Media literacy is an international movement to provide students skills and insights to interpret media. Here's some thoughts on media education for college students.
I've been teaching media education classes to college students for over a decade. As you can imagine, this is a delightful topic to teach. Surprisingly, it can also be quite a challenge. I'd like to share with you some tips on how to teach students to analyze the media critically. In other words, I'd like to tell you a little bit about my experiences with teaching media literacy to U.S. college students.
What is media literacy? Media literacy is an international educational movement designed to provide students with skills, tools, insights, and a vocabulary to understand the important role media play in shaping, reflecting, and sometimes subverting our social realities. Media literacy classes often contain a production component so that students can understand the technical aspects of how media messages are constructed. Media literacy courses focus on many topics, including the journalistic production of news, the impact of media monopolies, representations of women and minorities in the media, media violence and sex, advertising and persuasion, political campaigns and the media, and the emerging role of digital media in modern life.
Why is media literacy important? People tend to think of the media primarily as insignificant entertainment. This is deceiving, because it's such an enormous part of our lives. The average American watches between 24-28 hours of TV per week, and according to the Kaiser Family Foundation, the average U.S. child (ages 8-18) uses the media for about 44 hours per week. That's the equivalent of a full time job. The object of media literacy isn't to criticize people for using the media so much, but rather to learn to think critically about an activity that takes up so much of our lives. In addition, most of our media is controlled by a small group of elite corporations. We should pay critical attention to media products because they are the messages of powerful people, just as we ought to pay critical attention to speeches by politicians.
Is media literacy taught widely in the United States? Sadly, no, but it is on the increase. Media literacy has been part of elementary and higher education curricula since the 1970s in countries such as Great Britain, Australia, Canada, and the Netherlands. The media literacy movement has made inroads in most Western countries, but the United States is an exception. This is one of the challenges of teaching media literacy to U.S. college students. The very concept that media can be studied as an important social influence and not simply as entertainment is foreign to many students.
Can media literacy concepts be incorporated into existing classes? Absolutely. For example, a political science class could offer a unit on how political ads are made and how they impact elections. A child psychology class could discuss research on children, violence, and video games.
How do you conduct a media literacy class? Well, one of the most important thing to remember when you're teaching media literacy is that you're not there to preach. You're not there to point out "hidden meanings" in the media. There aren't any, and it's important to teach your students to not think of messages as concrete things that are physically inside of a TV set or movie screen. Media literacy is not about revealing truths; it's about critical thinking and interpretation. For example, if you'd like your students to be more aware of gender roles in Disney films, the solution is not to "explain" to students what you feel those roles are. Instead, present your students with multiple readings and opinions about Disney films and gender. Then show them some clips from Disney films and ask them what they think. The students might have a completely different opinion than you, and that's fine. If they're incorporating some of what they've read and learned in their interpretation, you have a successful lesson.
Do media literacy classes avoid the traditional lecture format? Well, there are many different ways to teach, and lecture certainly has a role in these classes. But it is important to incorporate discussion so that students can engage in the practice of media interpretation. As with the Disney example, it's also typical for instructors to incorporate media clips as examples and starting points for discussion. In addition, media literacy courses often incorporate media production such as video editing and web page design. The primary object of this is not to teach students how to use these technologies (although this is big bonus), but rather to see first hand how technology and the production process shapes messages.
What's so challenging about teaching media literacy to college students in the U.S.? One of the biggest challenges is the "it's just entertainment" response, which has never ceased to drive me bonkers. Upon seeing a Disney film, a student might respond to a question about gender roles with, "Oh, you're reading too much into this film. It's just entertainment." Students often feel that if a message was not "placed' in a media text internationally, then it has no effect on the audience. They also feel that they themselves are not impacted by the media as long as they understand "it's just entertainment." There's no easy way around this. The trick is to teach students some basic concepts about interpretation, which is about interpretation and not about finding hidden meanings. Students also need to learn that media effects are not only upon individuals, but upon society as a whole. As a part of a culture, we are socialized by many factors, one of which is the media, so the values reflected in the media are part of our socialization process. Americans tend to be very individualistic, so this is a hard lesson to teach. I've found that teaching with a sense of humor and a light touch helps alleviate the sense that I'm taking media too seriously or "ruining" their favorite TV shows and movies.
