Week/Module 1 Readings

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When I first started this class a few days ago, I had absolutely no clue what media literacy was and, therefore, why it is important; but within a few days, it is safe to say I have already learned some new ideas!  As defined by Jane Tallim in her exert What is Media Literacy?, “media literacy is the ability to sift through and analyze the messages that inform, entertain and sell to us every day. It’s the ability to bring critical thinking skills to bear on all media”.  Media literacy covers any and all forms of mass media from music videos and online social media to commercials and billboards; and with the media literally everywhere we look in our culture and generation, it is no wonder why the importance of media literacy requires an upper division course of its own!  Jennifer Ladner, co-founder of Screen Savvy Kids, described how media literacy allows children and families to become more aware of both intended and unintended media messages.  Through media literacy, children learn to create and think critically about these media messages and these skills allow them to take control of the media that surrounds their everyday lives instead of letting it control them (Ladner).

As an Early Childhood Studies major, I have always been concerned about the impact the media has on our youth.  There are so many messages being sent both directly and subtly from our numerous media sources that our culture is becoming confused as to what is realistic and what is expected of us on a daily basis.  I was shocked to discover in Ladner’s article Why Media Literacy is so Important for Children Today that the American Academy of Pediatrics has noted that children spend more time with various media than they do in any other daily activity other than sleeping, an average of 7 hours per day, to be exact; and among the many health concerns, various studies suggest a strong relationship between high exposure to violence in the media and aggressive behavior.  The American Academy of Pediatrics has also found a strong correlation between heavy television viewing and obesity, substance use, and increased sexual activity at younger ages.  Additionally,  studies have shown that children with a television in their bedroom are 31 percent more likely to smoke and many children have a television in their bedroom by the age of three. (Ladner)

With all the children I have worked with over the years, and there have been many due to all the student teaching I’ve had to complete, I have noticed that the saying “Monkey see, monkey do” is beyond accurate with the younger generations.  Even as a child myself, I saw certain people on popular shows like MTV’s TRL that I wanted to be exactly like.  I wanted to dress like them, I wanted to talk like them, I wanted to be these people that were so popular and famous… so I did.  If it wasn’t for my fascination with Blink 182 and other punk/rock musicians, there’s a chance I could have been a pretty girly-girl; but instead I felt the need to own nothing but black band shirts, dark jeans and Converse or Vans shoes.  Now, I’m 25 years old, and even if I buy a green or pink shirt that I like, I will probably only wear it once and then allow my closet’s dust bunnies to create a forever-home.  Why? Because once upon a time in elementary school, I was given a personal “message” about what it took to be cool; but, hey, it brought me to who I am today!

There are so many ways to view and therefore teach media literacy, and in our technologically advanced culture, mass media and advertising messages are literally everywhere.  After reading Zaslow and Butler’s 3 Models of Media Literacy, the model that appealed to me the most was the Ideological Analysis Model, where youth are taught to question the naturalness of media representations and to identify hidden messages in the media.  Analysis in this model focuses on how media support and reproduce dominant ideologies about difference and culture (Zaslow & Butler, 2002).  This model sticks out to me the most because rather than shelter or hide or children from the media surrounding their worlds, we need to accept what’s taking place and talk to them about what they are seeing or hearing.  On the other hand, we don’t want to over expose the children without any discussions whatsoever because that could allow the wrong messages to enter into our youth’s minds for the worst.  By teaching children to question what is going on around them, they can then question what can be done as a result.  I have always loved working with children because they ultimately are the future of not only our country, but our entire world; so if we want to see any positive changes, we need to educate the people that will be making the decisions during those times: our children and youth.

The importance of media literacy has finally made sense to me, thanks to our first model.  Now I feel like I can actually understand what this class is all about and why we are taking the time to understand the value of media literacy and its impact on our culture and youth!

Reflection on module 1 readings (GROUP 5)

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Currently, society as a whole has involved itself with media literacy in such a way that it is inescapable. Yet, how is society using this social tool to its advantages in influencing the development of individual growth within humans? Survey says: Jersey shore. No, it is theory of combining both media literacy and education that will further allow people to be more self-aware. Such a notion is powerful because of the possibility to negate current thought processes in to new progressive thoughts. Therefore, media literacy allows individuals to critically challenge structural norms (Bowen, 1996). Although, sadly to say our current culture does not seek to establish change, but rather insight non progressive thoughts. Such thoughts can be seen in our daily news that include the demand to report on violence, sex, and nonsense that build heuristics thoughts within individuals. Yet, if one were to be educated within media literacy, visual cues seen would than be questioned on the purpose of presented stimuli. Thus, media literacy is necessary towards allowing individuals to focus on ideologies that lead enlightenment.  – Sebas

  • We are born to learn, only to unlearn so we can be born again.  – ivr

 

Reflection on Module 1 reading

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When talking about media literacy one must first know the definition, “the expected outcome from work in either media education or media study. The more you learn about or through the media, the more media literacy you have. Media literacy is the skill of experiencing, interpreting/analyzing and making media products (Wally Bowen, 1996). Being media literate in 2016 is important for many reasons one being job placement. Almost every job now requires some sort of media literacy. After living in Las Vegas for eight years I am used to this being a job requirement. Using social media to send out party invite blasts, guest list invites, opening night reminders to the public and many other social media posts it is almost a prerequisite I am expecting when starting a job. Since most jobs are now expecting candidates to be media literate shouldn’t media study be taught in grade school? Yes under supervision and guidance but still taught at a younger age where people can absorb the information in their youth making the skill almost like breathing, effortless. There is a lot of controversy about appropriateness when it comes to youth and what they view through media, popular culture. “American children face, problems like lack of a quality education, violence victimization, early pregnancies, single parenthood, and obesity, poverty plays a starring role; popular culture is a bit player at best” (Karen Sternheimer, 2013). I agree that there are bigger problems in the United States then popular culture. The list Karen Sternheimer gave in this one particular quote is enough to write an entire paper on in itself. The lack of concern and funding for education there is in the United States is sad to say the least. Then when you look outwards it becomes an even bigger sadness. The way we could get the issue know is through media awareness, however possible. Instead TV channels and other media outlets are more concerned with making money on advertisements, politics and numerous other things.

Infants using different types of media for “babysitting” purposes is damaging. Using electronics such a leap frogs, nintendo, TV, etc becomes addicting for children. Another report by the American Academy of Pediatrics notes that “children spend more time with various media (an average of 7 hours per day) than they do in any other daily activity other than sleeping”. Children’s creativity become stunted when they spend all day on electronics. Have you ever noticed how hours an pass you by when you playing with an electronic device? You go into a trance like state, vegetating. When children play with puzzles, build forts, interact with each other they are building vital skills they will use in adult hood.

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Reflections on Module 1 Readings

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At first glance, just by reading the three different philosophies about why media education is necessary constructivist appealed to me the most. I agree in the way this philosophy perceives why media education is necessary because, meaningful learning happens when we for ourselves try to make sense of the world by analyzing new information through our own knowledge, concepts, rules and hypothesis from our own personal experiences. After reading the article by Zaslow & Butler where they dive on their explanation on these competing philosophies I agreed with the constructivist model even more.  In the article by Zaslow & Butler it states, “Protectionism places the teacher in an authoritative role in which she or he judges and determines the social, cultural, moral value of a text.” This really irks me, first of all just because some of us have trouble resisting falsely media doesn’t mean we as a whole are duped to being able to determine between good media vs bad media and need the bias authority of a teacher to “guide” us in differentiating such media. Second of all, I am not a fan of authority, so having a teacher tell me what “bad” media is doesn’t mean I will stray away from it. I really enjoyed reading the article by Zaslow & Butler, how it focuses on the interpretation of Videocultures from different adolescents. I agreed with Delpit’s argument, “If we do not have the knowledge of children’s lives outside of the realms of paper- and-pencil work and even outside of their classroom, then we cannot know their strengths”. So how can we allow a teacher take authority of how we should interpret media with out the teacher acknowledging our strengths?

Media literacy is key in order to be able to succeed now and in the future. It is interesting to learn about the different competing philosophies there is towards the learning of media education, and although I may not completely I agree with all of them, I do enjoy how all models are looking out for the student in some way. The reading of, Television and Children the author seems to embrace the protectionist model, where it seems to talk about the negative impact television has on children, and it comes out to be discriminating media. After reading this I learned to see the protective model in a different way, I do agree how the child should have a discipline diet on how much tv he or she should consume in a day. I do believe that television can influence the child’s attitude towards themselves and others especially if they do not come from a family who sets a strong foundation teaching them right from wrong in life.

I could not stop laughing at the article about Social Critique and Pleasure to the point I couldn’t help myself sharing it to my friends. I was gullible to the song Ciara, to the point where I took my parents video camera and recorded the video. I also had no idea what the lyrics were saying at that time, I just simply enjoyed the music and dancing silly to it. I did share my passion for music differently than my siblings, I didn’t always analyze every lyric from every song I enjoyed, to me that was taking the fun of it sometimes it is fun to just enjoy the music beat and let your brain have some downtime it most definitely does not define that you are dupe of vulgar consumerism. I agree in the way the article by Jesse Gainer concludes that we must learn together as a whole, parents, teachers, and students. By not acknowledging the interest of the child and how they perceive that pleasure we are just being biased judges on what we think is right and wrong controlling what the child should like and why they shouldn’t like a certain thing. In a way that is taking away the innocence of a child, by feeding them why its wrong to like something when they at first didn’t see it that way they just simply enjoyed it. This is an example of Chris Wornsop of ways not to teach media literacy. The teacher or parent starts from their ideology on a subject and ends up controlling the child in seeing the whole world from their perspective.

Hi Everyone!

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Hello, I am Ariel and it is very nice to meet you all! I am joining in a bit late to the class but am very happy to be able to be here! I am a junior at CI and am a Liberal Studies for Teaching and Learning major. I am currently volunteering at Laguna Vista Elementary School in a 1st grade class and absolutely love it. So of course, my strong hope for 5 years in the future is to be teaching in my own elementary school class.  I look forward to working with you all and learning a lot from this class! I hope you all have had a great summer and time so far!

And here is a picture of me with my dog, Kero.

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Module 1 Assigned Readings

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I will admit, I have a love affair with all things research. Often times, a few hours after logging online with the intention of recreational browsing,  I find myself stuck down an internet rabbit hole of case studies, research projects, and educational articles so that I may better understand a concept or term that was presented in the body of some text.  Therefore, I found myself initially drawn to the articles provided under the Media Literacy Defined” category.

I found myself, upon entering this course, asking the question, “what is Media Literacy?” and “Why is it important?” In the article, What Is Media Literacy, Jane Tallim defines the concept as one that includes “the ability to sift through and analyze the messages that inform, entertain, and sell to us every day.” (Tallim et al.,   pg. 1)  Media literacy and media education go hand in hand. The authors of this article argue that term media education, not to be confused with media literacy, is fluid. Expanding to include our ever evolving technological advances while still including some semblance of the past.  They strive to make the distinction that media literacy is obtainable while media education is a lifelong process. (Tallim et al, pg. 3) In contrast, The Core Concepts, tell us that “media education addresses both the consumption and production of media texts, regardless of technology.” (Jolls & Willson, 2014, Pg. 3) Students must be literate in every form of media, despite the medium through which it is presented.

It would appear, then, that these texts provided me with a foundation to build upon when it came time to examine the four competing philosophies surrounding media literacy.  I was able to see that there are varying definitions of what it means to be media literate and participate in media education from the aforementioned articles. Of the four competing philosophies, I found the constructivist model most appealing. Students of a certain age should be allowed to enjoy certain forms of media while simultaneously learning to use logical reasoning to sift through the unfavorable or un-educational ones, a point that needs emphasizing since so many parents still subscribe to the protectionist model that all forms of media need to be blocked from their child’s life. That is not to say that children under the age of two, on the other hand, should be exposed to copious amounts of screen time, as, in my personal experience, both pediatricians and pediatric nurses recommend limiting exposure to television during important developmental milestones. Whereas, author Elissa Straus, provides ample evidence in her article The Debate Over Screen Time is Really About Moms, Not Kids, that “there is no scientific evidence that watching TV or playing with tablets is inherently bad for  children over the age of 2.” (Straus, 2016, Pg. 1.)  This is not to say that electronics should be used as a babysitter, but rather, mothers should not feel guilty for letting their toddler engage with certain forms of media when it is necessary.

It is almost impossible to escape the media in this day in age. According to Your Child, “on average, children ages 2-5 spend 32 hours a week in front of a TV.” ( Boyse, 2010, Pg. 2.)  Boyse’s point is that children are being exposed to more media than ever before. Therefore,  it is unrealistic to expect a child to be completely protected from the media. They are bound to be exposed to certain forms of media wherever they go. In sum, then, it makes the most sense to provide them with the tools to make wise choices regarding the media. This brings us back to the question that I proposed earlier, “Why does media literacy matter?” My conclusion, after having reviewed the assigned texts, is that through active participation, media literacy and media education  provide the next generation with the tools they need to become critical thinkers whose lives are not completely dictated by what they see in the media.

Media Literacy’s Impact

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I found this week’s reading to be incredibly eye opening. Beginning this class, I knew what felt like nothing about media literacy, however the reading really helped me realize I know more than I thought.

Jane Tallim’s definition of media literacy as an ability to analyze the messages we see every day whether in the form of entertainment, sales, or information clarified for me that the responsibility is on us as people to carefully decide how we allow media to impact us. The three stages of media literacy by Elizabeth Thoman which are centered around awareness and the learning of specific skills to be a critical viewer lend to and build upon Jane Tallim’s definition. All of the important media literacy scholars included in the What is Media Literacy attachment in someway stated Rick Shepherd’s view that media literacy is an informed and critical understanding of mass media.

For me, the most valuable piece of the The Core Concepts: Fundamental to Media Literacy Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow attachment was the 5 concepts Elizabeth Thoman, the founder of the Center for Media Literacy placed importance on:

  1. All media messages are “constructed”
  2. Media messages are constructing using  using a creative language with its own rules
  3. Different people experience the same media message differently
  4. Media are Primarily businesses driven by a profit motive
  5. Media have embedded values and points of view

It was valuable to learn about the founders of media literacy; Barry Duncan and Len Masterman and the effect they had on spreading the importance of media literacy around the world. Masterman’s 18 Basic Principles reinforced much of the information from the first reading. My favorite principle is that “Media education carries out its investigations via dialogue rather than discussion.” This is a vitally important distinction.

When looking at the 3 Models of Media Literacy the Protectionist or Discrimination Models strike a similarity with the way I grew up receiving media, I was taught to know the difference between a low quality media like The Simpsons and a high quality media at the time, Sesame Street. Additionally, I grew up before it was common for a toddler to have their own iPad. My parents did not allow a lot of television viewing, I definitely did not fit into the numbers shown on the University of Michigan Health System’s report. The Social Critique and Pleasure attachment made me think about my 11 year old cousin who has grown up similarly to the way I did back in the day. She was telling me about how her friend wanted to see an “R” rated movie and when my cousin told her she wasn’t allowed, her friend said “your mom is holding you back.” I couldn’t believe it! Sternheimer’s Connecting Social Problems and Popular Culture: Why Media Is Not the Answer discusses how generationally, economically, politically, etc. children’s experiences are different I believe that often these differences are not thought of when judging ones actions.

In one of my posts, I mentioned that I am interested in the way people with disabilities are portrayed in media. It seems as though we are always the funny best friend, the person viewers should feel sorry for, or someone who receives a miraculous cure. The “Why Media Literacy” reading the statistic “43 million Americans have a disability; but people with disabilities are visible in only 1.5% of prime-time programs (and these are often stigmatized and victimized)” really struck me because I had never seen it stated in numbers that way.

The orthodoxy is interesting. At this point I agree that while media is a powerful force, it cannot fix everything, youth these days are smart and only becoming more and more critical. Sternheimer’s Connecting Social Problems and Popular Culture: Why Media Is Not the Answer reinforces this stating “social structure encourages us to look in depth at the big picture to understand what factors may shape people’s choices.”

This reading was an excellent way to broadly familiarize myself with media literacy.

Introduction

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Hello, my name is Dayna Davis. I have grown up in Camarillo, and I was very excited that there was such a nice local college to keep me close to my family. I have a lot of little cousins that I am close to and don’t want to miss watching them grow up. I just finished my junior year at CSUCI and am planning to graduate next semester, so I’ll be finishing a little early. My major is liberal studies with my concentration in special education. I will be getting a multiple subject credential and hope to work in an elementary school. So far I really enjoy working with 4th grade students. I work as a paraeducator for the Oxnard school district. I look forward to getting to know everyone this semester!

Jessica Here

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Hello All,

My name is Jessica Zarate.  I am a Liberal Studies Major here at CSUCI. I am a single mother of 3 beautiful children. I work part time for the Rio School District and plan to earn my Bachelor’s degree by the Spring of 2017. I plan to enter the teaching credentials program and become a teacher. I know the the road for me currently is tough, and it is quite difficult juggling and balancing school, work, and my children on my own. My parents are by greatest supporters and I am not sure where I would be without their love and encouragement. I hope to walk away from this class with a better jessica and rosieunderstanding of beneficial and safe ways to incorporate media into the lives of children. I look forward to reading other posts and getting to know my professor and other classmates in this summer session.