This week our focus is on media literacy. As an English teacher, I’m constantly teaching media literacy whether students realize it or not. To me, media literacy is having the tools to break down any type of media message. My goal as an educator is to make sure my students have the skills and knowhow necessary to understand and analyze media that comes into their paths.
There are many definitions of media literacy. A unit for one of my English classes has the textbook definition of media literacy as “the ability to break down and analyze media messages and recognize social implications”. When discussing media literacy with students, we spend quite a bit of time conversing about what media itself can be. As more technology is developed the answer of what can be grouped in the umbrella of “media” becomes larger and larger. The textbook defines media as the “physical or technical means of communicating a message”.
When teaching media literacy to my students I try to bring in a variety of types of media. Having students analyze a newspaper article, a film, a popular radio song and a trending YouTube video helps to remind students that media is all around us. My hope is that by teaching the skills of how to break down each of these types of media will allow my students to be critical thinkers who ask thoughtful questions. I’d hope all of my students know to ask “Why is this ad appearing when I go to this website?”. We’ve talked briefly about how cookies and how they are used to populate advertisements that may interest you.
The students always laugh when I tell them that I get spammed all the time in my Gmail account with ads looking to find me a mail order bride from Russia. The reason is that my email account remembers when I was studying the Russian language and had to email my professor papers written in Russian. Apparently that was enough for some of Google’s profiling bots to grab me as needing a mail order bride. This example helps students to make connections with the advertisements they see on their computers. Often during this conversation, one or two students will have an “oh, that is why I see X or Y!” moment.
The heart of media literacy will always be critical thinking skills and questioning skills. If students can recognize, evaluate and examine media they should be able to tackle any form of media that comes their way.
There are many definitions of media literacy. A unit for one of my English classes has the textbook definition of media literacy as “the ability to break down and analyze media messages and recognize social implications”. When discussing media literacy with students, we spend quite a bit of time conversing about what media itself can be. As more technology is developed the answer of what can be grouped in the umbrella of “media” becomes larger and larger. The textbook defines media as the “physical or technical means of communicating a message”.
When teaching media literacy to my students I try to bring in a variety of types of media. Having students analyze a newspaper article, a film, a popular radio song and a trending YouTube video helps to remind students that media is all around us. My hope is that by teaching the skills of how to break down each of these types of media will allow my students to be critical thinkers who ask thoughtful questions. I’d hope all of my students know to ask “Why is this ad appearing when I go to this website?”. We’ve talked briefly about how cookies and how they are used to populate advertisements that may interest you.
The students always laugh when I tell them that I get spammed all the time in my Gmail account with ads looking to find me a mail order bride from Russia. The reason is that my email account remembers when I was studying the Russian language and had to email my professor papers written in Russian. Apparently that was enough for some of Google’s profiling bots to grab me as needing a mail order bride. This example helps students to make connections with the advertisements they see on their computers. Often during this conversation, one or two students will have an “oh, that is why I see X or Y!” moment.
The heart of media literacy will always be critical thinking skills and questioning skills. If students can recognize, evaluate and examine media they should be able to tackle any form of media that comes their way.