Education for a new millennium.

NATIONAL MEDIA EDUCATION CONFERENCE

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA 

JUNE 25-28, 2005

The media literacy and education movement is growing rapidly in this country and abroad and the most recent edition of the biannual National Media Education Conference offered a wide array of practical and theoretical information under the theme of "Giving Voice to a Diverse Nation." Sponsored by the Alliance for a Media Literate America, the event drew educators, media activists, health workers, students of media literacy and youth media makers for three days of workshops, presentations, lectures and screenings.

Four pre-conference sessions were offered, including Media Literacy 101, facilitated by Elizabeth Thoman and Jeff Share, both of the Center for Media Literacy based in Los Angeles, which set the stage for the conference. To introduce attendees to the field, Thoman, explained that media literacy is "a twenty-first-century approach to education," providing "a framework to access, analyze, evaluate and create messages in a variety of forms--from print to video to the internet." A more expansive way of looking at the general concept of "literacy"--addressing images, sound and pop culture as well as text-this burgeoning field expands reading and writing instruction in educational settings and in general deepens our ability to understand how media affects individual citizens and society. Intrinsic to this process is building the "essential skills of inquiry" as well as an understanding of the role of media in our culture. While stressing enhanced critical thinking abilities and encouraging production of media as an essential complement, Thoman clarified that media education is more about education than media.

Offering essentially a primer to the field, Thoman explained that the equation "Text + Context = Message" (expanding upon, and in some ways contradicting, media theorist Marshall McLuhan's contention that content matters less than medium) lies at the heart of the media education movement. She took attendees through the "Five Core Concepts" and "Five Key Questions" that provide a structure and vocabulary for analyzing media that is similar to literary analysis. These concepts and questions are directly correlated and speak to the issues of authorship, format, audience, content and purpose. Thoman addressed the specifics, providing information about how media education can be used in the classroom to lead students into more in-depth inquiry. For example, in terms of audience, there are three ways in which audiences interact with media: reactive, active and interactive. By providing students and citizens the tools to become interactive and therefore engaged consumers of media, (media literacy) educators empower the citizenry. To demonstrate this, Thoman explained the concept of the "empowerment spiral" that is created through media literacy applications, which consists of awareness, analysis, reflection and action.

While Media Literacy 101 provided a solid foundation for delving into the field of media education, the breakout sessions that took place during the conference went into more detail on specific issues and practical matters. With a focus on providing media education in the K-12 classroom, many of the presentations explained how media education can be included in curriculum (and across disciplines), demonstrated successful programs being implemented around the country and addressed how media literacy instruction can meet numerous educational standards. Such presentations included "Using Media to Boost Skills and Scores" and "Have Your Students Grade the News," facilitated by former journalists Paul Kandell and John McManus, creators of www.gradethenews.org, who took attendees through their specialized curriculum. Other presentations were centered on media production, a vital component of formal media education and community-based efforts. These included "Promising Practices in Community-Based Media Programs" and "It Takes a Village with a Camera: Community Building Through Media Education," in which youth-made media about the conditions of the Baltimore City Public School System and the community protests that resulted from this advocacy were highlighted. Several breakout sessions had a more political or social reform bent such as "One Economy & the Digital Connectors Program: Connecting Low Income Youth and Communities to the Digital World" and "Ain't Gonna Study War No More: Media and Peace Education." Bob McCannon, founder (in 1993) of the New Mexico Media Literacy Project and Josh Silver of Free Press (which he co-founded, in 2002, with Robert McChesney and John Nichols) presented the dynamic, eye-opening and inspiring "Media Literacy, Independent Media & Media Reform." A few sessions addressed the issue of our global culture, including "Media Literacy in Europe and the U.S.A.: Similarities, Differences and Collaboration Possibilities," "Multimedia + Multiculture = Multiliteracy" and "Documentary as Professional Development: Putting a Human Face on New Demographics," in which Elaine Shen of Active Voice demonstrated how teachers can sensitize themselves to the growing immigrant population. In "Media Literacy and Global Studies," teacher, author and media advocate Barry Duncan used myriad media examples from around the world to provide updated educational perspectives on the representation of self and others as well as a consideration of the collapse of private into public space.

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The topic of pop culture was addressed in numerous ways, including "Youth Culture Symbolism: Do Music Videos Teach At-Risk Adolescent Girls?" and "Movies, TV & Character Education: Why Media Literacy Matters," in which Rose Pacatte of the Pauline Center for Media Studies used popular television programs to show how character education can be enhanced by media literacy tools. Much of the media literacy work currently being done in schools revolves around drug and alcohol education and other health issues such as HIV and eating disorders, as evidenced in "AD IT UP: A Health-Related Media Literacy TV Pilot," "Media Literacy and Healthy Bodies" and "The Media Straight Up!," in which Renee Hobbs of Temple University provided concrete examples of activities for use in substance abuse curricula. David Considine, in his presentation "GET REEL: Teens, Sex and the Media," advocated for "richer reads" and spoke of the power parents have to reinforce and refute media content by modeling behaviors that challenge or confirm the media.

Central to the foundation of media education is media production and many sessions addressed practical considerations or exhibited the results of such activity. Several interactive workshops such as "And the Story is ...: Using Digital Storytelling to Find Voice" offered practical advice on media production. During "Youth Media Distribution" Shira Golding of MediaRights took production issues one step further, offering strategies for creative partnerships and effective distribution. During the presentation "Story Starters," staff of the Bay Area Video Coalition provided a hands-on demonstration of storyboard creation and invited one of the youth who participated in their media program to present her work. Tania Cervantes interviewed homeless Hispanic men in San Francisco's Mission district. The resulting video, The Unheard (2005), is a moving portrait of a segment of the population whose stories are rarely told as well as a testament to the empowering nature of media production education for youth.

It was reiterated by several presenters and workshop facilitators that the intent of media education is not to censor or merely condemn the media but to provide an educational tool and method of inquiry designed to address the proliferation of media in our culture. To that end, awards were given to those working for change in and providing unbiased information about the media. This year's Media Literate Media awards were given to comedian Jon Stewart; Brooke Gladstone and Bob Garfield of National Public Radio's program "On the Media"; and Van Jones, Executive Director of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, in Oakland, California. The Jessie McCanse Award was presented to David Buckingham, who subsequently gave the plenary presentation, "Will Media Education Ever Escape the Effects Debate?" Buckingham, a prolific author who teaches at the University of London, United Kingdom, where he directs the Centre for the Study of Children, Youth and Media asserted that the wider picture of social forces is missing from the current discussion. He reiterated that media education must include production and that production needs to be a questioning process, not merely one of self-expression.

In another plenary, high school teacher Kenny Smith outlined how hip hop can be used as a constructive force in the classroom, across disciplines. Alan November, a leader in educational technology, in "Empowering All Students to Have a Global Voice," offered countless examples of new technologies and how they are affecting our lives. He reminded audience members how much adults learn about modern technological advances from youth and pointed out that today's youth do not need permission to have a global audience for the media they produce, explaining that they will find ways (e.g., blogging, the use of instant messenger and www.skype.com, where international calls are free) to have their voices heard. The keynote presentation, "Media and Multiculturalism: A Rambunctious Conversation between Two Maverick Historians," involved Harvard media scholar Carlos E. Cortes and Ronald Takaki, who teaches Ethnic Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. Cortes discouraged the tendency in education to think in dualisms, suggesting that media educators learn to re-frame questions so students understand they are not simply being charged with finding examples of forgone conclusions. Takaki finds hope in the rewriting of American history and in current requirements for multicultural education. Gloria Tristani, Commissioner of the Federal Communications Commission from 1997 to 2001, began "Using Your Voice to Get Media to Meet Your Needs" by playing an audiotape of an example of "hate radio" from the syndicated Don and Mike radio show, whose shockingly racist and misogynist language provided a focal point for Tristani's argument that racism remains rampant in our culture and the media is not doing enough to work against it. She also cited success stories, such as the removal of this show from the local airwaves after complaints by Albuquerque citizens. Tristani encouraged individuals to get involved, offering practical tips on how to approach media organizations and regulatory bodies in order to effect change.

Every evening of the conference concluded with screenings of films exploring contemporary media practices, advocating for media reform, demonstrating new media literacy tools or showcasing work made by youth. Films included excerpts of Weapons of Mass Deception (2004) by Danny Shechter of GlobalVision, Media Construction of the Middle East: A Digital Media Literacy Curriculum (2005) by Chris Sperry of Look Sharp and the multimedia presentation of In Her Image: Producing Womanhood in America (n.d.) by Julia Barry. Youth productions screened included powerful and moving shorts from the Media That Matters Film Festival as well as the work of the Modern Media Makers (M3), a group of youth from around the country who participated in a four-day media production camp as part of the conference.

The challenges for this field in the next decade, as Thoman noted, are to gather more research, provide increased teacher training and credentialing, offer standardized program assessments and evaluations, and expand the standards across the curriculum. If the array of individuals at the conference and the energy they brought to the gathering represent the future of the field, there seems to be little doubt that these elements will come together and the message will be heard.

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For more information about the Alliance for a Media Literate America see www.amlainfo.org.