Week 13 D.E.J.
Question 1: Should media education have an
explicit political and ideological agenda?
I do not
believe that media education should have an explicit political and ideological
agenda. I believe that students should
be able to develop and choose their own political and ideological beliefs. However, I do believe that media education
should provide students with the tools to identify and interpret the media
messages they receive and to identify the political and ideological content, as
well as the ability to create their own messages. Hobbs writes about critical media literacy
education providing students with tools of “self-reflection, critical analysis
and communication for one’s own purposes and motives” (Hobbs, 1998). In my opinion, this is an approach better
suited to public education, where there are a variety of political and
ideological beliefs. If each educator
taught media literacy based on his/her own beliefs, I believe it would be
difficult to assess students whose own beliefs may differ from the instructor.
Question 2: Based on your reading to date
in this course, would you teach critical media literacy in the classroom? Why or why not? You must reference three prior course
readings to justify your answer to this question.
Based on my
readings to date in this course, I would definitely teach critical media
literacy in the classroom. Before taking
this class, I was not even aware of the concept of critical media literacy, but
each week, its importance becomes clearer to me. In the article, Teaching Media Literacy: Yo!
Are You Hip to This, Renee Hobbs states, “It's time to help ourselves and our
children to embrace and celebrate the messages worth treasuring, to analyze and
understand the economic and political forces which sustain it, and to develop
the skills and new habits we need to think carefully and wisely about the
messages we create ourselves and the abundant messages we receive.” This quote really speaks to me and sums up
the attitude I have developed toward media literacy.
Another
important reason to teach media literacy is that it teaches important critical
thinking skills. Teachers are using
media literacy skills and teaching students critical thinking by asking
important questions such as, “Who created the message?”, “What is the message?”,
and “What is the impact of the message on me and on society?”. In this way, educators are able to both teach
critical media literacy skills and to help students prepare for standardized
tests (Medialiteracycolloquium’s Blog, 2010).
Overall,
the importance of critical media literacy had the most impact when considering
the impact that media messages can have on adolescent girls. I have a twelve-year-old daughter who has
said in the past that she wants to look like the models on the covers of
magazines. Heidi Sauer and Rebecca
Robles-Pina’s study showed that critical media literacy skills can help girls
analyze the messages these magazines send and choose not to be pressured into
looking or acting a certain way because it is what the authors portray as
desirable. Teaching critical media
literacy skills will help all students, both girls and boys make better
decisions regarding which messages they view as important, and which ones to
ignore.
References:
Hobbs,
R. Teaching
media literacy: yo! are you hip to this?. Retrieved from http://www.medialit.org/reading-room/teaching-media-literacy-yo-are-you-hip
