The teacher's attitude to the mass media and to students as avid media consumers is crucial to the success of any media-literacy program. Most students bring to the classroom an enormous amount of information about and experience with the media - in many cases, far more than do their teachers. While it is important for teachers to start where their students are, it is also necessary for them to lead their students to where they are not.
It's important that educators teach inductively, and begin whenever possible using students' direct experiences with the media. The basic method of media studies is that of a "spiral curriculum," a concept developed by educator Jerome Bruner. The fundamental principle of this method is that the key concepts of any discipline can be taught in some form to students at any level. Thus, concepts initially introduced in simple form at the elementary level are, in successive years, explored, developed and extended in increasingly sophisticated ways as the student matures and develops.
To take a relatively simple example, elementary school pupils might begin to explore the concept of the commercial implications of media by talking about the television programs they watch and, with the guidance of a teacher, distinguishing between program material and commercials, identifying the different purposes of each. At a later state they could look at a variety of commercials aimed at children, discussing their reactions to them and perhaps beginning to evaluate their effectiveness. They could also talk about what they would put in commercials for children if they were making them. Older children could begin to analyze the techniques and appeals of commercials, planning and storyboarding some of their own. They could also explore the relationship between commercials and programming, perhaps examining the link between children's cartoon characters and sales of related products such as dolls or clothing. As they progress through the educational system, they may move on, for example, to more detailed examinations of commercials; studies and techniques; or research into issues such as the effects of ownership and control of media.
Because students are immersed in media, the role of the teacher must be that of a facilitator and a co-learner. The teacher must help students to negotiate meaning, engage in inquiry and research, identify patterns, and create their own media productions.
It is important to stress the positive features of the mass media rather than to dwell at length on the negative. It is also essential that students be encouraged to explore the values and the tastes that are relevant to their own immediate cultural context. This fundamental premise of values education implies that the teacher should not be imposing a set of elitist values on the class (For example, the teacher should avoid holding up "Masterpiece Theatre" and CBC drama as caviar and everything else as junk food for the masses.) It may be difficult to find socially redeeming values in many of the programs that have high audience ratings or in rock videos, but it is these very examples that our students are eager to discuss. Using methods such as the inquiry model and applying the key concepts of media literacy in critical discussion, the teacher can empower students to discover meaning on their own, thus giving them critical autonomy.
By necessity, media teachers will be eclectic. As well, the constantly changing content of the media and of popular culture, along with their many new and evolving forms and technologies, will necessitate the concept of "a movable text" that is made up by the teacher, the class, or both together. Such a text will encompass current newspaper and magazine clippings, new videos, audio tapes, CDs, and resource people from the community. In such an enterprise, it should be evident that media study is ideally suited to the collaborative strength that is gained from team teaching.
To avoid duplicating activities and audio-visual materials each year, teachers, department heads, and principals will have to plan a coherent and, in many cases, a sequential media-studies program. This may prompt the formation of board media-literacy committees, which can organize workshops for teachers and design media curricula especially suited to local needs.
Teachers not familiar with essential equipment such as slide projectors and the video-cassette recorder will need to develop the competency required to make media literacy worthwhile for their students. For example, effective use of the freeze frame or the scanning mechanism on a VCR can enhance the use of video considerably.
Practical media production is an important dimension that complements the application of the key concepts and decoding exercises. Practical activities should never become an end in themselves; otherwise, the critical inquiry that is central to media study may be ignored.
Source: Adapted from "Specific Approaches to Media Literacy," Barry Duncan et al.
Media Literacy Resource Guide, Ontario Ministry of Education. Toronto, Ontario, Canada, 1989. Used with permission.
The complete
Media Literacy Resource Guide can be ordered through the
Center for Media Literacy Web site.
