Lessons in literacy.

LITERACY IN A MEDIA AGE

ITHACA COLLEGE 

ITHACA, NEW YORK 

OCTOBER 14-15, 2005

2005 CONFERENCE ON MEDIA LITERACY 

MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY 

CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS 

OCTOBER 22, 2005

Media literacy is taking its place in an emerging pedagogy, and two recent conferences sponsored by leading nonprofit media literacy organizations offered valuable insights into this burgeoning field as well as practical tools for classroom use. "Literacy in a Media Age," the second annual conference sponsored by Project Look Sharp (PLS), was held at Ithaca College. Home, Inc., hosted a gathering of media literacy researchers, scholars, and practitioners at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

"Literacy in a Media Age" was an intimate event focused on providing practical applications for media literacy in the classroom. The two-day conference began with a keynote address by Faith Rogow, noted media educator, consultant, and founding president of the Alliance for a Media Literate America (AMLA). In "Reading Media: The New Literacy," Rogow presented a general overview of the field, stating that because it focuses on fostering critical thinking skills, media literacy is an "ideal tool" for educational use. Commenting on the increasing use of media literacy in schools, Rogow pointed out that the issue is not whether these tools will be used in the classroom, but of media literacy successfully becoming a field of its own--that it is now a matter of training teachers and getting others involved. She mentioned the various terms being used to define the field, including "critical literacy," "cultural literacy," "technology literacy," and "information literacy," pointing out that no matter how the field is defined, it is essentially the same concerns that are being addressed and the same tools that are being used. Rogow told the teachers in the audience, "You are the leading edge of a field that will profoundly change American education."

The second plenary, "Introduction to Media Literacy Integration in K-12 Education," was presented by Cyndy Scheibe and Chris Sperry. Scheibe, executive director of PLS, and Sperry, director of curriculum and staff development, began by providing various statistical rationale behind their push for enhanced media literacy education in the classroom. For example, according to a study conducted by researcher Morris Berman in 2001, 60 percent of American adults have not read a book of any kind since leaving school. A 2005 Kaiser Family Foundation study found that television remains the most prevalent source of media for fifteen- to eighteen-year-olds, who watch an average of two-and-one-half hours of television programming per day, much of it created by the six media conglomerates who currently produce the bulk of the world's media (Bertelsmann, Disney, General Electric, News Corp., Time Warner, and Viacom). As Scheibe and Sperry noted, the goal of media literacy education is to shift students from seeing media as merely entertainment to being able to analyze it. They offered educators such suggestions as finding documents that address their goals and using varied sources, and ended the session with Thomas Jefferson's statement that "An enlightened citizenry is indispensable."

After this initial theoretical preface, the remaining breakout sessions focused on integrating specific media literacy tools in the classroom. Two to three choices were offered in each of five subsequent workshop sessions over two days. Rogow, in a session entitled "Visual Literacy," presented an outline of how to "read" visual language. As she explained, a basic formula for this kind of language has been established: image + content = message. Enough context for shared meaning is also necessary in terms of the cultivation of common cultural experience. Rogow explained that we learn what to pay attention to and what to dismiss, and that our brains are pre-wired to pay attention to things that are new and in motion. In addition, visuals are more powerful than words and are recalled more readily. "Impact factors" for media include how much, what, who, and why, paired with repetition (television has the most capacity for repetition of any media), content, and context. For example, although youth often claim that they recognize that the violent acts they see in video games and on television are not real, the actual issue is the normalization of violence. There is also a concern for what is known as "displacement theory": if one is watching a screen, one is not doing something else that may provide more intellectual stimulation or physical benefit.

Scheibe, a psychologist at Ithaca College, home of PLS, presented a psychological perspective on "Debunking Media Myths: Subliminal Messages & Other Stories." Scheibe led participants through three main categories of media myths: erroneous beliefs and misconceptions that result from specific media examples; urban legends, which are widespread erroneous beliefs reinforced and perpetuated by the media (along with other sources); and erroneous beliefs and misconceptions about the media that we may accept without questioning or critique because they fit what we want to believe. She debunked the idea of subliminal messages, explaining and providing examples of how subliminal messages--which are, by definition, "below the threshold (of conscious perception or interpretation)"--do not exist.

Sperry, a veteran high school teacher (and recent recipient of a Leaders in Learning Award in the category of media literacy from Cable in the Classroom, the cable industry's nonprofit education foundation), presented "Critical Thinking and the News," offering principles, models, and materials for teaching students to analyze the news media. Sperry dispelled conspiracy theories by saying that while the government influences media, it does not control it. However, in some markets in the United States, more than 80 percent of local television news comes from video news releases, which are paid for by private companies (such as drug manufacturers) and produced and distributed by corporate consulting and public relations/marketing firms--not by independent media outlets. Sperry stressed that it is imperative to provide youth with information and steps to take when reading media so that they do not feel helpless or cynical.

In a demonstration of practical media tools, Scheibe showed numerous examples of videos on various topics ranging from body image to how advertisements are created. Cathy Leogrande, director of the Graduate Education program at LeMoyne College in Syracuse, New York, in "LOL: Teens, Tweens, Media and Culture," offered a fast-paced and fact-filled introduction to youth media culture through an examination of the media they consume, including books, Web sites, television programs, magazines, and chat rooms. She referenced Henry Jenkins' Textual Poachers: Television Fans and Participatory Culture (1992) in which the author argued that the current challenge is the participation divide, that those with less access do not acquire the same technological skills.

Several youth involved in Teen Talk Productions, a media production program at WNYE in New York City, showed clips of their work and answered questions in a third plenary session, "Urban Youth Media in Action." The teens, who work full-time in radio, television, and video production during their senior year of high school, learn critical thinking skills and "spontaneous thinking," and gain not only hands-on production experience but a valuable sense of independence and autonomy. They spoke of how they now have specific educational and career goals in the fields of media production and communications. One spoke of how the program "completely changed [her] life ... gave [her] a reason to wake up every morning." She added that the program "is a way of saying to youth ... you're not alone."

Other presentations included "Media Construction of War," "Media Construction of the Middle East" [see sidebar], a two-part "Hands-On Media Production" workshop, "Media Literacy & Art," "Media Literacy for Health Promotion," and "Internet Credibility." A closing plenary brought participants together to discuss topics of interest to this particular group. These included copyright (a continuing challenge for educators with limited financial resources); a discussion of the stakeholders involved in promoting and facilitating media literacy education and how to convince those principals and parents of the efficacy of teaching these skills; and how media literacy education fulfills state school standards in numerous subject areas.

At MIT, a one-day conference under the theme of "Building Critical Thinking Skills In Our Media Age" was presented by Home, Inc. and sponsored by the Comparative Media Studies Department at MIT, the United States Department of Education, and Focus on Children (a program of the Boston Public Schools). The event focused on presenting current theories and trends in scholarship and research in media literacy, as well as showcasing new pedagogical practices supporting school reform.

Alan Michel of Home, Inc. introduced the proceedings with "Media is a 'wonderful opportunity for push back'" and stressed the importance of this work because of the general need for enhanced critical thinking skills. Jenkins began the day with an engaging keynote address entitled, "Computer Games, New Media Literacies, and Participatory Culture." Jenkins is the director of MIT's Comparative Media Studies program, which has been a leader in developing new media technologies, as well as considering the cultural and social impact of these technologies. Jenkins, also the author of such titles as Textual Poachers and From Barbie[R] to Mortal Kombat: Gender and Computer Games (2000), focused on the possible connections between video games and new media literacy using the example of the Campaign '96 video game. He provided extensive statistical information about the popularity of video games (for example, 65 percent of college students are regular players, and 48 percent agree that playing video games takes time away from studying) and examined the pedagogical potential of using this enormously popular and pervasive tool. Jenkins is not an opponent of video games in general, citing the work of James Paul Gee in the book What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy (2004), in which Gee claims that video games have the capacity to teach through experimentation and problem-solving activities.

Jenkins familiarized audience members with several contemporary video games such as The Sims, and shared the work of The Education Arcade, a joint project of MIT and the University of Wisconsin, Madison, which has been studying this medium. The project is now creating media as well, with students and faculty working on Revolution, a modified educational fantasy role-playing game that takes place in Colonial Williamsburg on the eve of the Revolution in 1775. He pointed out the problem of continuing to battle big media while new kinds of media are affecting youth on a daily basis, and provided the requisite information about the concentration of media production into only six conglomerates. In discussing violence in popular media, Jenkins pointed out that only about 30 percent of video games are violent and games in general are most powerful when they enforce already held beliefs (there is only one game that Jenkins, who maintains anti-censorship views, takes issue with: Bully, which glorifies schoolyard violence). "We want the arts to reflect on violence, to reflect on choice and consequence," he said.

Jenkins believes that the media landscape will be reshaped by the "bottom-up energy" of media created by amateurs, citing the Napster craze not as an example of thievery but instead "a form of apprenticeship wherein kids learn valuable structural lessons and technical skills which prepare them for original authorship." "Appropriation," he said, "seems to be a stepping stone toward self-expression." Jenkins closed with a clarion call for a paradigm shift. In order to avoid the "participation gap," media literacy needs to be taught across the curriculum, and media literacy should begin "in the crib and should occur at every level of culture."

Each of three subsequent breakout sessions provided a choice of four presentations, including "Youth Voice Collaborative: Building Effective Leaders and Communicators," "Hip, Hop, and Hope: Making After School Media Literacy a Partnership in Fun," "IT Fund-raising for Nonprofits," and "After School Media Literacy Programs: Giving Young People a Voice!," as well as a screening of Faces of the Enemy (1987, re-released in 2005) by Sam Keen and Bill Jersey. During the panel "Media Literacy, Whole School Change and K-12 Teaching and Learning," numerous practitioners and researchers offered an overview of the potential for advancing educational pedagogy through media literacy. Julianna Kershen of Boston Public Schools asserted that teachers do not share practices or content knowledge and it will therefore require a "huge paradigm shift for teachers to rethink their work in the classroom and to think of themselves as reformers." Frank Baker, a media literacy expert, past president of AMLA, and past vice-president of the National Telemedia Council, shared the good news that a content analysis of standards in all fifty states showed media literacy education is in practice in all of them in some form but stressed that teachers must incorporate media analysis beyond media production. Paraphrasing Marshall McLuhan, Baker spoke of how media is the world our young people swim in. Michel stressed that media is creating a learning environment, but students and teachers must work as partners. He stated that while media literacy education can be an important part of school reform, there does need to be accountability and measurement. Renee Hobbs, a media literacy expert from Temple University, pointed out that we fear giving students the power of authorship because we are afraid of what they are going to say. Hobbs stressed that the field is in transition, and as Rogow mentioned at the Ithaca conference, definitions are still being debated.

Hobbs, in "What the Research Says," provided an impassioned and rapid-fire tour of recent studies concerning media education. She is concerned with definitions and began with some of her own for media literacy: "The process of asking questions about what you watch, see, and read," "An extended conceptualization of literacy to include visual and electronic message forms," and "Critical Analysis of Messages + Composing with Media & Technology Tools." Hobbs pointed out that she uses the term "compose" as opposed to "produce" (which she believes is too technical, too mechanistic) or "create" (which is artistic, too soft, and resides in self-expression and not fully in the realm of communication). She discussed how theoretical paradigms from the fields of education, communication, program evaluation, and public health shape research agendas for media literacy; the qualitative, ethnographic, and action research methodologies used for media literacy and media literacy education research; and the numerous findings linking general literacy learning, motivation, engagement, and enhanced communication skills and increased awareness of healthy behaviors and attitudes with media literacy education. Hobbs also presented a long list of challenges facing researchers including the need to assess both short-term and long-term outcomes; developing reliable, valid instruments to measure media literacy skills; and the need to examine the relationship between media literacy education and activism and advocacy. Hobbs hearkened back to Jenkins' statement regarding the participation gap, clarifying that "It's not just a media divide, it's a cultural divide."

MIT students involved in the New Media Literacies Project (Project NML) shared their work, which focuses on teaching the interpretation of imagery and enhancing multi-modal thinking across media forms. Their work incorporates a method they encapsulate in the "4 Es": Exercises (honing technical skills); Expressions (creating work that reflects students' own interests); Ethics (exploring consequences of decision making both as a maker and consumer); and Exemplars (providing examples of current media works). Project NML works in after-school programs using a digital storytelling process that includes the application of digital photography, video animation, music production, and video games. Their efforts are youth-directed, with an emphasis on agency, and while they stress technical skills, they also include curriculum components in ethics, social skills, and the history of media.

Both conferences provided a wealth of scholarship and practical tools for providing media literacy education in the classroom and beyond and provided opportunities for participants from varied backgrounds and experience to network and share information. With media literacy one of the fastest growing movements in education, PLS, Home, Inc., and MIT's Comparative Media Studies program consistently provide varied and vital information to help move the field through the challenges of this media-saturated millennium.

info

For more information about Project Look Sharp see www.ithaca.edu/looksharp.

For more information about Home, Inc. see www.homeinc.org.

RELATED ARTICLE

Project Look Sharp produces numerous teaching materials that are available on CD. The latest is Media Construction of the Middle East: A Digital Media Literacy Curriculum Designed for use in the K-12 classroom, the curriculum kit includes twenty-two lessons organized into four units: "Introducing the Middle East," "Israel/Palestine--Histories in Conflict," "War in Iraq--Whose Voice, Whose Story?," and "Militant Muslims and the U.S." The CD includes a comprehensive teacher's guide, nineteen handouts for students, and dozens of print and video samples such as maps, songs, cartoons, newspapers, film clips, and timelines.

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Media Construction of the Middle East is available for purchase through the Center for Media Literacy-GPN Educational Media at www.medialit.org/catalog.