I wait, I decided to see what Google has to say. Microsoft Windows Media Player shows up first on the list when you google "media," and Media Matters, a liberal media watchdog group, is second. Their purpose, "Media Matters for America is a Web-based, not-for-profit, 501(c)(3) progressive research and information center dedicated to comprehensively monitoring, analyzing, and correcting conservative misinformation in the U.S. media." They track what conservatives, including Rush Limbaugh and Pat Robertson, have to say on certain topics.

The results for "feminism" included 13 items over the past 2 years, mostly from Limbaugh but also from Tucker Carlson and Bill O'Reilly. I really never thought of Limbaugh as being part of "the media," which I associate primarily with journalists. Limbaugh is not reporting on the news; his is strictly commentary of a mean-spirited variety, and I guess I wonder why anyone even takes him seriously enough to quote him. Ditto for Bill O'Reilly…the worst of the potty-mouthed bigots gets a microphone. Quoting them only makes them seem legitimate. As for Carlson, I guess I had a vague sense that he was more respectful, which just goes to show the level of uncivil discourse that we have reached in this country.

Then, I start to wonder which website is the liberal watchdog? So, I added the words "liberal watchdog" to my media search and discovered Media Research Center, "the leader in documenting, exposing and neutralizing liberal media bias." They have a Notable Quotables page in which they track the outrageous things said in the liberal media.

Finally, there is a seemingly non-partisan, global site called MediaChannel. They are political, however, as they point out that nine multi-national corporations own most of the media on the planet. They are "concerned with the political, cultural and social impacts of the media, large and small. MediaChannel exists to provide information and diverse perspectives and inspire debate, collaboration, action and citizen engagement."

These sites focus on "the media." What makes up that amalgam? Certainly, the traditional newspapers and news programs, supplemented by the 24-hours cable news channels. They all have websites, too, of course. Then, there are the bloggers, who are being invited to cover events just like regular journalists. And, of course, regular journalists blog, too. What about Rocketboom? And the Onion? And The Daily Show? I suppose all the Hollywood entertainment shows fit here as well.

Hello world!

Education

This blog is part of an independent study in the School of Education at the College of William and Mary.  I will be spending the summer doing a readings course in media and media literacy with Troy Davis, Director of the Media Center at Swem Library.  I will use the blog to comment on the readings and create an annotated bibliography.   I will also be using a wiki to begin developing a media literacy curriculum for K-12.