Media Literacy: A Guide for teachers
by tyler Monday January 12, 2004 at 09:02 PM

The primary concern surrounding the lack of media literacy is the inability of people to understand the underlying implications of the media they consume.

Media Literacy: A Guide for Teachers

One of the most important, yet chronically neglected, sectors of education in our society today is that of media literacy. Teachers and parents acknowledge that their children require guidance in learning to read, but not in understanding the implications of what they read. They stress the need for students to comprehend algebra, but not the need to comprehend what they see on television. Considering the fact that the average American child aged 2-17 watches nearly 20 hours of television per week , and that the average American has, by the age of 65, viewed over 2 million television advertisements , this seems a shameful lapse. When one also considers the increasing presence of advertising on billboards, park benches, public buses, and even in schools themselves, plus the heavy consumption of movies, comic books, websites, video games, etc, by young people, it is a potentially dangerous oversight. Fortunately, many are realizing the growing importance of media literacy education, at all levels from primary school through post-graduate education. In this article, we will try to outline some of the basic problems that many children (and even many adults) face when bombarded by the information overload that exists in this culture, and how media literacy education can help people to have a deeper understanding of the media that they consume. At the end of the article there is a list of helpful websites that contain more information about media literacy projects, teaching aids, and even a pre-made syllabus.

The primary concern surrounding the lack of media literacy is the inability of people to understand the underlying implications of the media they consume. It is a known fact that young children very rarely realize that there is a difference between television programming and television advertisements. Advertisers take advantage of this to promote consumerist tendencies at the earliest ages, as any conscientious adult watching junk food ads aired during Saturday morning cartoons can easily ascertain. For teens and adults who have never learned critical thinking, sensationalist mainstream news sources go unquestioned, sound-byte-style reporting is preferred, and vapid self-improvement publications such as Glamour and the sports sections of newspapers become more popularly read than sources of relevant investigative journalism. At all stages, entertainment media, such as movies, sitcoms, reality tv, video-games, etc, become central in shaping the morals and perceptions of the real world for many, proliferating sexism, low self-esteem, greed, and violence. Because of this lack of ability to understand and think critically about media, America is known abroad as the most ignorant of all societies. This in itself is unfortunate and demeaning, an affront to our dignity and a disgrace to our potential, but it is also a politically, socially, ecologically, and philosophically dangerous shortcoming. We live in a society which is saturated with information. The average American adult consumes 11.8 hours of media every day (and this rate is only increasing). And a very large portion of this information is meant to convince the consumer of a specific conclusion. Commercial ads seek to persuade us to buy, political ads seek to persuade us to vote, but more subtle forms of coercion also exist. Deliberately deceptive propaganda is being pushed on us for nearly 11.8 hours a day. We are told by the Wall Street Journal that people who “hate us for our freedom” are threatening our lives and we should show support for unjustified war, we are told by “Survivor” that greedy individualism and “getting to the top” is the only way to live, we are told by countless billboards that global warming is nothing to be concerned about and that we should buy an “adventurous” SUV, and we are told again and again by Hollywood that mindless jingoism and wasteful consumption are “the American way,” to name just a few propagandistic messages commonly espoused by those in control of the mainstream media.

We have named excessive consumerism, ignorance of current affairs, anti-social and self-destructive tendencies, and, perhaps most dangerous of all, susceptibility to propaganda, as common results of lack of media literacy. The goal of media literacy education is not to directly combat these. It is not to espouse an anti-media philosophy and it does not directly conform to any particular political values. The goal of media literacy education is to provide people with the ability to think critically about the media messages that they are confronted with, to understand the reasons they have been made, the real meaning of the concepts, philosophies, and politics they promote, and the often vast amount of information that is left unstated. From there, they may make their own opinions, becoming more capable and conscientious citizens and human beings. Media literacy education is about empowerment and responsibility.

There is no need for us to get into the details of teaching media literacy in this article, as many others have already done so much better than we could. Below are a few websites which will be extremely helpful to anyone who wishes to teach media literacy.

The Center for Media Literacy: This is an excellent, very comprehensive site which contains specific resources for studying advertisements, music videos, television news, violence, health, history, etc, as well as resources for faith-based media literacy, media activism, student media production, and much much more. They also have a free set of handouts and posters in .pdf format for use in classes.

The New Mexico Media Literacy Project : This site contains many excellent free resources in .pdf format, most of which are available on their media literacy page [http://www.nmmlp.org/medialiteracy.htm], as well as products for sale. The organization also runs a Bad Ad contest which students can enter.

The Media Education Foundation: Yet another excellent organization, mostly specializing in the production of educational videos.

Media Literacy Review : The website of this publication of the University of Oregon is an exhaustive source for links to media literacy organizations and publications.

The founder of Stay Free, Carrie McLaren, has posted the syllabus for the media literacy course she taught. It is well constructed and a good place to get ideas for teaching your own students.

_____________________________ Nielsen, 2000 Clark. “The Want Makers”: 195. Cited by Marketing Madness, Michael Jacobsen and Laurie Mazur: 45. Fairfield Research, Inc, 1998

Note: Please contact the Cleveland Indymedia Center for more information. We would be happy to give assistance with media literacy teaching materials or send members to give lectures on media ownership, media production, media activism, propaganda techniques, the role of independent media, etc. Outreach and education are two of our highest aims.

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