A Great Discussion on Media Literacy

In the spirit of the blogosphere philosophy of ‘filtering’ and helping the cream rise to the top, I thought I wanted to mention the podcast discussion on 21st Century Learing #30: Media Literacy. The shownotes describe it as “A amazing conversation with With Adam Kenner and Sheryl Rivera from Horace Mann School and the Action Coalition for Media Education New York Chapter. This is a must […]

In the spirit of the blogosphere philosophy of ‘filtering’ and helping the cream rise to the top, I thought I wanted to mention the podcast discussion on 21st Century Learing #30: Media Literacy. The shownotes describe it as “A amazing conversation with With Adam Kenner and Sheryl Rivera from Horace Mann School and the Action Coalition for Media Education New York Chapter. This is a must listen for educators and parents in our wired world”.

It covers the following topics (apologies for the formatting – WordPress can’t seem to indent bullet points (without making them blockquotes), so this is the best I can do):

How and why teach Media Literacy to children.
Understanding how you are being manipulated by advertising and marketing.
– Also how this is constantly changing and evolving.
How media changes our view and reactions to world events.
Asking “Who produced this and what benefit do they get from giving it to me?”
– Conflicts of interest. E.g. MSNBC owned by GE – who earns a lot more from Military Defense contracts than their MSNBC news branch.
– None of the media companies are providing news as a public service. They are doing it to make money. Even PBS now.
Research showing excess of ‘mindless media’ results in lack of involvement.
– Results in depressed, anxious, sad, alone.
Bob McCannon (sp?) collecting media literacy research:
– Just teaching media literacy makes children more aware, but does not change attitude or behavoiur.
– Changes behaviour when combined with parental involvement and reduced media diet.
So a three-pronged approach to improving attitudes and behaviour around media:
– Media Literacy Education
– Parental Involvement
– Reduced Media Diet
How to encourage parental involvement.
Reactions of children. They love it. “Why didn’t you tell us about this earlier?”
The hype around online predators.
– 90% of molestations are by people the family personally knows.
– So should be educating people to look out for this.
– So why so much hype / focus on the other 10% (not all of which are online based).
– What does traditional media have to gain by perpetuating this hype?
Implication of larger politcal issues around media.

Author: EricWoods

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2 comments until now

  • Hi.
    Good design, who make it?

    By naisioxerloro 29 November, 2007 @ 3:23 am
  • I made the graphic myself, based on a photo I took. The rest is based on http://www.vanillamist.com

    By EricWoods 3 January, 2008 @ 12:51 pm

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