A Media Literacy Menu: Ingredients for Successful    Media Studies   2001

                                Barry Duncan 
                        (Links added by Frank Baker)


The following observations are designed  to serve as probes and
provocations to uncover the essence of some  important ideas about media
education and media studies. Based largely on the experience of The
Association for Media Literacy during the last ten years,  we hope these
ideas and resources will stimulate discussion and debate. This list is not
carved in stone; the ideas keep changing. ( This list, since modified from
the original, was first published in "Telemedium, the Journal of Media
Education," in 1998.)

In the media classroom, we want to  pursue thoughtful media analysis in
which it is understood that class discussions and reflection are the basis
for constructing  new knowledge. In this context,  the classroom is a 'site
of struggle' in which meanings are negotiated. UK educator Len Masterman
insists that media studies should be inquiry-centered, co-investigative, (
it does not seek to impose a specific set of values) egalitarian, dialogic
( N.B. True dialogue is not conducted through  loose, rambling discussions
but  dialectically,  leading students to critical autonomy. Such an
expectation implies  that they are capable of making independent judgments
on future media texts.

1.) Teachers need to find a variety of ways of exploiting the 'teachable
media moments.' When excitement over a media text/event  comes our way, go
for it !  Here is the most direct and relevant way  to contextualize the
key concepts of media: how media construct reality; the role played by
media codes and conventions; the nature of audience, the role of media
industries; and the pervasive impact of values and ideology. Encourage
in-depth study through comparing the extensive media coverage of a major
media event. Examples: the death of Diana; the coverage of Clintongate;
the  shootings at Columbine;  the hyping of the Titanic and the new Star
Wars films; the trend of artificially created bands like 'Nsync and the
Spice Girls;  and the impact of the  'reality television' phenomenon.  Use
plenty of surveys to find out what students  already know about the media
and duly note the wise guys in  your class who are already  pop culture
experts.

N.B Starting in 2001, teachers will have access to  a monthly pop culture
with teaching strategies for some current teachable media moments,
available from "Barry's Bulletin"  created for Mnet  Go to
http://www.media-awareness.ca/  and click on 'educators' or 'resources.'

2.) Make media production an integral part of your course.

As UK educator Eddie Dick  pointed out, we want to have  both "critical
practice as well as practical criticism." Therefore, link your analytical
examples with practical work- using camcorders, multimedia digitizing,
Polaroid or digital cameras and  try creating  some  satirical   collages.
Good equipment is desirable but not essential. Constructing  storyboards
and  sequencing pictures can be done at little cost.

3.) Use all the key concepts of media to deconstruct media texts.  While
codes, conventions and aesthetics are generally well done, others are often
neglected including the following:

i.) Audience: how each of us makes sense of any media text on the basis of
our gender, culture , race, and our individual and collective needs. See
(Buckingham,1990) and (Duncan,1996).
ii.) Institutions: focus on concerns about social, cultural and political
relations. Sites include: media representation of schools, hospitals, and
the military.
iii.) Industry- including critical topics such as ownership and control,
the impact of transnational corporations and the global economy; cross
media merchandising e.g. Star Wars.  Read about global media and
merchandising  strategies in Wolf: The Entertainment Economy.
Lest the topic seem too abstract, use documentaries on Coca Cola,
McDonald's and Nike. Help  students  investigate monopolies, the extent of
corporate resources for advertising and the incredibly powerful role of
public relations' initiatives Critical marketing has become the most
important aspect of modern media. Read Naomi  Klein's invaluable book
No Logo: Taking Aim at the Brand Bullies, Random House, 2000.)  Finally, no
media course is worth its salt if it fails to do an in-depth investigation
of the commercialization of our schools, from Channel One and  Pepsi
franchises to corporate - sponsored classroom curriculum, including even
media education resources.

4.) Place media literacy in the broader perspectives provided by  cultural
studies.  Now established as a kind of  international consensus on theory,
cultural studies  provides important contexts for  our media texts and
helps us  construct a suitable critical pedagogy. Cultural studies
foregrounds gender, race, class, political hegemony  and the dynamics of
subject positioning. (As an aside, teachers of English should be  doing
more cultural studies approaches to literature and engaging in fewer
literary approaches to popular culture.)

5.) Be up front about the importance  of media pleasures - guilty or otherwise.

Academics can sure take the pleasure out of this pursuit ! But the notion
of the personal satisfactions in media consumption and the joys of fandom,
from admiring the Backstreet Boys  to delving into quirky film noir movies,
must be acknowledged; otherwise, the strident protectionist approach to
media literacy will dominate. Teachers should begin by acknowledging their
own problematic and contradictory culture  passions  and be prepared, when
appropriate, to share them.  Why not encourage students to write thoughtful
papers on their media pleasures and  encourage  them to use their media
logs for open - ended responses?

6.)  Learn from media professionals  to see media and popular culture in
action and be prepared to expand the territory  of the subject.

Scan your community for potential speakers and field trips.
Seek out film, television and sound producers, photographers, journalists,
advertisers, public relations agencies, and media academics. Visit
production houses including those for  film, television and multimedia
technologies.  Look for opportunities to watch the taping of regularly
produced shows.  Organize a trip to a shopping mall, a theme park, a video
arcade  or some  upscale urban site that will reveal interesting social and
semiotic analysis. Check out book and poster stores including  comic book
venues. Broaden the concepts of media literacy to include artifacts such as
Barbie dolls, action figures, and  Furbies and all manner of pop  kitsch.
By adopting  an expanded definition of media studies, the view from the
classroom on our communities will be  richer and more complex.

7.) Where feasible, teach through concepts and important themes.

Tackle broad areas such as  representation, narrative, audience and media
industries rather than being confined to genre- specific approaches e.g.
television in grade 10, the newspaper in grade 11. Such an approach  may
seem fine for a beginning teacher but this model is rarely productive in a
field that is always crossing  genres. See (Branston, 1996) and secondary
school text by Barry Duncan et al. Mass Media and Popular Culture.

8.) Avoid the tendency to depoliticize media texts.  Teach not only
''through' but also 'about' the media.

There are too many bland, soft landing, media literacy products in
circulation. Without going on a crusade of media bashing fueled by moral
panics, the media classroom deserves openness, intellectual rigor, loads of
enthusiasm and a willingness to take risks. Model media texts with
interesting ideological constructions and have students investigate
examples which they  might take for granted e.g. Coke, Nike and McDonald's
commercials).


9.) Encourage oppositional readings of mainstream media.

Use the bounty of material on topics such as the Gulf War,  the war in the
Balkans, and  the tobacco industry PR spin to demonstrate how the dominant
media are able to manufacture consent. Encourage mainstream readings of
popular television texts e.g. "Friends,"  "Dawson's Creek," and   "Do you
want to be a millionaire?" and then model some oppositional readings in
which you 'read  against the grain.' Try to encourage students to transfer
their insights gathered in the media classroom into other areas: the
politics of schooling, the role of authority in the family, the world of
work.  Otherwise, much of our endeavor will have limited impact. ( Guard
against playing the 'spot the stereotype' exercise as an end in itself.)
Incorporate in media studies the most useful insights of media  critics
such as Noam Chomsky, Herbert Schiller, Mark Crispin Miller but avoid being
seduced into rigidly  holding monolithic interpretations which may be
occasionally tinged with paranoia. (See  critiques  of  Douglas Kellner.)


10.) Face the challenges and controversies associated with teaching about
media representation.

Representation is generally considered the central principle in all media
study, and  we must be prepared to mediate its complexity. For example, in
studying race and the media there is a danger of essentializing  groups or
'the other,' of limiting the nature of difference through resorting to
stereotyping.  Today, the legacy  of living in a multicultural society is
the recognition  that identity is an evolving, hybrid and unstable concept.
This in-between state necessitates finding   appropriate discourses. ( See
Robert  Morgan, 1997) Education critic Henry Giroux reminds us that today,
by necessity, we are all border crossers. Welcome to the global village!

11.) Insist that students conduct original research when doing media
projects. Using ethnographic models, students can learn to effectively
observe, interview, and record the opinions and descriptions of individuals
and groups when they are researching the reasons for the popularity  of TV
programs, rock bands, and celebrities. Making  students become avid
researchers will ultimately change the social dynamics of the classroom.

12.) Use appropriate instruments/rubrics for authentic media assessment. To
give media studies credibility and to overcome the dangers of arbitrary and
subjective responses to student work, we need systematic approaches and
easy-to follow models.  As Kathleen Tyner reminds us,  "When subject
standards, classroom tasks, and student assessment are aligned, teachers
can better recognize when learning takes place.   ( See also Chris Worsnop,
1999).

13.) Explore the richness of the many meaningful  alternatives to
mainstream media.

Access independent film and video e.g. Paper Tiger Television,
experimental art which explores  media connections. Look for  media books
and periodicals offering alternatives to mainstream media coverage.
Subscribe to  Entertainment Weekly and Rolling  Stone by all means but
include in your media perspectives periodicals such as Extra, The Media
Studies Journal, Brill's Content, The Nation, Z, Cineaste, and Adbusters.
As well, you might want to consider novels with media themes as a
stimulating classroom resource such as, Burgess: Clockwork Orange;
Kosinski: Being There;  De Lillo: White Noise;  Copeland: Generation X. and
more recently ( 1997) Connie Willis:  Bellwether.

14.) To stay relevant, media education  must address comprehensively the
new and converging communication  technologies, from multimedia  and
Nintendo to the Internet.

The new media are reconfiguring media language, fostering hybrid identities
and multiple literacies, and, as McLuhan noted, obsolescing aspects of
communications  discourse while retrieving others. Technotopic discourse
seems to prevail and Microsoft Inc. continues to dominate the world- all of
which should be grist for the media teacher's mill. Mediate thisvast cyber
domain through  applying the key concepts of media and see what important
insights emerge. Regrettably, there is still a dearth of rigorous analysis
supported by  solid empirical data from the classroom. (See the work of
Marshall McLuhan and Sefton-Green's anthology: Digital Diversions.)

15.) Media teachers need to connect with each other. Given that our numbers
are small and our educational clout often limited, it is of paramount
importance to connect with our 'interpretative community.'  The qualified
success of the Association for Media is largely attributable to our
extensive collaboration in creating text books, newsletters ,writing  media
expectations and new courses for education authorities and organizing
workshops and international conferences such as Summit 2000.  It is,
therefore, essential that media teachers take out a  membership in one or
more North American media literacy organizations. (It is not enough to
assume that key information will automatically reach you simply through
subscribing to The Media L Serve.) We need to keep up with this  constantly
changing and exciting  field and share ideas with our media education
colleagues. Wish all of us good luck !

Association for Media Literacy
2204 -1  Aberfoyle St. Etobicoke, Ontario M8X2X8,
Phone (416) 696-7144  E-Mail: aml@interlog.com
website: www.aml.ca

Center for Media Literacy : 403- 4727 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles,
California 90010,  Phone: 1-800-226-9494.

National Telemedia Council (Telemedium)
1922 University Avenue Madison, WI 53705
Phone: (608) 218 - 1182    FAX: (608) 218 - 1183



Bibliography

Branston: The Media Student's Book;  
Buckingham, David. Watching Media Learning; 
Duncan, Barry et al. Mass media and Popular Culture. Harcourt-Brace, Toronto, 1996; 
Sefton- Green, Julian. Digital Diversions, 1998; 
Kellner, Douglas. Media Culture; 
Masterman, Len. Media Education in 1990's Europe;  
Morgan, Robert. "Messing with Mr. In-Between: Multiculturalism and Hybridization." English Quarterly vol. 29, no 1, 1997;
Schiller, Herbert. Culture Inc.; 
Tyner, Kathleen. Literacy in a Digital World; 
Worsnop, Chris. Assessing Media Work.

N.B. A detailed 12 page bibliography of media literacy resources is
available with membership in AML.

Barry Duncan baduncan@interlog.com The Association for Media Literacy, Toronto