With so many young people using videogames, cell phones, TVs, iPods, and laptops, I now know why media literacy matters. In our modern world, teenage media use is commonplace and there is no ignoring it or hiding from it. I teach communications and have a master’s degree in telecommunications. I am also a parent. Yet even I get lost in the digital world that my eight year old child embraces, my 13 year old accepts, and my 16 year old uses for constant communication.
Media has changed the way our youth communicate. Today’s kids don’t think about personally walking up to a door to meet their girlfriends or boyfriends. They just call them. A breakup is handled on Facebook or MySpace and it is known before one of the affected parties gets home. All the friends know about it within seconds. Is it right or wrong? I am not one to judge, but it is reality.
Media literacy, which involves teaching young people to critically analyze advertisements on cable, the Internet, cell phones, and iPods, is essential because the media affects everyone. Most students and many adults do not think twice about the digital world. The most common question that I receive on the first day of my class is “Why are we here?” A simple way to explain media literacy is to give an analogy. The best analogy I find is to compare it to food. Food is universal. It is effective for all ages.
Question: If you eat 50 cheeseburgers in a day what will happen?
Answer: You get fat or sick Question: Do you think about what is in the food or how it is made or do you just like the food? Answer: You get a variety of responses, but most just like the food.
Question: Can food be good or bad?
Answer: Again variety of responses, yet most agree food is good or bad.
Summary: The media is like food. You have been around it your whole life. You don’t think about it, but the media can be good or bad, just like your food. The more you know what is in your food and how it is cooked, the better your chances of improved health. The more you know how the media is constructed, and for who, the better your future will be.
Obviously for some older children this analogy may be too simplified, but you would be surprised at the effectiveness. Part of the problem with understanding the importance of media literacy is that many teachers and adults are misinformed when it comes to understanding how the digital world operates. The majority of articles place fear into the minds of many. This in turn creates a negative attitude towards the media and creates conflict between parent and child, as well as between teacher and student. You can tell someone a cheeseburger is bad for his diet, but if he likes cheeseburgers, it is going to be a challenge to get him to listen or care. However, if he learns to make a cheeseburger and see what it is in it, you might develop a change in attitude in your friend. My son experienced a similar change after working a McDonald’s. He has now stopped eating McDonald’s cheeseburgers.
Students are very smart today and are able to navigate through multiple media formats at once. It is common to see someone texting a friend while surfing the internet and listening to music. The electronic media is a pervasive, yet very normal aspect in their lives. Unfortunately many schools still consider the written word as the only valuable form of communication to study. Often, students find these types of classrooms boring. They need a challenge, and media literacy provides not just the framework to how the digital age operates, but it encourages the participation and construction of a variety of media formats. George Lucas, Star Wars producer/creator and chairman of George Lucas Educational Foundation believes the current “English” class needs to be updated into “Communication” class where not only grammatical rules are applied but the language of graphic arts, film and music. "It shouldn't be taught as some esoteric, arty thing. Communication skills should be taught as very practical tools that you use to sell and influence people, to get your point across -- especially in this age, where kids are, more and more, using multimedia."
Incorporating media literacy into the K-12 curriculum assures us that students, as well as parents and teachers, are not just passive consumers but active producers. Creating and collaborating with one another using a student- centered teaching approach that interests and motivates the students while allowing for critical thinking across all curriculums, should improve overall academic performance.
To learn how to incorporate media literacy into your classroom, I encourage you to attend Drug Free Pennsylvania’s media literacy conference this summer called “The Critical Eye on the Media.” For more information about the conference, visit www.medialitpa.org.