Final Project: Media Literacy Crisis PSA

Annotated Bibliography

Lewin, T. (2010, January 20). If your kids are awake, they're probably online. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/20/education/20wired.html

Those ages 8 to 18 spend more than seven and a half hours a day with such devices…And that does not count the hour and a half that youths spend texting, or the half-hour they talk on their cellphones. And because so many of them are multitasking — say, surfing the Internet while listening to music — they pack on average nearly 11 hours of media content into that seven and a half hours.

Hobbs, R. (1998). The seven great debates in the media literacy movement. Journal of Communication, 16. Retrieved from http://myweb.wwu.edu/karlberg/444/readings/sevendebates.pdf

Students [need] practice analyzing the texts that are part of their ordinary viewing experience. If children can be taught to deconstruct media texts, the magic mantra goes, then they won't be taken in by the fantasy, seduced by the violence, or manipulated by commercial ploys. Media education, in this scenario, is the pedagogic equivalent of a tetanus shot.

nb5619. (2010, October 25). Learn critical thinking through media literacy education [Web log message]. Retrieved from http://medialiteracycolloquium.wordpress.com/2010/10/25/learn-critical-thinking-through-media-literacy-education/

Her book applies critical thinking to five media literacy questions (Summers, 2005, pp. 8-9):

1)    Who created the message? – This helps students think about the author, his/her point of view, and the intended audience.

2)    What is the message? – “Thinking skills include investigation of writing style, word choice, and image; determination of whether the message is fact or opinion, fiction or nonfiction” and more.

3)    How was the message delivered? – This can focus on the context and genre of the message and how it captures audience attention.

4)    What is the impact of the message on me? – This involves personal reflection, helping students judge the reliability of the message.

5)    What is the impact of the message on society? – This helps students to “draw conclusions, make inferences, predict, and judge the worth of a message.”

It is beneficial to all participating: students develop critical thinking skills and learn about media literacy; students use their critical thinking skills to score higher on standardized tests; school districts therefore have stronger test scores and more government funding. It is a cycle that teachers must take part in. Rather than teaching facts, teachers can use Lockwood’s ideas to give students something more valuable than good test scores; they can impart critical thinking skills through media literacy education.

Worsnop, C. M. (1989). Media literacy through critical thinking. Ontario: Queen’s Printer.Retrieved from http://depts.washington.edu/nwmedia/sections/nw_center/curriculum_docs/stud_combine.pdf

Here is a partial list of media:

ß Movies, radio, video, television, theater, recorded music

ß Newspapers, magazines, junk mail, advertising, comic books

ß Computer software, video games, the Internet

The following are examples of media texts in popular culture:

ß Coffee shops, including the pictures, posters, room layout, even the logos on

their products;

ß Sports events, including all the souvenirs used to promote and celebrate

sports and sports personalities.

Media Literacy Project. (n.d.). Language of persuasion. Retrieved from http://medialiteracyproject.org/language-persuasion

The goal of most media messages is to persuade the audience to believe or do something. Hollywood movies use expensive special effects to make us believe that what we’re seeing is real. News stories use several techniques – such as direct quotation of identified sources – to make us believe that the story is accurate.

The media messages most concerned with persuading us are found in advertising, public relations and advocacy. Commercial advertising tries to persuade us to buy a product or service. Public relations (PR) "sells" us a positive image of a corporation, government or organization. Politicians and advocacy groups (groups that support a particular belief, point of view, policy, or action) try to persuade us to vote for or support them, using ads, speeches, newsletters, websites, and other means. These "persuaders" use a variety of techniques to grab our attention, to establish credibility and trust, to stimulate desire for the product or policy, and to motivate us to act (buy, vote, give money, etc.) We call these techniques the "language of persuasion.”

They’re not new; Aristotle wrote about persuasion techniques more than 2000 years ago, and they’ve been used by speakers, writers, and media makers for even longer than that. Learning the language of persuasion is an important media literacy skill. Once you know how media messages try to persuade you to believe or do something, you’ll be better able to make your own decisions.

Some persuasive techniques are:

1.       Bandwagon

2.       Celebrity

3.       Experts

4.       Repetition

5.       Testimonials, and so on

Week Fourteen: Finished Digital Story

Double Entry Journal 13

Question 1: Should media education have an explicit political and ideological agenda?

           I believe that media education should have an explicit political and ideological agenda, because media education should incorporate the inner workings of the things that students see through a variety of multi-media sources. This way, students will be able to gather information and be able to aptly apply it to whatever decisions they may make on the subject. We want our students to be critical thinkers, and not people who follow the crowd. Popular culture would be an excellent tool to help attract students to the curriculum. It’s something they know, and it makes the subject material relevant to their daily lives.

Question 2: Based on your reading to date in this course, would you teach critical media literacy in the classroom?  Why or why not? 

            I don’t think I would teach all of the subject matter necessary to inform and create critical thinkers in the classroom; it would take a whole semester to cover everything. However, I would incorporate certain aspects in my class, such as what Hobbs’s stated in his article as “key concepts that are essential instructional points to be explored whenever media texts are used in the classroom (Hobbs, 1998):

1.      Media messages are constructed

2.      Media messages are produced within economic, social, political, historical, and aesthetic contexts

3.      The interpretative meaning-making processes involved in message reception consist of an interaction between the reader, the text, and the culture

4.      Media have unique “languages,” characteristics which typify various forms, genres, and symbol systems of communication

5.      Media representations play a role in people’s understanding of social reality”

These concepts are the essential to media literacy instruction within the classroom. We, as teachers, must be able to help students analyze multi-media sources they use and see every day. In order to “prepare students for the emerging information age, we must help them comprehend and communicate through both traditional and emerging technologies” (Semali, 2001).

There is media out there that tells students how to dress, behave, feel, and how much they should weigh. These negative influences that diminish students’ self-esteem need to be sifted out in a safe environment, such as a classroom. Teachers can educate students on media literacy by introducing them to the following questions that they should ask themselves when facing a media outlet (nb5619, 2010):

1.      Who created the message?

2.      What is the message?

3.      How was the message delivered?

4.      What is the impact of the message on me?

5.      What is the impact of the message on society?

“Critical literacy gives individuals power over their culture and thus enables people to create their own meanings and identities and to shape and transform the material and social conditions of their culture and society” (Kellner & Share, 2005).

Reference:

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

Kellner, D., & Share, J. (2005). Toward critical media literacy: Core concepts, debates, organizations, and policy. Discourse: studies in the cultural politics of education, 26(3), 369-386. Retrieved from nb5619. (2010, October 25). Learn critical thinking through media literacy education [Web log message]. Retrieved from http://medialiteracycolloquium.wordpress.com/2010/10/25/learn-critical-thinking-through-media-literacy-education/

nb5619. (2010, October 25). Learn critical thinking through media literacy education [Web log message]. Retrieved from http://medialiteracycolloquium.wordpress.com/2010/10/25/learn-critical-thinking-through-media-literacy-education/

Semali, L. (2001, November). Defining new literacies in curricular practice. Reading Online, 5(4). Available: http://www.readingonline.org/newliteracies/lit_index.asp?HREF=semali1/index.html

Week Twelve: Digital Story

Double Entry Journal 11

Quote:

“some of the purposes driving the uses of digital tools in this course:

• building social relationships 
• learning argumentative writing
• collaboratively constructing responses to media texts
• critically analyzing media representations 
• analyzing genre conventions in print and media texts
• understanding how audiences construct meanings through media ethnographies”

(Beach, 1953)

Reaction:

It seems like you would have to have an entire semester class that focuses on digital and media literacy, in order to cover all the aspects and skills needed to understand and decipher the literature that is presented to our students daily. I find it hard to pick out the key concepts of what students should learn about media literacy. Ultimately, they need to know what they can and cannot believe, and how to find out the truth when they are given information.

Reference:

Beach, R. (1953). An american perspective: justifying uses of digital tools to foster critical media literacy. The Journal of Media Literacy, Retrieved from http://www.journalofmedialiteracy.org/index.php/current-issue/145-an-american-perspective-justifying-uses-of-digital-tools-to-foster-critical-media-literacy

Related Resource:

I found a website that is a good resource for teachers who want to use digital tools within their curricula:

Digital Tools for Teachers

Digital tools for teachers [Web log message]. (2011, July 17). Retrieved from http://digitaltoolsforteachers.blogspot.com/

Week Eleven: Storyboard

Double Entry Journal 10

Quote:

“The seven elements of digital storytelling:

1.      Point of View—what is the perspective of the author?

2.      A Dramatic Question—a question that will be answered by the end of the story.

3.      Emotional Content—serious issues that speak to us in a personal and powerful way.

4.      The Gift of Your Voice—a way to personalize the story to help the audience understand the context.

5.      The Power of the Soundtrack—music or other sounds that support the storyline.

6.      Economy—simply put, using just enough content to tell the story without overloading the viewer with too much information.

7.      Pacing—related to Economy, but specifically deals with how slowly or quickly the story progresses. (Robin, 2005)”

Reflection:

This was very helpful to me when trying to create my storyboard from the interview with my grandmother. I didn’t know that there was supposed to be a dramatic question that is answered through the digital story.

Reference:

Robin, B. R. (2005). The educational uses of digital storytelling. Retrieved from http://digitalliteracyintheclassroom.pbworks.com/f/Educ-Uses-DS.pdf

Related Resource:

I found this website, which helped me with more of my questions about Digital Stories. Within this website, it also explained the different elements of a digital story, like the one I quoted above.

Frequently Asked Questions about Digital Stories 

Barrett, H. C. (2011, June 03). Frequently-asked questions about digital storytelling. Retrieved from http://electronicportfolios.com/digistory/faq.html 

Week Ten: Historical Interview

Week Nine: Who I'm Interviewing and Why

I'm going to be interviewing my grandmother, Phyllis Christine VanGilder, who was married to a military man during World War II. She raised 6 children of her own and was the oldest of 11 brothers. When her mom died at an early age, she was left to take care of her father, her brothers, and eventually her children. She is a strong woman, and has a huge history to tell.

Double Entry Journal 9

Quote:

“Storytelling is a tool for preserving memory, writing history, learning, entertaining, organizing, and healing in communities of color. It is in the telling of stories that communities build identities, construct meaning, and make connections with others and the world” (Raimist, Doerr-Stevens & Jacobs, 2011).

Reflection:

I love doing digital stories. With this tool and technique in the classroom, one can learn so much about their students and their experiences of life. I enjoyed making my own digital story for an undergraduate course in college. It’s not a boring, traditional assignment. It’s one that students really enjoy doing and sharing with other classmates.

Reference:

Raimist, R., Doerr-Stevens, C., & Jacobs, W. (2011). The pedagogy of digital storytelling in the college classroom. seminar.net, 7(1), Retrieved from http://www.seminar.net/index.php/home/75-current-issue/145-the-pedagogy-ofdigital-storytelling-in-the-college-classroom

Related Resource:

This is my digital story that I did in one of my undergraduate classes:

Where I am From

Week Seven: Lesson Plan Student Example

Help Wanted

Adjective wanted to improve vocabulary. Qualified adjective must have ability to describe nouns. Apply in sentence.

Radio Script: What would life be like if we didn’t have nouns? Well I’ll tell you. We wouldn’t know what anything or who anyone was! The world would be in chaos. That’s for sure! So buy nouns today and name your object. As an added bonus, buy a noun and get a preposition free. Show the relationship between your noun and another word!

Radio Script: Verbs you just can’t “do” without them. We’re part of your life. When your noun needs an action, chances are you’ve used us. Verbs—that’s what we do!

TV Commercial: Two complete thoughts and only one period? Call a conjunction, but don’t wait too long. Join over thousands of school kids who’ve made conjunctions their #1 choice for combining two complete thoughts!

Billboard:

When your noun is tired, call the professional

Pronoun
“We take the place of a noun”

Newspaper advertisement:

Isn’t it time for an interjection?

Wow! Golly! Gosh!

When plain words just aren’t enough.
Take one home TODAY!

Classified newspaper advertisement:

For Giveaway: Adverbs *Describe your verb and other adverbs* Gently, quietly, softly and slowly just to name a few. Call your language teacher.

Double Entry Journal 8

Quote:

“Unfortunately, some see media literacy as option for low-performing, underachieving students whose interest can be piqued by TV and nothing else” (Hobbs, 1996).

Reflection:

I can’t believe that some educators believe that media literacy is just an outlet for low-performing students. There are many other ways to get a student engaged, other than resorting to media literacy. This quote really astounded me. Don’t get me wrong, I do believe that media literacy should be taught within the school; however, it shouldn’t be used as a tool just to engage students in learning. For example, in my class, we are making rollercoasters to show Newton’s three laws of motion and to learn equations.

Reference:

Hobbs, R. (1996). Teaching media literacy. In E. Dennis and E. Pease (Eds.), Children and the media. New Brunswick: Transaction Press (pp. 103-111). Retrieved from http://www.medialit.org/reading-room/teaching-media-literacy-yo-are-you-hip

Related Resource:

The related resource I found dealt with teaching media literacy in a lesson plan centered around the occurrences of 9/11. I thought that this might be a good idea, since September is towards the beginning of the school year, and it would combine history that happened during the student’s lifetime.

Garfunkel, J. (n.d.). Media literacy in a post 9/11 world. Retrieved from http://www.hrusa.org/september/activities/medialiteracya.htm