Week 13 D.E.J.

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

Learn critical thinking through media literacy education. (2010, October 25). Retrieved from http://medialiteracycolloquium.wordpress.com/2010/10/25/learn-critical-thinking-through-media-literacy-education/