I have become interested in media literacy in the last few months and this last week, I was able to read up on it a bit for an assignment for Core 2.  It is becoming increasingly important to develop strategies and skills navigate this overabundance of information.  I read an article this week called "Toward Critical Media Literacy: Core Concepts, Debates, Organizations, and Policy," which deals with this very topic, but from the perspective of K-12 teachers.  Still, I think that some of the lessons presented in the article bear repeating. 

     The authors of the article, Douglas Kellner and Jeff Share, define literacy as the means to gain "competencies involved in effectively learning and using socially constructed forms of communication and representation."  I thought this was an interesting definition, as it implies reading, which of course is a socially constructed form of education, but does not seem to grant it primacy over other forms of learning.  Also, there is an analytical bent to the definition that seems to privilege the means to glean information from any mode.  This, if you remember, is not unlike Tufte's exhortation to use evidence of every kind, regardless of its mode. 

     In our class, we've been talking about how information is constructed and have been  reading and writing about it at a high level, and this is fine; but this sort of training should probably start sooner.  Kellner and Share would probably agree.  They say "it is highly irresponsible in the face of saturation by the Internet and media culture to ignore these forms of socialization and education; consequently, a critical reconstruction of education should produce pedagogies that provide media and enable students, teachers, and citizens to discern the nature and effects of media culture (Kellner and Share, 371)."  In other words, we should be examining media and its influences early on to better prepare children to be informed citizens.  With this in mind, I can't understand why this sort of pedogogical philosophy hasn't been put in place already. 

     The authors explain that media literacy should be more than the ability to make meaning out everything we see-- texts, signs, websites, music, and even television programs. Learning to interpret data presented in these various forms will make us more informed citizens, and will allow us to read between the lines, as it were.

Clip courtesy of the South Park Studios website.  WARNING: contains language that some may deem offensive. 


"Media do not present reality like transparent windows or simple reflections of the world because media messages are created, shaped, and positioned through a construction process (Kellner and Share, 374)."
    
   I think the above clip of South Park, though not very subtle, communicates the same sentiment as Kellner and Share.  Much of the mainstream media presents images and values that many people would find troubling.  Whenever I look at talk shows, MTV, or any of those awful reality shows, I have to wonder: who acts like this and why do people watch this programming, quietly condoning its message.  Now I don't want to come off as a cultural conservative here (and I doubt I did, as I just posted a clip of South Park).  Instead, I'm trying to find a real-world example fits discussion that Kellner and Share presented. 

     The masses of young female who wanted to be like Paris Hilton represent a constituency that is easily manipulated.  While this characterization in the show is sensationalized for effect, I think Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the creators of South Park, got their point across: children don't know how to read the media as texts, and parents often ignore this fact.  Wendy, the young girl that saw how preposterous it is to want to be like Paris Hilton, was in the minority, and shunned for her critical and reasonable position.  I think Parker and Stone are arguing that improved media literacy (or at least more parental input) will help kids make sense of the things kids see on television.  I think they're right. 

   

    

We began Information Architecture this semester by looking at the construction of language through the use of metaphors. Earlier I posted about the metaphors we use during class discussion. Today on Twitter @DocMara pointed to an excellent documentary by Honda that investigates the idea of failure in the innovation process. It seems that Honda has a series of documentaries under the heading The Power of Dreams. One video, Kick out the Ladder, caught my attention because of how Honda has employed the metaphor both in their company and visually in the documentary:

Cross-posted at Composing Spaces.