Reflections on Module 3

The readings for Module 3 were so powerful, and rightfully so. The topics we engaged in this week revolved around the ideas of visibility, attention, representation, critical media literacy, inverting visibility, information and attention economies, all of which are crucial to the building up of media literacy.

I want to start out with our textbook readings, because they struck a more personal cord with me. In chapter 5 of our textbook, Sternheimer brings into question the ideas of violence in younger children in relation to depictions of violence in certain media; particularly that of video games and movies. (Sternheimer, 2013) As a gamer myself, it was almost painful to read about all of the negative view points that many people still hold towards video games. Sternheimer was a saving grace though, as she tears down the numerous claims with rhetorical questions that were poised to question the legitimacy of these so called studies that seemed to be aggressively targeting children, while neglecting to create a more thorough study by including the behaviors and reactions of adults as well. I’ve met many other “gamers” in my lifetime; some are very aggressive, and others wouldn’t hurt a fly. However, we all had in common one thing: we played nearly the same games, many of which would be considered violent, at young ages. I believe that the claim that depictions of violence in video games and other sources of media create and encourage young children to go out and become deadly imitators of what they see is completely off the mark. I think that factors such as economic, social, and family relationships are a more decisive factor on a child’s aggressive tendencies, as does Sternheimer. (Sternheimer, 2013) I one day would like to join or create a non-profit that actually uses video games to help under privileged children, who come from low income areas, or may be disabled in some way, to help these children develop not only the basic literacy’s, but also critical thinking, spatial development, and social abilities. Studies that show only half the truth, and depend on the correlation/causation concepts to mislead the public into believing that video games are bad influences really hinder my dream. Little by little I hope to bring awareness of the multitude of benefits that video games can bring, and instead shift the focus from video games to the more pressing factors of violence.

In thinking about the ideas of poverty, and contributing factors leading to certain problems in development; I found the many sources in our readings and assignments in this module to be inspiring in a way. As I said in the above paragraph, my goal in life is to help under privileged children. I had researched information on poverty for previous research projects, but it’s extremely interesting to make connections between poverty and media literacy, and certain concepts such as attention, power, and the ideas of inverting visibility. It was heartbreaking watching the YouTube video about Child Poverty, where several children recollect their experiences with poverty. (Children’s Defense Fund, 2015) The second video by the Children’s Defense Fund, where  Edelman gave a report on the poverty of children of America was especially infuriating. As she listed off the cost to help lift millions of children and families out of food insecurities, it was shocking that the government would spend more money on things like locking people up for the smallest of things, than they would to help bring food security and poverty relief. (Marian Edelman, 2015)

I was also very upset when reading about the way that those living in less than ideal conditions are portrayed in the media (Kuper, 2013) (Ridgeway, 2013), or the fact that they aren’t even portrayed at all most of the time. (DeMause, 2007) It’s so disheartening that instead of trying to create a positive, engaging atmosphere, media corporations instead choose to knock minorities down even further with these negative, often stereotyped depictions. It’s downright irresponsible for corporations with such immense power with capabilities to change the opinions of individuals with little to no literacy skills [which a majority happen to be those living in poverty] to continue ignoring the problem and pretend it isn’t a real problem. It’s not just the media at fault though, all they want is viewers and so they will continue to display whatever gets them the most viewers. In my opinion, the largest fault lies in the failure of our Country to ensure that as the great slogan states “no child is left behind.” Instead of investing in the futures of all children, the rich would rather nickel and dime and ensure maximum profits, while they ensure that their children are sent to the best schools. Meanwhile, those at the bottom are struggling to ensure that their children can even eat that day. Without the backing of the government to set in motion changes that ensure children in at-risk areas can receive the same education that children of wealthy families are able to afford, we will always have issues with not just poverty, but also with media literacy, with exploitation, with attention issues in the classroom, and so much more.

In closing my reflection, I’d like to end with the ideas of the two economies we learned about in this module, and relating them to the ideas of media education. In our Voice Thread on making ideology visible, I really enjoyed making the connections on attention and applying it to the ideas of turning attention, and in turn, information, into something that we can use and build upon. Lanham (Lankshear & Knobel, 2001) identified 3 types of information. In my Voice Thread post, I explained that I see these types of information as building upon the previous. Attention is at the center for building up this “information.” With such a heavy reliance on attention to engage our critical thinking, and build up our data up into “wisdom,” we, as a society, really need to shift our focus in figuring out how to eliminate the problem of lack of attention, especially in our schools. I personally attribute the lack of attention to the standardizing of many of the aspects in our schools. As we learned earlier in this module, we try to standardize as many aspects of learning as we can, to create measurable statistics on something that innately cannot be measured. This had led to a lot of interaction, and customization being thrown out the window in regards to the learning environment. I think it’s a shame that a lot of blame is being put on students for the short comings of the school systems they are a part of. I think a great example to illustrate my opinion is the ideas of dress codes. Many schools have implemented outrageous dress codes on the basis that they wish to limit the “distractions” associated with potentially problematic clothes. Of course, I know that some students would wholly take advantage if these rules were not in place, but take for example some recent school dress code violations that were taken too far. One student attending a High School in Texas was sent home for violating the schools dress code for wearing leggings as pants. Now, had this girl worn leggings and a crop top I would understand a violation, but this girl in particular was wearing a very modest oversized t-shirt that covered everything all the way down to her mid-upper thigh, and was completely opaque. How can we create advances in media literacy when students are having to put more mental energy into what they can or cannot wear to school, than they are in creating connections to what they learn in school? Instead of being sensible, schools are sending children home because of their very appropriate clothing, and these children are missing class time over something so stupid. What is even worse is that many of the dress code violations are made towards female students. Yet no one will bat an eye if a male student shows up in a white tank top.

Lankshear & Knobel’s (2001) three dimensions of literacy are a great example of what our school system should be focusing on, and implementing into the curriculum. Our school systems already have the first dimension on lock down with the in my opinion, overly emphasized importance of basic literacies. Now need to start implementing the next two dimensions. I would bet my life on it that if schools started to implement the other two dimensions, attention issues would nearly cease to exist. We would finally be able to identify the students with the real attention issues, and not just label every student who gives the teacher a hard time “ADD” or “ADHD.” (Lankshear & Knobel, 2001) As a student myself, I can say with certainty that we all want to be engaged. There is nothing that kills my ability to pay attention faster than having to sit through a lecture focusing on an issue that has been used to death, all because it’s a safe topic, and it’s easy to teach to a class of 40 through an un-engaging lecture. If we start to include topics such as the one in the Voice Thread about violence towards women being depicted in popular culture, that will get to engage many students, instead of focusing on “safe” topics as mentioned before, attention wouldn’t be nearly as much as an issue.