Teaching Media Literacy: Yo! Are you Hip to This?

Walking down the corridors of a middle school in suburban Massachusetts, the distinctive sound of a television commercial stands out against the more traditional patter of classroom noises:

acy in K - 12 Education

In more and more classrooms in the United States, educators are beginning to help students acquire the skills they need to manage in a media-saturated environment, recognizing that in its broadest sense, literacy must include the ability to skillfully 'read' and 'write' in a wide range of message forms, especially considering the dominance of image-based electronic media. In fact, the powerful concept of literacy was the driving force that led leaders in the media literacy movement to adopt a comprehensive definition of media literacy as "the ability to access, analyze, evaluate and produce communication in a variety of forms" in a conference sponsored by the Aspen Institute in 1992. Put simply, media literacy includes the skills of literacy extended to all message form, including those little black squiggles on white paper. Media literacy includes reading and writing, speaking and listening, critical viewing, and the ability to make your own messages using a wide range of technologies, including cameras, camcorders, and computers. Media literacy is not a new subject area and it is not just about television: it is literacy for the information age.

Strategies for Media Literacy 1095 Market Street, Suite 410 San Francisco, CA 94103 Telephone: (415) 621-2911 This organization develops and publishes materials, identifies resources, conducts workshops, and serves as a center of support and contact for teachers. They publish a quarterly newsletter, which you can subscribe to for $15 annually. You can also have access to their electronic bulletin board service for $20. Much of the text from this discussion of media literacy is taken from their publication Media & You: An Elementary Curriculum.

Media literacy is the ability to understand how mass media work, how they produce meanings, how they are organized, and how to use them wisely. The media literate person can describe the role media play in his or her life. The media literate person understands the basic conventions of various media, and enjoys their use in a deliberately conscious way. The media literate person understands the impact of music and special effects in heightening the drama of a television program or film...this recognition does not lessen the enjoyment of the action, but prevents the viewer from being unduly credulous or becoming unnecessarily frightened. The media literate person is in control of his or her media experiences.

The following definition of media literacy came out of the Trent Think Tank, a 1989 symposium for media educators from around the world sponsored by the Canadian Association for Media Literacy:

"The goal of the media literacy curriculum must be to develop a literate person who is able to read, analyze, evaluate, and produce communications in a variety of media ( print, TV, computers, the arts, etc.)."

Most often, "the media" are lumped together as a single entity. But "the media" are actually many forms of communication...including newspapers, magazines, and billboards, radio, television, videocassettes, video games, and computer games. Since the students participating in VidKids are primarily engaged in television viewing (most of them are too young to read newspapers and magazines), our activities focus on video and TV.