In many school districts, media/film study is perceived as peripheral or even irrelevant to teaching “basic skills” or “subject content.” It is further assumed that classroom time should not be devoted to viewing videos or DVD’s when students are or can view media texts “outside” of the classroom or if such viewing is simply being used by teachers to entertain students or substitute viewing for “instructional” activities.

The problem with focusing simply on “basic skills” or “subject content” is that these aspects of the curriculum are necessary, but not sufficient to prepare students for participation in social contexts mediated by new media and digital technologies related to ICT (informational and communication technologies). Given their active use of various media and digital technologies, adolescents have gone beyond simply consuming media texts to becoming actively engaged in participating in and with technology tools such as video/computer games, on-line chats, websites, PowerPoint presentations, and I-movie productions. In both consuming and producing media texts, students also need to be able to critically examine differences in their ability to communicate experiences and ideas to intended audiences. In doing so, they are learning that various ICT tools are particularly effective for achieving certain purposes, for example, that they can enhance their audience’s engagement through multi-media presentation using PowerPoint or websites.

However, one of the challenges facing schools is that given their high level of participation with ICT’s outside of school, many adolescents perceive the traditional school curriculum and structure as no longer meeting their needs. Many adolescents have developed sophisticated media literacies through use of media texts outside of school. Media texts afford adolescents with various pleasures through not only responding to engaging media texts, but in also producing these texts.

See Media Literacy and Adolescents: Teenagers and Screenagers.

In a large study of British adolescents’ media uses by Sonia Livingstone (2002) (click here for an earlier report of the data) found that interactive computer technologies are becoming part of the infrastructure of the home although new media have not displaced children’s current leisure activities and the use of media is a highly individualized matter.

Adolescents in the study spend 4 1/2 - 5 hours daily on average on the computer, playing computer/video games, watching TV/videos/DVD's, listening to music, reading magazines, etc. The percentages of 6-17 year-olds use of media: 99% TV, 86% Music, 81% video, 64% computer games, 57% read non-school book , 36% non-game computer, 28% comics, and 19% Web.

However, there are different types of media users:

• Traditionalists” are typically12-14 and focus their uses primarily on TV, books, magazines

• “Low media users” are typically under 12, and have few media in their bedrooms

• “Screen entertainment fans” are typically males ages 12-14 and focus primarily on TV, video, and computer games

• “Specialists” are primarily book lovers.

• “PC fans” focus more on uses of the computer and tend to be living in media-rich homes

• “Music lovers” are typically 15- to 17-year-old female

Adolescents’ media use in the study also varied by the type of day in terms of their media uses outside versus inside the home. On a “really good day,” 41% go to movie, 39% see friends, 35% play sports, and 23% do homework and/or go on the computer. On a “really boring day,” 41% watch TV, 28% read a book, and 22% play tapes or watch video.

Their media use are varied according to the types of family interactions. “Low interaction” families had low media use, while “high interaction” families shared media uses. “Intimate” families focused more on screen entertainment, while “talkative” families were more likely to discuss the news.

Another study by Knowledge Networks/SRI found that close to two-thirds (61%) of kids now have a TV set in their bedrooms, 17% also have their own PC, 35% of kids have videogame systems, 14% have their own DVD player, and 9% have internet access in their own bedrooms.
The study also found that 46% of kids with TVs in their rooms do at least half of their TV viewing on that set; 75% report multitasking while watching TV; 43% have visited a website as the result of a TV ad within the past week; and 50% of those surveyed say they have parental rules for their TV use (vs. 61% of kids without their own sets). Kids with their own in-room Internet access reported doing a majority of their Internet visits (57%) in their rooms, with 61% having parental rules restricting their web use, compared to 69% of Internet-using kids who do not have own-room Internet connections.

And, a 2003 survey by Grunwald Associates, found that more than 2 million American children ages 6 -17 have their own personal websites (44% of those were ages 13-17) that 23 million kids have Internet access from home.

The home is therefore changing as a result of media and the media rich home is replacing street culture in children’s experiences and the bedroom media culture is replacing shared family spaces. As adolescents are using media in the own bedroom, they may be less likely to participate in shared, community media uses with the family. Their increased participation in virtual communities, chat rooms, IM buddy-chat, and computer games has resulted in the creation of a segregated, adolescent niche audience built on adolescent consumer power and demand.

As they gain expertise and agency through uses of these ICT’s, they acquire the mindset of “insiders” in communities organized around ICT’s, while many teachers and peers still have the mindset of “newcomers” to these communities (Lankshear & Knobel, 2003). This suggests the need to revise traditional school communities in ways that build on these adolescents’ expertise so that they can be recognized for their competence in schools, enhancing their sense of agency in schools.

Many teachers remain “newcomers” because they have not received training on current aspects of media education and technology use. A recent report by the Henry J. Kaiser Family foundation on teaching of media education in schools
indicated that while teacher education programs are including more media literacy in their programs, training for inservice teachers is often limited to workshops and conferences.

One often cited reason for the lack of training in media education is that teachers, given the need to address the mandates of No Child Left Behind One, need to focus on the “basics” of reading and writing so that students test scores will improve. However, one study cited in The Kaiser Family report indicated that incorporating media education into the curriculum can enhance the development of reading and writing skills (Hobbs & Frost, 1999; 2003). 11th-grade students in an English class received media literacy instruction over a one-year period that was designed by English teachers and integrated into their curriculum. Students in this course improved in their reading, viewing and listening comprehension of print, audio and video texts, message analysis and interpretation, and writing skills to a greater degree than did students in a control group.

University of Oregon: Media Literacy Review

Go to Renee Hobbs's web site:
and click on:
Hobbs, R. & Frost, R. (2003). Measuring the acquisition of media-literacy skills. Reading Research Quarterly 38(3), 330 - 355.
Hobbs, R. & Frost, R. (1999). Instructional practices in media literacy education and their impact on students' learning. New Jersey Journal of Communication, 6(2): 123-148.

This research suggests that when students are actively engaged in media literacy activities that include uses of reading and writing for definite purposes, that students can improve in “basic skills.” The research also points to the importance of integrating media literacy and ICT activities into the curriculum, as opposed to perceiving it as an extra add-on. All of this points to the centrality of media literacy in the curriculum.

The centrality of media literacy in other countries. Media education is taken far more seriously in other countries than in the United States. In Australia, students study media from K – 12th grade. One key factor is Australia is that the curriculum itself has, in certain provinces, been redefined to focus on the importance of media literacy. For example, The Queensland “New Basics” Project formulates a new organization of the K-12 curriculum around the realities of students’ lives in contemporary society.

“New Basics” curriculum is organized around four basic topics:

• Life pathways and social futures
  Who am I and where am I going?
  • Living in and preparing for diverse family relationships
  • Collaborating with peers and others
  • Maintaining health and care of self
  • Learning about and preparing for new worlds of work
  • Developing initiative and enterprise

• Multiliteracies and communications media
  How do I make sense of and communicate with the world?
  • Blending traditional and new communications media
  • Making creative judgments and engaging in performance
  • Communicating using languages and intercultural understandings
  • Mastering literacy and numeracy

• Active citizenship
  What are my rights and responsibilities in communities, cultures and economies?
  • Interacting within local and global communities
  • Operating within shifting cultural identities
  • Understanding local and global economic forces
  • Understanding the historical foundation of social movements and civic institutions

• Environments and technologies
  How do I describe, analyze, and shape the world around me?
  • Developing a scientific understanding of the world
  • Working with design and engineering technologies
  • Building and sustaining environments

To address these four areas, students learn to employ various intellectual activities, including:

• inquiry and expression
• reflection and thoughtfulness
• persistence
• organization and time management
• reading efficiently and accurately
• using both written and spoken English clearly, economically and with grace
• understanding, appreciating and expressing ideas in other languages
• receiving nonverbal communication accurately and delivering it with sensitivity and color
• organizing, sifting through, arranging wisely and making sense of ideas and data
• using computers (including word processing), with an emphasis on the capabilities of the computer for communicating and expressing in multiple media
• studying and memorizing
• civic behavior
• applying knowledge well beyond the confines of the school
• figuring out how to think and act in unpredictable situations

This concept of the “new basics” still retains some aspects of the “old basics” associated with literary learning and numeracy. However, it posits that given the demands of life in the 21st century, students also need to acquire the “new basics,” particularly in terms of learning to employ and understand various communication and media literacy tools

In Ontario, Canada, media education has been required in grades 7-12 since 1987. Their curriculum is available at The Center for Media Literacy: 10 Classroom Approaches to Media Literacy, a summary of the Media Literacy Resource Guide published by the Ontario Ministry of Education

In Britain, there is a national media studies curriculum students take national exams in media studies, including a portfolio with writing that reflects their ability to critically analyze the media and the role of media industries in shaping media content.

Students also need to examine the spiritual, moral, ethical, social and cultural dimensions of media production, particularly related to cultural imperialism, globalization, and environmental issues. This includes their ability to recognize the limitations of the British media relative to perspectives provided by other global media outlets.

In the United States, in which state curriculums prevail, according to a study by Robert Kubey and Frank Baker, few states have any distinct media studies curriculum strand.

For a more elaborate set of media literacy standards, see the MCREL students for grades 6-12 for:
Viewing
Media

Most states include some media literacy standards within their larger standards framework, or integrate media literacy standards into the language arts curriculum. For example, Minnesota’s media literacy standards for grades 9-12 are part of the language arts standards:

(At the high school level, media literacy should be addressed across content areas andintegrated into the curriculum at the discretion of the local district.)
Standard: The student will critically analyze information found in electronic and print media, and will use a variety of these sources to learn about a topic and represent ideas.
A student will be able to:

1. Evaluate the accuracy and credibility of information found on Internet sites.
2. Evaluate the logic of reasoning in both print and non-print selections.
3. Evaluate the source’s point of view, intended audience and authority.
4. Determine whether the evidence in a selection is appropriate, adequate and accurate.
5. Evaluate the content and effect of persuasive techniques used in print and broadcast
media.
6. Make informed evaluations about television, radio, film productions, newspapers and
magazines with regard to quality of production, accuracy of information, bias,
purpose, message and audience.
7. Critically analyze the messages and points of view employed in different media,
including advertising, news programs, web sites, and documentaries.
8. Formulate critical, evaluative questions relevant to a print or non-print selection.
9. Critically analyze and evaluate the strategies employed in news broadcasts,
documentaries, and web sites related to clarity, accuracy, effectiveness, bias and
relevance of facts.
10. Demonstrate an understanding of ethics in mass communication and describe the
characteristics of ethical and unethical behavior.

They are also integrated into the Minnesota Arts Standards:

A student will be able to demonstrate

1. how a synthesis of the components of media arts is used to define a work in media arts:

a. elements, including image, sound, space, time, motion, and sequence;
b. principles (for example, repetition, unity, or contrast);
c. vocabulary;
d. structures (for example, chronological or spatial);
e. styles (for example, documentary, narrative, or abstract); and
f. technical skills (for example, selection and use of the tools of the medium);

2. the similarities and differences among the structures and styles within media arts;

3. how the selection of criteria affects criticism of a work in media arts; and

4. the connections between media arts and other disciplines outside the arts (for example,mathematics, science, or history);

A student will be able to:

1. select criteria for evaluating works in media arts;

2. analyze and interpret media art through its historical, cultural, or social context;

3. support personal reactions to media art works using the components of media arts; and

4. articulate informed evaluations of media art works using selected criteria;

One state with a distinct media literacy strand is Texas. In a curriculum framework, Viewing and Representing: Media Literacy in Texas developed by Renee Hobbs and others, the Texas curriculum revolves around critically analyzing media representations focusing on topics such as the following:

1. Asking critical questions
Ask questions to discover the purpose, point of view, target audience, and subtext of different types of media messages; and explore the power of product placement as a form of hidden persuasion.
2. Who do you trust?
Analyze different strategies that can be used to judge the realism, authenticity, and authority of media messages found on tv, newspapers, the Internet, and in the library.
3. Crime reporting
Examine how the news media’s coverage of crime affects our perceptions of reality and our beliefs about the criminal justice system.
4. Reading the romance
Explore the structure and characters common to media romances and how they affect our perceptions of romantic love.
5. The language of politics
Analyze political communication strategies and evaluate the impact of the mass media on the political campaign process.
6. The culture of celebrity
Explore the power of celebrities in contemporary society and how celebrities shape our expectations of ourselves and the world around us.

A central approach in the Texas curriculum is that students learn to
work together on small-group inquiry-based projects involving both critical analysis of media texts, as well as production of their own texts. It also assumes that teachers, rather than demeaning or trivializing students’ media choices and uses as unsophisticated, recognize that adolescents differ in their uses and choices of media from adults and provide a classroom context that allows students to share their responses to media in a safe, supportive manner.

Unfortunately, schools themselves are often structured in ways that foreclose or limit new ways of learning consistent with how people learn in activities and computer-mediated contexts outside of schools. As later illustrated by the example of video games, video players are actively learning in highly interactive ways that are quite different from the often- passive modes of learning in schools. However, none of this should be framed as an either/or opposition—schools are entertaining new ways of fostering learning as mediated by new forms of media, as evident in work being done at the MIT Media Lab on new forms of learning.

Educators and media producers interested in fostering media education in schools have formed two national organizations that serve to promote interest in media literacy instruction in schools, the Alliance for a Media Literate America (AMLA) and the Action Coalition for Media Education (ACME).

Other important media education sites include:

Center for Media Literacy

Media Literacy Clearinghouse

Media Literacy Online Project

National Telemedia Council

The New Mexico Media Literacy Project

Project Look Sharp

Recognizing the role of adults and parents in media education. Because most of students’ media use occurs in home contexts, there is a strong need to assist adults or parents in ways to critically engage students in media use (Hogan, 2001; Strasburger & Wilson, 2002). This suggests the value of teachers involving parents in assignments associated with critically responding to or producing media texts. In a series of articles (PDF files) based on forging ties between school and parents published in an issue of Cable in the Classroom, Thinking Critically about Media: Schools and Families in Partnership,
educators describe ways of helping parents foster discussions with adolescents through responding to the same media texts, recognizing that adults and adolescents often deliberately choose different texts. For example, Folami Prescott-Adams, in her article, “Empowered Parents: Role Models Empowered Parents: Role Models for Taking Charge of TV Viewing,” surveyed 222 of her college students who reported largely counterproductive parental strategies related to their viewing of television. In many cases, there was little or no guidance or restrictions. Restrictions that were adopted often took the form of regulations about amount and type of viewing, restrictions on viewing certain programs or networks, and viewing only after completion of homework or chores.

Prescott-Adams’s participants also recalled more constructive strategies as involving:

• Co-viewing – intentional viewing by parent and child together
• Instructive mediation – the use of TV viewing to reinforce values and critical thinking
• Construction – the selection of specific programs to teach specific lessons and history to children

Active mediation can be positive, when comments tend to reinforce content, or negative, when comments are disapproving of television content. Most of the coviewing that occurred among the respondents’ families was more coincidental than intentional. In the early ‘90s, for example, The Cosby Show was a co-viewing magnet because it attracted both adult and child viewers. When co-viewing did elicit discussion, it was often limited to comments from parents about objectionable content, such as these reported by a student from Emory University:

Any time there was a cuss word my father would say a grunt or groan, and if there were too many he would change the channel. If there were three [cuss words] he’d change it. Not an adult-themed program but any show that had cursing like “get the hell out.”

In addition to sideline commentary, many parents resorted to ineffective mediation strategies such as covering children’s eyes during violence and sex. But the children could still hear the dialogue, so their curiosity and fascination with this halfway-forbidden content increased while their understanding of its meaning remained unchanged. As long as parents are involved in discussions with their children while co-viewing –whether the viewing is planned or coincidental – they are actively mediating their children’s viewing.

She recommends that parents pose one of more of the following questions to foster adolescents’ critical response:

1. What do you see/hear?
2. Tell me about the main characters (personality, lifestyle, motives, and relationships).
Which characters do you connect with and why?
3. What values are represented by the content?
4. How do you feel about the content?
5. Who created this message and why are they sending it?
6. What production decisions were made long before the program was available to us?
7. How would you have told the story differently?
8. How might different people understand this message differently from you?

Teachers can include parents in media literacy activities by inviting them to co-view/read media texts and share their reactions. Teachers can also send home instructions or information about classroom activities that involve media production so that parents can assist with those production activities. And, teachers can provide parents with useful resources available on the following sites:

Media Literacy 101 (from the Cable in the Classroom site)

Center for Media Literacy: Parents, Kids, and the Media

Smart TV Viewing Tips

Alliance for a Media Literate America

Activity: Addressing Opposition to Media Education

However, there continues to be some opposition from many quarters to media education. (See Robert Kubey, “Obstacles to the Development of Media Education in the United States” ) It is often assumed that studying media texts does not entail the intellectual rigor of having to respond to, compose, and discuss print texts, particularly if students are perceived to lack “literacy skills” and are failing the basic skills tests. As reported in the Minneapolis StarTribune, a school board member of the Eden Prairie School District, Eden Prairie, Minnesota complained that teachers in the district were using videos and DVD’s inappropriately:

To me, showing movies is a pretty low skill level. I would rather that teachers use the skills they have to get students involved in reading and discussing topics. . . . If we're showing a lot of videos in the classroom, then I view it as a problem. We do get parents calling us, saying: “Why are they showing Schindler's List? Why are we showing Pippi Longstocking?”

If you were a teacher in the Eden Prairie district, how would you respond to this school board member’s perception of the “problem?” What are the assumptions he is making about the role of media literacy in schools?

Module 1: Word document

What Does it Mean to Teach Media Literacy?

Justifying Media/Film Study in the Curriculum

Defining the Importance of Media Literacy

What is Literacy? The Need for a New, Broader Definition of Literacy and Texts

Media Education: Different Goals and Approaches

What Students Report About What They Learn from Media Education

Final Task

References