Media Literacy

Media Literacy

As I googled 'Media Literacy,' many websites and links came up.
Medialiteracy.com:
Brands R Us: How Advertising Works.
I found this article really interesting. Advertising/brands are so influencial on everyone in some way, but on teenagers especially. The article says, "The fact is, when all is said and done, most people don't believe, don't remember, don't even notice, most advertising." I think this is true but there is no doubt that it is still important on our society. Powerfully put, "...But pointing a finger at the advertising industry will change nothing. Wishing and hoping that the advertising industry will lose its innocence and suddenly leap into modern times in recognition of the situation we are all in is futile. And while the advertising industry is part and parcel of an industrial civilization now in decline, this doesn't mean we should expect the number of advertising messages and collective power of those messages to also decline in the very near future. If anything, it means we can expect an increase in the number of those messages. For the advertising industry, along with the main body of industrial society, is struggling for survival. It may be drowning, but it has not yet sunk. And in a last-ditch effort to save itself, it will flail about more wildly and make more noise than ever, as we might expect from any drowning individual." What we must change is us. We are the problem. We either help create this reality, or we help maintain it.

http://www.mediachannel.org/classroom/index.shtml"
It is estimated thatNorth American children spend twice as much time over the course of a year watching television as they do in school. A recent study found that U.S. children spend over four and a half hours a day using television, computers and video games." I had assumed that the percentage for this would be great, but I did not realize it would be quite this high. When a child watches twice as much time engaged in television as they do in school, how could they not be strongly impacted and unknowingly influenced? At some point, we need to challenge this and actively work on fighting it.

http://www.medialit.org/reading_room/article408.html
John Culkin, SJ: The Man Who Invented Media Literacy. John Culkin (1928-1993) was one of the first educators in the U.S. to initiate explicit media education curriculum in schools. He wrote, ""The attainment of (media) literacy involves more that mere warnings about the effects of the mass media and more even than constant exposure to the better offerings of these media. This is an issue demanding more than good will alone; it requires understanding. And training in understanding is the task of the school!" He also stated, "Above all, Culkin wanted to teach teachers to think in new ways." While I think that he is right, and appreciate his dedication to this issue, we cannot disregard a parent's responsibility. While our teachers are in the schools, it is the parents that are educating at home. I believe this should be a shared responsibility. It is too important and too influencial to be taken lightly, or to be handled by only one adult figure in thier lives.