{"id":11459,"date":"2014-07-17T19:46:27","date_gmt":"2014-07-17T19:46:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.frankwbaker.com\/mlc\/?page_id=11459"},"modified":"2023-12-07T10:08:59","modified_gmt":"2023-12-07T15:08:59","slug":"when-rubber-meets-the-road-exercises-in-media-literacy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.frankwbaker.com\/mlc\/when-rubber-meets-the-road-exercises-in-media-literacy\/","title":{"rendered":"When Rubber Meets the Road: Exercises in Media Literacy"},"content":{"rendered":"

 <\/p>\n

Typical American adolescents of today have been growing up in a commercially- media saturated world. Since they were toddlers, they have been exposed to numerous (if not millions) of images and messages in some form of media. Some of these messages have been great, some have been good, some of them questionable, and some of them bad. Certainly, they are capable of telling the differences. However, are these students aware of\u00a0all\u00a0they are listening to? Do they spend time thinking about\u00a0why\u00a0a commercial made them feel or think a certain way? Are they aware of any influences it could have on their own lives? Do they notice if any of their choices as consumers, or \u201caesthetic tasters\u201d are individualized and unique or, like a magazine ad, just mass produced?<\/p>\n

Adolescents are children developing into adults. Psychologists have studied this age group extensively as they are the most curious and baffling age group of all. The major area of development is that of their identity. Psychologists agree that identity is the most important aspect of adolescence. During this stage, the body and brain are in a growth spurt. Each student can be at a different level of brain maturity at this time. Some of them are quite capable of abstract thought, and others who are the same age, aren\u2019t quite as developed yet. While these changes are going on, they are grappling with identity issues such as\u00a0who they are vs. who they want to be.\u00a0Many adolescents want to be unique and special from the crowd, yet they find great comfort in blending in with their peers. Not many are willing to gamble on trying to be extremely different and risk being ostracized. Herein lays the paradox: the preciousness in creating one\u2019s identity, while remaining in the comfort zone of some conformity (Steinberg, 2008).<\/p>\n

As an American citizen with the freedom to become who you want to be, identity development is important and glorified. However, like the rest of the world, parents and peers are the most influential catalysts. Secondary influences are the environment and the culture. America\u2019s culture is centralized around electronics and the media. Even our religious traditions and national holidays are commercialized and idealized as part of popular culture. Many (if not all) family traditions include items\u00a0from\u00a0or participation\u00a0in\u00a0popular culture. Therefore, it is almost natural to conclude that the first and secondary influences on a person\u2019s identity are intertwined.<\/p>\n

The media and the Internet (social websites like Facebook) have become common place for most UK and American adolescents. A recent study (2006) of 19 different schools in the UK, found that consumption (buying power) is central to forming an identity. Many of adolescents\u2019 personal relationships are made through the possession of [popular] objects. Adults today can judge this as a superficial reality. Nonetheless, it is a very popular and important way for these adolescents to explore identity (R. Croghan et al., p.463).<\/p>\n

The young people that were interviewed in the UK are not much different from the adolescents in the USA. Their social caste system is mainly identified by what clothes they wear and music they listen to. These \u201cstyle groups\u201d are often the makers of friendship groups. Across the different localities of this survey and between the different schools- there were variations in the names and styles of clothing that particular groups wore (for example, in the USA we typically call groups \u201cpopulars\u201d and \u201cin-betweens\u201d and over there it is \u201ctrendies\u201d and \u201cgreebos\u201d). The associations with key items of clothing (styles and labels), and to a certain extent the music that each group listened to was the same (Croghan, 2006, p. 466).<\/p>\n

But the search for authentic identity and the security in belonging to a group doesn\u2019t stop once you have the right clothes. Many adolescents are constantly under reconstruction and having to negotiate whether or not they or another member actually belong and can be classed in a particular style group. Style decisions are associated with particular identities and these identities have both positive and negative connotations. Most of the time, adolescents will construct positive positions for themselves and negative positions for others. Any style has moral identifiers with it. And as if it were politics, young people will try to avoid too close an alignment with particular style groups. \u201cIt is not just a question of having the correct commodities, but of establishing a right to wear them. This is illustrated where a mixed-gender group of eighth graders recognized that the same clothes could be criticized when worn by an unpopular person and praised when adopted by a member of a popular group. Members of the popular group thus policed and maintained the exclusivity of group membership.\u201d They will undermine each other (2006, p. 467)!<\/p>\n

As an art teacher, thinking that I would be able to work with helping youth in constructing a more positive and healthy approach to identity labels seems like waging a war that I can not win. In short, it seems plausible to step in and have an assignment that identifies materialism as shallow and meaningless in the end. I could hope that many of them would realize that there are more important qualities for a human being to possess and then act on it. But to an eighth grader, these\u00a0things\u00a0might seem like the end – all. And unless you can change the minds of the majority, then the \u201ctrain\u201d isn\u2019t going to stop.<\/p>\n

Another largely important part of identity is what goes in those clothes: A body. Sigmund Freud states that a clear personal identity is strongly based on a healthy ego. A healthy ego defines and drives the individual, and it develops initially through satisfaction with the body. \u201cPut simply, the more the adolescent is satisfied with the human body and able to use this to mediate successful social relationships, the better the adolescent develops as an individual and the happier they are\u201d (Price, 2009, p.38). As social beings, we are reliant on the approval and support of others. Our perceptions of the body are built around life experiences where appearance is commented on. Price, a nurse says, \u201cIncrementally, ideas about the body start to shape perceptions of the self and influence our opportunities to build and sustain happiness. These are matters of more than passing interest to nurses, as mental wellbeing of adolescents is important, both as part of growing up and when dealing with illness or injury\u201d (p. 39).<\/p>\n

Not only are clothes important in forming identity, but the body is objectified, too. That is, the body is ascribed a status that is supported by social norms. Most often the social norm for young women\u2019s bodies is to look as thin as the models on TV and in magazines. Rather than explore the diversity of body shapes and the range of norms, the adolescent accepts that there is only one standard that should be ascribed to, and her body is then measured against this. The adolescent embarks on an emotionally difficult journey of either trying to adjust the body so that it fits expectations or insulating herself against criticism through association with others of a more tolerant disposition (Price, p. 41).<\/p>\n

What I can do in my classroom is lead discussions and create projects that challenge the norms that might be so unrealistic. I believe that helping adolescents to find healthy body image is important to their self-esteem.<\/p>\n

I was inspired by reading an article by June Bianchi. She is an art education professional that has done a collaborative project (among students in England and New York) called,\u00a0More than a body\u2019s work.\u00a0\u00a0This project was an opportunity for hundred of young people from very diverse cultural experiences (from schools, colleges, youth organizations, artists\u2019 groups, community groups, as well as youth with limited access to cultural capital, such as teenage mothers-to-be, the disadvantaged and socially excluded), to come together and create art works (images, poetry, or music) that supported expressing meaningful ideas about their own identities in relation to personal and socio-cultural influences. This active participation engendered a sense of respect for participants\u2019 verbal, visual and written contributions. It generated higher levels of self-esteem. The feedback and evaluations from others across the project indicated that many who had previously been excluded from mainstream education experienced a sense of value, success and a heighted belief in their own potential (Bianchi, 2008, p.305).<\/p>\n

This workshop that she has designed included a format based on identification of significant typologies that lead to the construction of image and appearance:<\/p>\n