Reading and Discussion #1 ~ Students as responsible and literate "digital citizens"

Evidence Chart

Here is the link to my Evidence Chart for the article Toward Critical Media Literacy: Core concepts, debates, organizations, and policy by Kellner & Share.  This is an interesting read.  The writer points out several facts about multicultural misconceptions and stereotypes embedded in media images and texts and how educators need to take a proactive step towards helping students point out and analyze these messages on a higher level critical thinking level.

"Bullshit and the Art of Crap Detection"

In 1969 to be exact--educational philosopher Neil Postman delivered a speech at the National Convention for the Teachers of English frankly titled “Bullshit and the Art of Crap-Detection.” In his speech, Postman stressed the need for teachers to engage students in thinking critically about the bombardment of corporate advertisements and political plugs they faced on a daily basis, underlining the reality that virtually “all human communications have deeply embedded and profound hidden agendas,” particularly messages heavy with commercial and political ideology, which are “saturated with bullshit.” Postman told educators, “As I see it, the best things schools can do for kids is to help them learn how to distinguish useful talk from bullshit. I will ask only that you agree that every day in almost every way people are exposed to more bullshit than is healthy for them to endure, and that if we can help them to recognize this fact, they might turn away from it and toward language that might do them some earthly good.”

1.  To what extent do you agree with Neil Postman?

I think Neil Postman's statement is brilliant and to the point.  Our students are continuously bombarded from several angles whether it is in social media, online forums, TV or radio advertisements, Yahoo! News, or gaming sites.  Communication is not only key in our communities, culture, business atmosphere, etc… but it is also human nature.  Communication allows us to connect with the world around us.  This being said, being able to interpret and analyze the information that is coming at us, which for the most part has some sort of technology base in today's society, is key to being a responsible digital citizen.  We need to be able to set free students into the real-world who can read past the "crap" in the media and communicate on a educated level.

2.  Neil Postman delivered this speech in 1969. How do you think he might feel about "the art of crap-detection" now given recent advancements in digital technologies?

I think he would feel the same exact way.  The art of hidden messages has only been honed in on with advancements in technology.  The fact that anyone has access to creating media texts and images easily means that our students are even more so being exposed, since there world consists of constant technological chatter.

Cameron Russell:  Looks Aren't Everything

1.  What did the video make you think about or feel? 

I'm about to get really super personal on this one.  This video made me cry and it is a battle not many would understand because it seems selfish - maybe.  The deck in my favor was genetics that comes with a high metabolism.  It is genetics that allow me to monopolize on weight to suit media images.  It is genetics that has had me called everything from "frog legs" to "Olive Oyl" all my life.  It is also genetics that because of media images has had me hearing from a young age on:

• "Wait till you hit teenage hood.  The hormones will make you fat!"  
• "Wait till you have a baby.  You'll never get rid of that baby weight!"
• "Wait till you hit 30.  The body really goes downhill from there!"
• "Wait till you hit 40.  There is no going back.  You will get fat.!"

So here I am almost 38 years old, 117 lbs, and full of body self-awareness and shame.  I check my weight every day and I adjust what I eat to maintain an exact weight.  Sometimes I feel as if I get carried away and that scares me.  I see pictures of myself and think "My god what is wrong with you?"  But at the same time all I hear is the criticism in my head the moment I allow myself to gain 5 lbs and it is ridiculous.  I think what is worse is that I don't feel like I can complain or that I have the right to complain; that I have a voice in this fight.  That if I verbally said it people would look at me as if to say, "Why are you complaining.  You got lucky."  This is not an unfounded fear.  The current reply on YouTube under this TED Talks video is by a woman who states, "I don't understand how she can complain about her life…"  And why would anyone?  No one knows the tug-o-war battle anyone plays in their own mind and body.  The woman who made the comment under the video also missed the point of the whole video.  If you look at the comments most people did.  

I remember being really young, 4th grade, and sitting in the waiting room waiting for my mom to exit from her Weight Watchers meeting and being bombarded by women who said, "Just wait!  It will be your turn next.  Enjoy your youth because one day you will be fat too."  I look back and think about how jaded they were, how much hate dripped from the word "fat," and how cruel it was to say words like that to a 9 year old and all I can think about is the media and where it originates.  Cameron did an excellent job of showing pictures of herself in real-life and bouncing it off of images taken that day that has been photoshopped and edited to make her look older and sexually appealing.  

As a confident and strong woman in science - I would love to say that I was able to rise past society and overcome my insecurities (my dirty little secret of constant weight checking when no one looks) but I can't.  I think it boils down to the constant bombardment of cruel comments and media images at a young age when my brain had not matured to deal with it all.  I can say with no doubt in my mind that the cruelty came from individuals who were not capable of interpreting media images, texts, and warped values themselves.  I can say without a doubt that the 1980s was a horrible time in history for media literacy.  Emergency of technology and media information was quick but the skills to interpret the information was just not there.

With that being said.  I do know where my insecurities lie and where they were born.  I hate talking about weight.  I hate it when people bring it up.  I can't verbalize it.  I just won't discuss it.  I know that THIS is what media images do to people and I fell victim to it.   I also can't stop what I hear play over and over again in my mind (the coping skills are not there) but I can control how I mentor my children and my students.   And that is to make sure that what plays in mind, doesn't play in their mind like a broken record.  I want to teach them how to look past the "crap" and see the bias in the media.  I want them to know what is real and what isn't and be able to speak to their community from an educated standpoint.  I want them to see the beauty of people within their community and embrace their culture, ethnicity, gender, and difference.  

2.  How does it support Neil Postman's concerns about "crap-detection."

Cameron is the epitome of media influences.  She is a beautiful woman, naturally.  There is nothing wrong with that.  But for whatever reason, her natural image is not good enough for the media.  Her image has to be distorted, slimmed, aged (in either direction) before it is released.  For those who do not know that the image is not a real person, their interpretation can damage either their own self esteem or they use this uniformed knowledge to damage the self esteem of others.   

REFLECTION

Media literacy in-and-out of school is CRITICAL because as I pointed out in my very personal story (to make my point) self-esteem is wrapped up in what we read, experience, and the feedback we receive from others.  I think Kellner & Share said it best in their journal article Toward critical media literacy, "The process of empowerment is a major aspect of transformative education and it can take many forms, from building self-esteem to creating alternative media that voice opposition to social problems" (Kellner & Share, 2005).  In her TED Talks video Cameron was able to point out  the perfect image of what a woman should look like by media standards.  At the same time pointed out that those images weren't her and she accompanied this point by showing the audience what she looked like in real-life with her friends, in her sports, and with her family.

Neil Postman had a very similar point of view to Keller & Share as well when they stated, "individuals are often not aware that they are being educated and constructed by media culture, as its pedagogy is frequently invisible and unconscious" (Keller & Share 2005).  Cameron's attempt to show us the unconscious message by media was powerful.  However, as intelligent as we hope we are when it comes to media literacy, there were so many comments on the bottom of the YouTube video that referred to her as "complaining."  These comments missed the point she was trying to make.  She knows she is part of the problem in media images.  What she is trying to point out is that message everyone is receiving is not real.  It is completely concocted by the media but it is delivering a very real and negative message at the same time when it comes to body image and how we see ourselves.  I am not immune to this message.  That is why it is so VERY important to teach our children to analyze social media and see through the "crap" to where the messages really are.

I honestly believe Kellar & Share best summed it up with these two sentences:

"A major challenge in developing critical media literacy, however, results from the fact that it is not a pedagogy in the traditional sense, with firmly established principles, a canon of texts, and tried-and-true teaching procedures. It requires a democratic pedagogy which involves teachers sharing power with students as they join together in the process of unveiling myths and challenging hegemony" (Keller & Share, 2005).

Our students are going to interpret what they see in the media whether we help them or not.  In fact, they will be more knowledgeable as what is out there and what is not before we are.  They are completely emerged as true "digital citizens."  I think the best way to help them is have them show us what they are being drenched in and then together mentor them to interpret what they see in a responsible and educated fashion.  

Citation

Kellner, D., & Share, J. (2005). Toward critical media literacy: Core concepts, debates, organizations, and policy. Discourse: studies in the cultural politics of education, 26(3), 369-386. Retrieved from http://pages.gseis.ucla.edu/faculty/kellner/essays/2005_Kellner-Share_TowardsCriticalMediaLiteracy.pdf

TED Talks. (Videographer) (n.d.). Cameron russell: Looks aren't everything. believe me, i'm a model. [Web]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KM4Xe6Dlp0Y