Archive for month: May, 2016

Hello my name is Kristi Dollison and I am a “super senior” at Channel Islands.  Although I already walked the graduation line last weekend, I still have one more class to take outside of my ECS major… so here I am.

I am incredibly nervous about taking an online course since I have always prefered and learned better by physically being in class, but I was lucky to obtain a full-time job with benefits utilizing my degree  already, so I didn’t really have a choice of classes to take since rent doesn’t pay itself.  I am hoping to become comfortable with this online course as soon as possible, so bare with me if this post is completely messed up or posted in the wrong area!

As a typical Ventura County girl, I am very excited for summer and to start my career.  Since I started working towards my Bachelor’s two years ago, I haven’t had a day off from juggling classes, student teaching and a weekend job to keep food on the table.  But now that I have landed a good job with weekends off, I cannot wait to make-up all the time with my loved ones that I feel was lost these past several years… I just gotta make it through one last class!!!!!!!

In the assigned readings for the week they really went into detail about explaining what media literacy is and when and where we see it. We learn that media literacy is the way that we access, understand and create media in all the different media outlets. When reading What is Media Literacy, The 3 Stages of Media Literacy, Elizabeth Thoman explains media literacy by breaking it down into three different stages. The first stage tells us how it is important to make sure that we are not spending all of our time focused on media outlets. The second stage shows that we must learn a set of skills to figure out how to critically view what you are watching. Lastly, the third stage explains how it is important to go behind the media and figure out who this form of media is supporting and why it is being produced. Media literacy is the information learned through different forms of the media.

When we think about why we should worry about media literacy so much we should understand that most of what people see today is a form of media in some way. In the Why Media Literacy power point it shows just how greatly the television has impacted young peoples lives. With them  doubling the amount of hours watching television as they spend in the classroom. This shows that the media is a huge part of these children’s lives and it needs to be monitored and understood in order for us to realize how it is effecting these children. They see so much violence and sexual references through the media that it seems to become a second nature for them, showing them that these things are o.k. which they are not.

The media also does not adequately represent those with hardships in their lives which then brings them in real life to be outcasts and unwanted. They also show that minorities are the majority of things such as poverty or crime rates which is also not true but they make it seem like that by only showing you what they want you to see. This is a huge problem in the media today which is why I believe it is important for us to have media literacy. If we have people to break away from the actual media itself and find the hidden meanings behind the things that we are shown, it would be best for everyone. For the future ahead it is important for us to see what our youth are paying most of their attention too.

Hello my name is Candice! I am really excited about this summer school class and getting to know everyone as best as possible. I have taken a few on-line classes in the past and really enjoyed the learning experience. I am definitely a night owl so on-line classes really work out for my schedule. I do not partake in all social media arenas like snap chat or twitter but I do like to keep myself up to date on what is going on in the world we live in. I don’t think there is a better time then right now to take this class with what is going on in politics, so interesting! I don’t know about you but these next five weeks are going to be very exciting, I love expressing myself through writing.

The readings that were assigned in module 1 had a lot of variety. It seemed as though each text had a different audience that it was directing their message to. There were readings that were for anyone who has an interest in media literacy, or is just starting to learn what media literacy is. There were articles that were directed more towards educators that were trying to introduce media literacy in the classroom, or parents who wanted to learn more about media literacy and apply the skills at home. All the articles were thought provoking and helped really lay out what media literacy is, the challenges faced by those who are trying to integrate it into the education system, and the ways the media literacy would help benefit our society.

The “What is Media Literacy” document was a helpful document that went over what media literacy was in a plethora of different ways, it was described with different examples of media literacy, the different types of media literacy, while also discussing how it relates to education and how it’s changed over time. This document included the writings of several different professionals in the field, and if you didn’t know what media literacy was before reading the document, it is now clear and if you did know what media literacy was this document helped solidify many key concepts; whereas the power points that were used were helpful in condensing the information that was stated in the text, and was a nice refresher to go over the important points. The “three models of media literacy” PowerPoint was an important tool to use when reading the documents as it defined each of the three perspectives and was nice to go back to when reading the different texts to see what perspective each writer was coming from.

One of the main differences between the articles, aside from the target audience was the perspectives from which they were writing. The three main perspectives that were discussed were the protectionist model, the ideological analysis model and lastly the constructive model. Each one is a way of seeing how to handle the media and its impact on individuals. Some of the text was difficult to determine what perspective was being represented however there were a few articles that were clear. For example, the article That it was Made by People Our Age is Better by Emilie Zaslow and Allison Butler, was leaning more towards the constructive perspective. “By privileging the voices of the youth participants in the Videocultures project, we found that these teens have a complete understanding of their own culture and of the larger world within which they live” (Butler and Zaslow 38). They acknowledge the fact that the students aren’t just passively being impacted by media but are aware that there are messages being advertised but they’re not blindly listening, however they are still able to enjoy the media and popular culture. They also discuss how the protectionist or ideological models have the ability to be elitist and focus on anti-media, which often results in a sort of censorship.

All the text was enormously helpful in the introduction to media literacy as whole; all the different types of text were helpful because if one is having a difficult time understanding one author’s definition of something they may be able to understand better coming from another author. The combination of all the readings really helped introduce me to media literacy, what it is and the ideas and research behind it.