Why did the authors do this study?
The authors wanted to find out how teaching media skills affect students’ ability to identify certain things within a written, audio, and visual media source.
How did the authors do the study?
The authors picked a yearlong junior English media/communication course that incorporated extensive critical media analysis of print, audio, visual texts and compared those students to ones from a demographically matched group who received no instruction in critically analyzing media messages. Each group of students were asked to respond to questions regarding a print newsmagazine article, a U.S. National Public Radio (NPR) audio news commentary, and a television news segment targeted at teenagers. Comprehension, writing skills, and analysis skills were measured.
What data/results emerged from the study?
The pretest scores were used as a covariant, or varying in accordance with a strict mathematical relationship, and the posttest scores were the dependent measures. Results from the study suggests that media literacy instruction improves students’ ability to identify main ideas in written, audio, and visual media, as well as, an improved ability to identify the purpose, target audience, point of view, construction techniques used in media messages, and the ability to identify omitted information from a news media broadcast in written, audio, or visual forms.
What do the authors conclude from the data analysis?
The authors of this study stated that there are substantial weaknesses to the research that limit the value of the study. Because of the limitations of this research, it is impossible to make generalizations to other instructional contexts, but as far as the area of the study is concerned with the print, audio, and visual media outlets, students with media literacy instruction incorporated in their learning has better analysis skills than those students who receive no instruction. “Students who received media-literacy instruction were more likely to recognize the complex blurring of information, entertainment, and economics that are present in contemporary nonfiction media” (Hobbs & Frost, 2003).
What is the significance of the study?
This study shows the importance of teaching media literacy skills as not only instruction on the analysis of printed material, which is considered as the exclusive form for the representation of knowledge and expression within the classroom, but as well as visual and auditoria forms of media. Visual and electronic messages are now central aspects of contemporary culture, they are still often ignored or treated superficially in the classroom, and this study showed the importance of incorporating other media outlets besides print within the curriculum.
How do these findings influence your position on media literacy and school curriculum?
The findings of this research only emphasized my position on media literacy and school curriculum. Students need these skills in order to become better analyzers, if not just to be better critical thinkers.
Reference:
Hobbs, R., & Frost, R. (2003, September). Measuring the acquisition of media-literacy skills. Retrieved September 23, 2011, from www.aeforum.org: http://www.aeforum.org/aeforum.nsf/8f28d4e3625611a780256c5100355eb9/e5b3dcb7858a818780256f390044f8db/$FILE/RRQ12004.pdf
Very true, this is one of the things I see lacking in my kids and others. I have stressed this to my daughter and have tried to help her learn the importance of critical thinking. She has learned to use it on testing and it has made a big difference.
ReplyDeleteHopefully the recent changes to the WESTEST that have put an emphasis on critical thinking will help make changes in school curriculum that allow for more media literacy activities.
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