Mass Media and Media Literacy
The Importance of Media Education
Media education can help young people put current images and messages about Aboriginal people into perspective by helping them understand how the media work, why stereotyping exists, how decisions are made and why "it matters who makes it." Media education is not about learning the right answers; it’s about consuming media images with an active, critical mind and asking the right questions.
In order to educate the media, here are a few examples of the types of questions that could lead to a better understanding of the Aboriginal representations depicted on TV and in movies.
Who selected or created these images and stories? Why does it matter who made these selections?
The first lesson in media education is that nothing is objective—each and every media production is created with a viewpoint and for a purpose. The "reality" depicted in film or television productions is the result of many choices and each of these choices is based on the experience, knowledge and bias of the producers involved. To date, very few films and TV shows featuring Aboriginal people have been written or produced by Aboriginal people—and it shows.
Whose voices are being heard? And whose voices are absent? Why?
The ownership of a TV station or newspaper, the makeup of its management team and its political leanings will all have an impact on who is interviewed on a current affairs program, which "experts" are chosen for sound bites on an issue, and whose perspectives are ignored completely. When Aboriginal voices are heard, it’s almost always on Aboriginal issues and rarely on general topics affecting society as a whole.
Why are certain stories selected for the news and others not?
A groundbreaking land treaty may get much less coverage than a group of Aboriginal people setting up a blockade. Blockades and the potential for violence have visual appeal for television; men and women negotiating around a table doesn’t. Likewise for sensational stories on murders, prostitution and drug abuse: they keep the ratings up, and high ratings mean good advertising revenues. Newscasts have to move along quickly and stereotyping is a kind of shorthand that people can comprehend without explanation. Understanding how the news works isn’t going to change the news, but it does help kids understand that "newsworthy" stories are not necessarily the most important stories. Comparing the news coverage of APTN (Aboriginal Peoples Television Network) with that of a national television network provides a strong lesson in media voices and behind-the-scenes decision-making.
Are Aboriginal people shown as real human beings in films and TV programs or do they seem wooden and two-dimensional?
Media producers, especially those in Hollywood, have used Native people to tell White people's stories for generations. Rarely are Native characters given complex personalities or autonomous roles. Rarely do they rely on their own values and judgements, or act upon their own motivations. Although efforts have been made to undo this tradition, old stereotypes die hard.
Do depictions in movies and TV shows respect tribal, cultural and regional differences?
Anyone with knowledge of the various Aboriginal cultures will pick out outrageous and often amusing inaccuracies—tipis where longhouses were used, horses where foot-and-canoe travel was the norm, feather headdresses on the Pacific coast. Distinctions in dress, language, abodes and beliefs of the many Aboriginal cultures are often ignored in favour of a shorthand that "speaks" to the audience. This may be due to laziness, ignorance or the desire to use visual props that will be recognized by audiences and visually arresting onscreen.
Do Aboriginal people speak in a "normal" way?
A convenient convention of the old Westerns was to have Native people speaking in broken English, their thoughts and emotions restricted to their limited knowledge of English (and, it was usually implied, to their limited intellect). This tendency toward simplification has extended in some degree to modern-day characterizations of Aboriginal people. If set in the past, the script should at least show Aboriginal characters speaking fluently in their own languages. There are over 350 different North American Aboriginal languages—a fact unacknowledged by the film industry.
Did the North American Aboriginal only exist between 1830 and 1880 and only on the American Plains?
With few exceptions, Hollywood seems to have thought so. Native tribes flourished for thousands of years before the coming of Europeans and today there are over a million Canadian Aboriginal people and nearly two million Native Americans—some on reserves and others in rural and urban communities. Where and how are their realities in today’s society depicted by the media?
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Source link : http://mediasmarts.ca/diversity-media/aboriginal-people/importance-media-education
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Media Education is the process of teaching and learning about media.[1] It is about developing young people's critical and creative abilities when it comes to the media. Media education should not be confused with educational technology or with educational media. Surveys repeatedly show that, in most industrialized countries, children now spend more time watching television than they do in school, or also on any other activity apart from sleeping[2] Media Education has no fixed location, no clear ideology and no definitive recipients; it is subject to whims of a financial market bigger than itself.[1] Being able to understand the media enables people to analyze, evaluate, and create messages in a wide variety of mediums, genres, and forms. A person who is media literate is informed. There are many reasons why media studies are absent from the primary and secondary school curricula, including cuts in budgets and social services as well as over-packed schedules and expectations.
Education for media literacy often uses an inquiry-based pedagogic model that encourages people to ask questions about what they watch, hear, and read. Media literacy education provides tools to help people critically analyze messages, offers opportunities for learners to broaden their experience of media, and helps them develop creative skills in making their own media messages.[3] Critical analysis can include identifying author, purpose and point of view, examining construction techniques and genres, examining patterns of media representation, and detecting propaganda, censorship, and bias in news and public affairs programming (and the reasons for these). Media literacy education may explore how structural features—such as media ownership, or its funding model[4] -- affect the information presented.
Media literate people should be able to skillfully create and produce media messages, both to show understanding of the specific qualities of each medium, as well as to create independent media and participate as active citizens. Media literacy can be seen as contributing to an expanded conceptualization of literacy, treating mass media, popular culture and digital media as new types of 'texts' that require analysis and evaluation. By transforming the process of media consumption into an active and critical process, people gain greater awareness of the potential for misrepresentation and manipulation (especially through commercials and public relations techniques), and understand the role of mass media and participatory media in constructing views of reality.[5]
Media literacy education is sometimes conceptualized as a way to address the negative dimensions of mass media, popular culture and digital media, including media violence, gender and racial stereotypes, the sexualization of children, and concerns about loss of privacy, cyberbullying and Internet predators. By building knowledge and competencies in using media and technology, media literacy education may provide a type of protection to children and young people by helping them make good choices in their media consumption habits, and patterns of usage.[6]
Concepts of media education
Media education can be in many ways. In general, media education has come to be defined in terms of conceptual understandings of the media.[1] Usually this means key concepts or key aspects. This approach does not specify particular objects of study and this enables media education to remain responsive to students' interests and enthusiasms. David Buckingham has come up with four key concepts that "provide a theoretical framework which can be applied to the whole range of contemporary media and to 'older' media as well: Production, Language, Representation, and Audience."[1] These concepts are defined by David Buckingham as follows:
Production
Production involves the recognition that media texts are consciously made.[1] Some media texts are made by individuals working alone, just for themselves or their family and friends, but most are produced and distributed by groups of people often for commercial profit. This means recognizing the economic interests that are at stake in media production, and the ways in which profits are generated. More confident students in media education should be able to debate the implications of these developments in terms of national and cultural identities, and in terms of the range of social groups that are able to gain access to media.[1]
Studying media production means looking at: * Technologies: what technologies are used to produce and distribute media texts? * Professional practices: Who makes media texts? * The industry: Who owns the companies that buy and sell media and how do they make a profit? * Connections between media: How do companies sell the same products across different media? * Regulation: Who controls the production and distribution of media, and are there laws about this? * Circulation and distribution: How do texts reach their audiences? * Access and participation: Whose voices are heard in the media and whose are excluded?[1]
Language
Every medium has its own combination of languages that it uses to communicate meaning. For example, television uses verbal and written language as well as the languages of moving images and sound. Particular kinds of music or camera angles may be used to encourage certain emotions. When it comes to verbal language, making meaningful statements in media languages involves "paradigmatic choices" and "syntagmatic combinations".[1] By analyzing these languages, one can come to a better understanding of how meanings are created.[1]
Studying media languages means looking at: * Meanings: How does media use different forms of language to convey ideas or meanings? * Conventions: How do these uses of languages become familiar and generally accepted? * Codes: How are the grammatical 'rules' of media established and what happens when they are broken? * Genres: How do these conventions and codes operate in different types of media contexts? * Choices: What are the effects of choosing certain forms of language, such as a certain type of camera shot? * Combinations: How is meaning conveyed through the combination or sequencing of images, sounds, or words? * Technologies: How do technologies affect the meanings that can be created?[1]
Representation
The notion of 'representation' is one of the first established principles of media education. The media offers viewers a facilitated outlook of the world and they re-represent reality. Media production involves selecting and combining incidents, making events into stories, and creating characters. Media representations allow viewers to see the world in some particular ways and not others. Audiences also compare media with their own experiences and make judgements about how realistic they are. Media representations can be seen as real in some ways but not in others: viewers may understand that what they are seeing is only imaginary and yet they still know it can explain reality.[1]
Studying media representations means looking at: * Realism: Is this text intended to be realistic? Why do some texts seem more realistic than others? * Telling the truth: How do media claim to tell the truth about the world? * Presence and absence: What is included and excluded from the media world? * Bias and objectivity: Do media texts support particular views about the world? Do they use moral or political values? * Stereotyping: How do media represent particular social groups? Are those representations accurate? * Interpretations: Why do audiences accept some media representations as true, or reject others as false? * Influences: Do media representations affect our views of particular social groups or issues?[1]
Audience
Studying audiences means looking at how demographic audiences are targeted and measured, and how media are circulated and distributed throughout. It means looking at different ways in which individuals use, interpret, and respond to media. The media increasingly have had to compete for people's attention and interest because research has shown that audiences are now much more sophisticated and diverse than has been suggested in the past. Debating views about audiences and attempting to understand and reflect on our own and others' use of media is therefore a crucial element of media education.[1]
Studying media audiences means looking at: * Targeting: How are media aimed at particular audiences? * Address: How do the media speak to audiences? * Circulation: How do media reach audiences? * Uses: How do audiences use media in their daily lives? What are their habits and patterns of use? * Making sense: How do audiences interpret media? What meanings do they make? * Pleasures: What pleasures do audiences gain from media? * Social differences: What is the role of gender. social class, age, and ethnic background in audience behavior?[1]
UNESCO and media education
UNESCO has had a long standing experience with media literacy and education. The organization has supported a number of initiatives to introduce media and information literacy as an important part of lifelong learning.[7] Most recently, the UNESCO Action for Media Education and Literacy brought together experts from numerous regions of the world to "catalyze processes to introduce media and information literacy components into teacher training curricula worldwide."[7]
UNESCO questionnaire
In 2001, a media education survey was sent out by UNESCO in order to better understand which countries were incorporating media studies into different school's curriculum as well as to help develop new initiatives in the field of media education. A questionnaire was sent to a total of 72 experts on media education in 52 different countries around the world. The people who received this questionnaire were people involved in academics (such as teachers), policy makers, and educational advisers. The questionnaire addressed three key areas:
1) “Media education in schools: the extent, aims, and conceptual basis of current provision; the nature of assessment; and the role of production by students.”[8]
2) "Partnerships: the involvement of media industries and media regulators in media education; the role of informal youth groups; the provision of teacher education.”[7]
3) “The development of media education: research and evaluation of media education provision; the main needs of educators; obstacles to future development; and the potential contribution of UNESCO.”[7]
The results from the answers of the survey were double-sided. It was noted that media education had been making a very uneven progress because while in one country there was an abundant amount of work towards media education, another country may have hardly even heard of the concept. One of the main reasons why media education has not taken full swing in some countries is because of the lack of policy makers addressing the issue. In some developing countries, educators say that media education was only just beginning to register as a concern because they were just starting to develop basic print literacy.[7]
In the countries that media education existed at all, it would be offered as an elective class or an optional area of the school system rather than being on its own. Many countries argued that media education should not be a separate part of the curriculum but rather should be added to a subject already established. The countries which deemed media education as a part of the curriculum included the United States, Canada, Mexico, New Zealand, and Australia. Many countries lacked even just basic research on media education as a topic, including Russia and Sweden. Some said that popular culture is not worthy enough of study. But all of the correspondents realized the importance of media education as well as the importance of formal recognition from their government and policy makers that media education should be taught in schools.[7]
History
Media literacy education is actively focused on the instructional methods and pedagogy of media literacy, integrating theoretical and critical frameworks rising from constructivist learning theory, media studies and cultural studies scholarship. This work has arisen from a legacy of media and technology use in education throughout the 20th century and the emergence of cross-disciplinary work at the intersections of scholarly work in media studies and education. Voices of Media Literacy, a project of the Center for Media Literacy representing first-person interviews with media literacy pioneers active prior to 1990 in English-speaking countries, provides historical context for the rise of the media literacy field and is available at http://www.medialit.org/voices-media-literacy-international-pioneers-speak Media education is developing in Great Britain, Australia, South Africa, Canada, the United States, with a growing interest in the Netherlands, Italy, Greece, Austria, Switzerland, India, Russia and among many other nations. UNESCO has played an important role in supporting media and information literacy by encouraging the development of national information and media literacy policies, including in education[9] UNESCO has developed training resources to help teachers integrate information and media literacy into their teaching and provide them with appropriate pedagogical methods and curricula.
United Kingdom
Education for what is now termed media literacy has been developing in the UK since at least the 1930s. In the 1960s, there was a paradigm shift in the field of media literacy to emphasize working within popular culture rather than trying to convince people that popular culture was primarily destructive. This was known as the popular arts paradigm. In the 1970s, there came a recognition that the ideological power of the media was tied to the naturalization of the image. Constructed messages were being passed off as natural ones. The focus of media literacy also shifted to the consumption of images and representations, also known as the representational paradigm.[10] Development has gathered pace since the 1970s when the first formal courses in Film Studies and, later, Media Studies, were established as options for young people in the 14-19 age range: over 100,000 students (about 5% of this age range) now take these courses annually. Scotland has always had a separate education system from the rest of the UK and began to develop policies for media education in the 1980s. In England, the creation of the National Curriculum in 1990 included some limited requirements for teaching about the media as part of English. The UK is widely regarded as a leader in the development of education for media literacy. Key agencies that have been involved in this development include the British Film Institute,[11] the English and Media Centre[12] Film Education[13] and the Centre for the Study of Children, Youth and Media at the Institute of Education, London.[14]
Australia
In Australia, media education was influenced by developments in Britain related to the inoculation, popular arts and demystification approaches. Key theorists who influenced Australian media education were Graeme Turner and John Hartley who helped develop Australian media and cultural studies. During the 1980s and 1990s, Western Australians Robyn Quin and Barrie MacMahon wrote seminal text books such as Real Images, translating many complex media theories into classroom appropriate learning frameworks. In most Australian states, media is one of five strands of the Arts Key Learning Area and includes "essential learnings" or "outcomes" listed for various stages of development. At the senior level (years 11 and 12), several states offer Media Studies as an elective. For example, many Queensland schools offer Film, Television and New Media, while Victorian schools offer VCE Media. Media education is supported by the teacher professional association Australian Teachers of Media which publishes a range of resources and the excellent Screen Education.
Africa
In South Africa, the increasing demand for Media Education has evolved from the dismantling of apartheid and the 1994 democratic elections. The first national Media Education conference in South Africa was actually held in 1990 and the new national curriculum has been in the writing stages since 1997. Since this curriculum strives to reflect the values and principles of a democratic society there seems to be an opportunity for critical literacy and Media Education in Languages and Culture courses.
Europe
In areas of Europe, media education has seen many different forms. Media education was introduced into the Finnish elementary curriculum in 1970 and into high schools in 1977. But the media education we know today did not evolve in Finland until the 1990s. Media education has been compulsory in Sweden since 1980 and in Denmark since 1970. In both these countries, media education evolved in the 1980s and 1990s as media education gradually moved away from moralizing attitudes towards an approach that is more searching and pupil-centered. In 1994, the Danish education bill gave recognition to media education but it is still not an integrated part of the school. The focus in Denmark seems to be on information technology.
France has taught film from the inception of the medium, but it has only been recently that conferences and media courses for teachers have been organized with the inclusion of media production. Germany saw theoretical publications on media literacy in the 1970s and 1980s, with a growing interest for media education inside and outside the educational system in the 80s and 90s. In the Netherlands media literacy was placed in the agenda by the Dutch government in 2006 as an important subject for the Dutch society. In April, 2008, an official center has been created (mediawijsheid expertisecentrum = medialiteracy expertisecenter) by the Dutch government. This center is more a network organization existing out of different partners who have their own expertise with the subject of media education. The idea is that media education will become a part of the official curriculum.
The history of media education in Russia goes back to the 1920s. The first attempts to instruct in media education (on the press and film materials, with the vigorous emphasis on the communist ideology) appeared in the 1920s but were stopped by Joseph Stalin’s repressions. The end of the 1950s - the beginning of the 1960s was the time of the revival of media education in secondary schools, universities, after-school children centers (Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Voronezh, Samara, Kurgan, Tver, Rostov on Don, Taganrog, Novosibirsk, Ekaterinburg, etc.), the revival of media education seminars and conferences for the teachers. During the time when the intensive rethinking of media education approaches was on the upgrade in the Western hemisphere, in Russia of the 1970s–1980s media education was still developing within the aesthetic concept. Among the important achievements of 1970s-1990s one can recall the first official programs of film and media education, published by Ministry of Education, increasing interest of Ph.D. to media education, experimental theoretic and practical work on media education by O.Baranov (Tver), S.Penzin (Voronezh), G.Polichko, U.Rabinovich (Kurgan), Y.Usov (Moscow), Aleksandr Fyodorov (Taganrog), A.Sharikov (Moscow) and others. The important events in media education development in Russia are the registration of the new specialization (since 2002) for the pedagogical universities – ‘Media Education’ (№ 03.13.30), and the launch of a new academic journal ‘Media Education’ (since January 2005), partly sponsored by the ICOS UNESCO ‘Information for All’. Additionally, the Internet sites of Russian Association for Film and Media Education (English and Russian versions) were created. Taking into account the fact that UNESCO defines media education as the priority field of the cultural educational development in the 21st century, media literacy has good prospects in Russia.
Canada
In North America, the beginnings of a formalized approach to media literacy as a topic of education is often attributed to the 1978 formation of the Ontario-based Association for Media Literacy (AML). Before that time, instruction in media education was usually the purview of individual teachers and practitioners. Canada was the first country in North America to require media literacy in the school curriculum. Every province has mandated media education in its curriculum. For example, the new curriculum of Quebec mandates media literacy from Grade 1 until final year of secondary school (Secondary V). The launching of media education in Canada came about for two reasons. One reason was the concern about the pervasiveness of American popular culture and the other was the education system-driven necessity of contexts for new educational paradigms. Canadian communication scholar Marshall McLuhan ignited the North American educational movement for media literacy in the 1950s and 1960s. Two of Canada's leaders in Media Literacy and Media Education are Barry Duncan and John Pungente. Duncan passed away on June 6, 2012, even after retired from classroom teaching but was still active in media education. Pungente is a Jesuit priest who has promoted media literacy since the early 1960s.
Media Awareness Network (MNet), a Canadian non-profit media education organization, hosts a Web site which contains hundreds of free lesson plans to help teachers integrate media into the classroom. MNet also has created award-winning educational games on media education topics, several of which are available free from the site, and has also conducted original research on media issues, most notable the study Young Canadians in a Wired World. MNet also hosts the Talk Media Blog, a regular column on media education issues.
The United States
Media literacy education has been an interest in the United States since the early 20th century, when high school English teachers first started using film to develop students' critical thinking and communication skills. However, media literacy education is distinct from simply using media and technology in the classroom, a distinction that is exemplified by the difference between "teaching with media" and "teaching about media."[15] In the 1950s and 60s, the ‘film grammar’ approach to media literacy education developed in the United States, where educators began to show commercial films to children, having them learn a new terminology consisting of words such as fade, dissolve, truck, pan, zoom, and cut. Films were connected to literature and history. To understand the constructed nature of film, students explored plot development, character, mood and tone. Then, during the 1970s and 1980s, attitudes about mass media and mass culture began to shift. Around the English-speaking world, educators began to realize the need to “guard against our prejudice of thinking of print as the only real medium that the English teacher has a stake in.”[16] A whole generation of educators began to not only acknowledge film and television as new, legitimate forms of expression and communication, but also explored practical ways to promote serious inquiry and analysis—- in higher education, in the family, in schools and in society.[17] Typically, U.S. media literacy education includes a focus on news, advertising, issues of representation, and media ownership. Media literacy competencies can also be cultivated in the home, through activities including co-viewing and discussion.[18]
Media literacy education began to appear in state English education curriculum frameworks by the early 1990s as a result of increased awareness in the central role of visual, electronic and digital media in the context of contemporary culture. Nearly all 50 states have language that supports media literacy in state curriculum frameworks.[19] In 2004, Montana developed educational standards around media literacy that students are required to be competent in by grades 4, 8, and 12. Additionally, an increasing number of school districts have begun to develop school-wide programs, elective courses, and other after-school opportunities for media analysis and production.
Media literacy education is now gaining momentum in the United States because of the increased emphasis on 21st century literacy, which now incorporates media and information literacy, collaboration and problem-solving skills, and emphasis on the social responsibilities of communication. More than 600 educators are members of the National Association for Media Literacy Education (NAMLE), a national membership group that hosts a bi-annual conference. In 2009, this group developed an influential policy document, the Core Principles of Media Literacy Education in the United States.[20] It states, "The purpose of media literacy education is to help individuals of all ages develop the habits of inquiry and skills of expression that they need to be critical thinkers, effective communicators and active citizens in today’s world. Principles include: (1) Media Literacy Education requires active inquiry and critical thinking about the messages we receive and create; (2) Media Literacy Education expands the concept of literacy in all forms of media (i.e., reading and writing); (3) Media Literacy Education builds and reinforces skills for learners of all ages. Like print literacy, those skills necessitate integrated, interactive, and repeated practice; (4) Media Literacy Education develops informed, reflective and engaged participants essential for a democratic society; (5) Media Literacy Education recognizes that media are a part of culture and function as agents of socialization; and (6) Media Literacy Education affirms that people use their individual skills, beliefs and experiences to construct their own meanings from media messages.
In the United States, various stakeholders struggle over nuances of meaning associated with the conceptualization of the practice on media literacy education. Educational scholars may use the term critical media literacy to emphasize the exploration of power and ideology in media analysis. Other scholars may use terms like new media literacy to emphasize the application of media literacy to user-generated content or 21st century literacy to emphasize the use of technology tools.[21] As far back as 2001, the Action Coalition for Media Education (ACME) split from the main media literacy organization as the result of debate about whether or not the media industry should support the growth of media literacy education in the United States. Renee Hobbs of Temple University in Philadelphia wrote about this general question as one of the "Seven Great Debates" in media literacy education in an influential 1998 Journal of Communication article.[22]
The media industry has supported media literacy education in the United States. Make Media Matter is one of the many blogs (an “interactive forum”) the Independent Film Channel features as a way for individuals to assess the role media plays in society and the world. The television program, The Media Project, offers a critical look at the state of news media in contemporary society. During the 1990s, the Discovery Channel supported the implementation of Assignment: Media Literacy, a statewide educational initiative for K-12 students developed in collaboration with the Maryland State Board of Education.
Because of the decentralized nature of the education system in a country with 70 million children now in public or private schools, media literacy education develops as the result of groups of advocates in school districts, states or regions who lobby for its inclusion in the curriculum. There is no central authority making nationwide curriculum recommendations and each of the fifty states has numerous school districts, each of which operates with a great degree of independence from one another. However, most U.S. states include media literacy in health education, with an emphasis on understanding environmental influences on health decision-making. Tobacco and alcohol advertising are frequently targeted as objects for "deconstruction, " which is one of the instructional methods of media literacy education. This resulted from an emphasis on media literacy generated by the Clinton White House. The Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) held a series of conferences in 1996 and 1997 which brought greater awareness of media literacy education as a promising practice in health and substance abuse prevention education. The medical and public health community now recognizes the media as a cultural environmental influence on health and sees media literacy education as a strategy to support the development of healthy behavior.
Interdisciplinary scholarship in media literacy education is emerging. In 2009, a scholarly journal was launched, the Journal of Media Literacy Education,[23] to support the work of scholars and practitioners in the field. Universities such as Appalachian State University, Columbia University, Ithaca College, New York University, the University of Texas-Austin, Temple University, and the University of Maryland offer courses and summer institutes in media literacy for pre-service teachers and graduate students. Brigham Young University offers a graduate program in media education specifically for inservice teachers. The Salzburg Academy for Media and Global Change is another institution that educates students and professionals from around the world the importance of being literate about the media.
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Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_literacy
What is the importance of media in education?
In general, "media" refers to various means of communication. For example, television, radio, and the newspaper are different types of media. The term can also be used as a collective noun for the press or news reporting agencies. In the computer world, "media" is also used as a collective noun, but refers to different types of data storage options.
Respected teacher and friends, the topic I've chosen to speak about is Media in Education.
Now, is media education useful or in other ways important?
Media education can help young people put current images and messages about Aboriginal people into perspective by helping them understand how the media work, why stereotyping exists, how decisions are made, and why "it matters who makes it." Media education is not about learning the right answers; it's about consuming media images with an active, critical mind and asking the right questions. Media is the most powerful tool of communication. It helps promoting the right things on right time. It gives a real exposure to the mass audience about what is right or wrong. Even though media is linked with spreading fake news like a fire, but on the safe side, it helps a lot to inform us about the realities as well.
All in all media help us to keep a good check on the things that are going around. http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_importance_of_media_in_education -------------------------------------------------
Media education: a type of pedagogical utilisation of the media intended to teach the critical-reflective use of all media. Where media become important for human socialisation as a means of information, entertainment, education and day-to-day organisation, they become the subject of media education – the media are the subject and object of education (education on media).
Media education concerns all communication media and their combinations made possible by the so-called New Media. These communication media are constituent parts of all texts, regardless of the technology: the word, printed/spoken, graphics, sound, stills and moving pictures. The so-called New Media (including the Internet), being developments and combinations of the above modules, are essentially technologies that serve their distribution and have an effect on several social dimensions. Critical reflection on the possible effects is also included in media education.
The potential to combine data of all kinds into gigantic information networks and to make use of these both in a working and a domestic environment, i.e. to obtain, access and process them, causes the boundaries to be blurred between individual and mass communication, between the book and newspaper markets, between entertainment and business communication. It is especially in the New Media segment that media education is confronted with new issues concerning its autonomous critical use.
3. OBJECTIVES OF MEDIA EDUCATION
Before launching into a discussion of some fields of media education, it seems necessary to define the term “media competence” within the meaning of this Ordinance:
Media competence as an objective of media-pedagogical work includes not just the skills to handle the technical side but, even more, skills such as the ability to select, differentiate, structurise and recognise own needs, etc. It is in particular when using the so-called New Media that issues of individual and social relevance emerge in a media-education context which range beyond the mere use of the media for a specific field.
Examples: What does the sheer volume of information mean for the human capacity to process information? What processes of selection, structurisation and professionalisation need to be put in place? How can the credibility and reliability of information be safeguarded? What are the implications of media convergence? How does content convergence, i.e. the mixture of games and movies, objective information and emotive elements, etc. mean for processing? What is the reference frame that we use for computer simulation? What are the consequences of mixing borderlines and blurring the contents of the terms “real–virtual–fictional”?
3.1. Media use: By offering critical insights into the phenomena of communication, media education should guide pupils/students to media activities that are both conscious and participatory to the extent possible within the relevant life situation. Media activities require that people are active in any communication situation involving media. This means that they negotiate their own importance in a given interaction during their media use. Accordingly, media education, starting out from the pupil’s/student’s personal disposition and with due regard to his/her linguistic abilities, should include not only the cognitive but also the affective field. It should help the pupil/student to rethink his/her own role expectations and recognise his/her own communication needs and deficits.
Pupils/students should also realise and experience that the mass media intentionally arouse the need for consumer-oriented behaviour. They should realise that new types of individual and mass communication extend their options for active participation in economic, political and cultural life. And they should realise and experience that the electronic media have a substantial contributive impact on the personal leisure time organisation and behaviour. In this respect, reference should be made to the close links between the leisure-time and entertainment industry and the mass media with a view to the development of typical behavioural patterns.
3.2. Communication with and through the media: Media education should enable pupils/students to manage in a world about which they are mostly informed by the media. They should be made to realise that the media contribute significantly to their political judgement. They should realise that the expansion of communication technologies provides more opportunities for humans to express themselves and participate in political life by “direct” democracy through the pressing of a button, and provides better political information, better information from government authorities, while at the same time they should find out that the communication media, through encouraging passivity, keep people from direct participation in political life, distract them from political conflicts and expose them to political manipulation from well-financed interest groups. They should learn how to use media to arrive at a critical judgement and thus strengthen their own competence for action. They should experience that the media create their own reality, not just as a mediator of fictitious worlds, but also in projecting an image of reality. Yet the pupils/students should realise that this managed reality cannot be neutral in its values. They should recognise the structure, design and effect of the various types of media, such as movies, transparencies, etc., and they should understand which content is chiefly transported by which media. They should be made aware that identical contents are presented differently and thus have different effects.
Media education should raise awareness for the frequently biased and cliché-ridden presentation of social and gender roles by the media. Pupils/students should become sensitised to the issue of the extent to which the media are realistic in their presentation of every-day life situations (e.g. relations between women and men, between employees and bosses, between young and old, etc.). They should realise that social- and gender-specific roles are subject to stereotyping.
Even though the media cannot on their own effect a change in the understanding of the role distribution prevailing in our society, they are still important in influencing and enlightening the public. By reflecting certain values, they contribute to maintaining mainstream value conceptions and may either strengthen or weaken ideas, models and views. 3.3. Media as an economic factor or mass media as an institution:
The pupils/students should realise that economic, technical, social and ideological prerequisites as well as different organisational structures (under public law or as private enterprises) necessitate certain types of production or distribution, as well as certain criteria for the selection and representation of the contents disseminated. In this context, reference can be made to the types of procurement of news items, to the financing by user fees and advertising, and to the tension between imported and local media products. Similarly, treatment should also be accorded to the role of advanced public relations activities as a partner and supplier of information to the media. Modern public relations activities provide, i.a., an open and long-term dialogue between fractions in society (business, politics, science, social affairs, sports, etc.) and the media. In this context, concepts such as independence, objectivity, credibility, plurality of opinions, manipulation, etc. should be critically analysed. 3.4. Own media creations:
Within the context of learning to act and to experience, the pupils/students should be encouraged to work on their own media products within the scope of media education. Yet regardless of the merits of own productions for a variety of learning objectives, they do not yet constitute media education. It is only when practical work is combined with critical reflection on the production process that we can talk about media-pedagogical work. Such reflection may, i.a., refer to the experience collected in social matters, the creation of a momentousness that underlies media work, etc. This is to ensure that media work will lead to the conscious gain of insights.
4. IMPLEMENTATION
4.1. General
Considering that the topics discussed in the media touch upon all fields of understanding and action, media education is not limited to individual subjects or age groups. Rather, each teacher is obliged to consider them as an educational principle in all subjects with due regard to the relevant subject, as is provided for in the curricula.
For this, project-oriented teaching methods are recommended. In doing so, integrating the mass media in teaching must not be seen as simply using the media as an impulse for teaching a specific subject or as an illustration of the presentation of a subject. Rather, in using and examining the media, awareness should be raised on how they influence our view of the world and how this impacts on social and political decision-making.
It is especially because the media appear to depict the world so spontaneously and naturally that the following should always be included in our thoughts:
Media are never neutral vessels of information. The images, which we think are depictions of reality, are actually shaped, professionally constructed – and this is why their decoding requires a high potential of media competence. Similarly in the natural sciences – which are assigned a high degree of objectiveness in the traditional discourse – the key questions (who informs whom of what, and with what intention?), which we use to dissect media texts, are of eminent importance – and they should be applied just the same as in media texts which are clearly and obviously “made”.
Critical media analysis does not obstruct – as is often feared by practitioners of didactics – the subject-specific information content of the media. Quite on the contrary: dealing with the interfaces between the subject-specific contents and the mediation share contributed by the medium adds significantly to the degree of media competence as well as to the subject-specific knowledge yield. The insight that even those audio-visual media that are specially designed for teaching cannot be objective, shakes the belief in the rightness and truth of other media (such as e.g. school textbooks). Thinking of concepts such as truth or rightness will lead to the questioning of the seemingly naturalness and obviousness of many images which suggest an authentic truth.
Similarly, the use of audio-visual teaching aids, which is absolutely necessary to ensure modern and effective teaching, cannot be accounted for as media education, unless their media-specific properties are discussed beyond the technical side of their use. Thus, next and in addition to the technical content of the medium, consideration should be given to whether and to what extent interests pursued by the media producers will affect the content and arrangement of what is offered.
Media education shall, as a rule, be offered to all age groups, in line with the intellectual development of the pupils/students. http://www.mediamanual.at/en/media.php -------------------------------------------------
The important role of mass media in education
The education of our children has always been emotive and when the mass media is added to the mix, volatility is inevitable.
Hardly a country in the world is spared controversy in education, but when one looks behind the sometimes anarchic scenes, there is a lot about which to be optimistic and hopeful.
Traditionally, the mass media and education have enjoyed a love-hate relationship. On one hand television and newspapers particularly, have provided extensive and extremely useful education content. On the other, however, their newsrooms never seem to hesitate when controversy rears is ugly head.
In theory, it is absolutely vital for the mass media to keep an eye on the way in which governments administer and develop education, but it has to be said that in this day and age of a battle for survival within the mass media industry, the watchdog does tend to become somewhat rabid at times.
Like most businesses the mass media often takes a line of least resistance when problems occur and a first step always seems to blame the trades union movements.
In South Africa the South African Democratic Teachers Union (SADTU) inevitably faces tremendous criticism from the mass media when its members protest the enormous challenges and deprivations they face in the classrooms. Many of those challenges having very little to do with actual teaching.
Regrettably, the relationship between the mass media and education involves a lot of indulgence in blame-games and reaction by both sides to superficial symptoms.
There is undeniably an urgent need for the education authorities and the mass media to join together in improving the lot of our youngsters and young adults. The media cannot just be a watchdog and nothing else and the national and provincial education departments cannot work in isolation or out of the public eye.
It is no good the mass media simply reporting on "delinquent learners burning classrooms" without delving into the underlying causes. Understanding perhaps, that after years of promises for proper school buildings to replace dilapidated, unhealthy, decades-old temporary structures, the only option left was to destroy the old building so that a new one would have to built.
There is no question that the only way in which the mass media can continue to perform its role as an education watchdog but at the same time become involved in helping build an efficient education system, is through improved communication.
This probably sounds extremely glib, but when you think about it, bad or non-existent communication has been the cause of everything from wars between countries to divorces between married couples.
In simple terms, this communication would mean the mass media and the education departments talking to each other a lot more. I have to say, though, that this is a wild hope and probably entirely over-optimistic.
However, I believe that two innovations will force this essential communication to take place.
The first is the involvement by private sector companies in the education environment and the second is new media.
Argo, for example, is a good example of a private sector media company that is successfully creating bridges between education authorities, unions and affiliated and non-affiliated teachers. Companies such as these are becoming vital links in improved communications among stakeholders.
The private sector is pioneering the use of new media, specifically social media in the education environment with for example, websites such as ed.org.za and increasing activity on interactive social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Mxit.
The importance of social media among education authorities, educators, unions, private sector stakeholders as well as schools, pupils and parents, cannot be emphasised enough.
Communication is one thing, it is a vitally important thing, but it is not enough.
Conversation is what is going to ensure increased collaboration by all players in education and the beauty of the social media conversation is its endemic role as watchdog. Not a one-sided watchdog but one that has sufficient information at hand to ensure an even-handed approach.
It would be a grave mistake for anyone in the education sector to assume that things like FaceBook, Twitter and Mxit were strictly for children or young adults. They are extremely efficient creators of conversations among all parties, providing not only information and advice but most importantly able to address misconceptions and wrong perceptions almost immediately.
As technology makes farther inroads into education, as the iPad has already done in private school classrooms, the ability for pupils, teachers, parents along with education authorities to communicate instantly will be an absolute boon in terms of increasing the efficiency and efficacy of education.
There are those that might feel that all this might be a little too transparent and instant.
But, when you think about it, the future of education rests on being as transparent as humanly possible.
And it will be the private sector that leads the way - Twitter, YouTube, FaceBook, Mxit, online forums and pioneers such as Argo.
http://www.bizcommunity.com/Article/196/98/74658.html
Media education can help young people put current images and messages about Aboriginal people into perspective by helping them understand how the media work, why stereotyping exists, how decisions are made and why "it matters who makes it." Media education is not about learning the right answers; it’s about consuming media images with an active, critical mind and asking the right questions.
In order to educate the media, here are a few examples of the types of questions that could lead to a better understanding of the Aboriginal representations depicted on TV and in movies.
Who selected or created these images and stories? Why does it matter who made these selections?
The first lesson in media education is that nothing is objective—each and every media production is created with a viewpoint and for a purpose. The "reality" depicted in film or television productions is the result of many choices and each of these choices is based on the experience, knowledge and bias of the producers involved. To date, very few films and TV shows featuring Aboriginal people have been written or produced by Aboriginal people—and it shows.
Whose voices are being heard? And whose voices are absent? Why?
The ownership of a TV station or newspaper, the makeup of its management team and its political leanings will all have an impact on who is interviewed on a current affairs program, which "experts" are chosen for sound bites on an issue, and whose perspectives are ignored completely. When Aboriginal voices are heard, it’s almost always on Aboriginal issues and rarely on general topics affecting society as a whole.
Why are certain stories selected for the news and others not?
A groundbreaking land treaty may get much less coverage than a group of Aboriginal people setting up a blockade. Blockades and the potential for violence have visual appeal for television; men and women negotiating around a table doesn’t. Likewise for sensational stories on murders, prostitution and drug abuse: they keep the ratings up, and high ratings mean good advertising revenues. Newscasts have to move along quickly and stereotyping is a kind of shorthand that people can comprehend without explanation. Understanding how the news works isn’t going to change the news, but it does help kids understand that "newsworthy" stories are not necessarily the most important stories. Comparing the news coverage of APTN (Aboriginal Peoples Television Network) with that of a national television network provides a strong lesson in media voices and behind-the-scenes decision-making.
Are Aboriginal people shown as real human beings in films and TV programs or do they seem wooden and two-dimensional?
Media producers, especially those in Hollywood, have used Native people to tell White people's stories for generations. Rarely are Native characters given complex personalities or autonomous roles. Rarely do they rely on their own values and judgements, or act upon their own motivations. Although efforts have been made to undo this tradition, old stereotypes die hard.
Do depictions in movies and TV shows respect tribal, cultural and regional differences?
Anyone with knowledge of the various Aboriginal cultures will pick out outrageous and often amusing inaccuracies—tipis where longhouses were used, horses where foot-and-canoe travel was the norm, feather headdresses on the Pacific coast. Distinctions in dress, language, abodes and beliefs of the many Aboriginal cultures are often ignored in favour of a shorthand that "speaks" to the audience. This may be due to laziness, ignorance or the desire to use visual props that will be recognized by audiences and visually arresting onscreen.
Do Aboriginal people speak in a "normal" way?
A convenient convention of the old Westerns was to have Native people speaking in broken English, their thoughts and emotions restricted to their limited knowledge of English (and, it was usually implied, to their limited intellect). This tendency toward simplification has extended in some degree to modern-day characterizations of Aboriginal people. If set in the past, the script should at least show Aboriginal characters speaking fluently in their own languages. There are over 350 different North American Aboriginal languages—a fact unacknowledged by the film industry.
Did the North American Aboriginal only exist between 1830 and 1880 and only on the American Plains?
With few exceptions, Hollywood seems to have thought so. Native tribes flourished for thousands of years before the coming of Europeans and today there are over a million Canadian Aboriginal people and nearly two million Native Americans—some on reserves and others in rural and urban communities. Where and how are their realities in today’s society depicted by the media?
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Source link : http://mediasmarts.ca/diversity-media/aboriginal-people/importance-media-education
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Media Education is the process of teaching and learning about media.[1] It is about developing young people's critical and creative abilities when it comes to the media. Media education should not be confused with educational technology or with educational media. Surveys repeatedly show that, in most industrialized countries, children now spend more time watching television than they do in school, or also on any other activity apart from sleeping[2] Media Education has no fixed location, no clear ideology and no definitive recipients; it is subject to whims of a financial market bigger than itself.[1] Being able to understand the media enables people to analyze, evaluate, and create messages in a wide variety of mediums, genres, and forms. A person who is media literate is informed. There are many reasons why media studies are absent from the primary and secondary school curricula, including cuts in budgets and social services as well as over-packed schedules and expectations.
Education for media literacy often uses an inquiry-based pedagogic model that encourages people to ask questions about what they watch, hear, and read. Media literacy education provides tools to help people critically analyze messages, offers opportunities for learners to broaden their experience of media, and helps them develop creative skills in making their own media messages.[3] Critical analysis can include identifying author, purpose and point of view, examining construction techniques and genres, examining patterns of media representation, and detecting propaganda, censorship, and bias in news and public affairs programming (and the reasons for these). Media literacy education may explore how structural features—such as media ownership, or its funding model[4] -- affect the information presented.
Media literate people should be able to skillfully create and produce media messages, both to show understanding of the specific qualities of each medium, as well as to create independent media and participate as active citizens. Media literacy can be seen as contributing to an expanded conceptualization of literacy, treating mass media, popular culture and digital media as new types of 'texts' that require analysis and evaluation. By transforming the process of media consumption into an active and critical process, people gain greater awareness of the potential for misrepresentation and manipulation (especially through commercials and public relations techniques), and understand the role of mass media and participatory media in constructing views of reality.[5]
Media literacy education is sometimes conceptualized as a way to address the negative dimensions of mass media, popular culture and digital media, including media violence, gender and racial stereotypes, the sexualization of children, and concerns about loss of privacy, cyberbullying and Internet predators. By building knowledge and competencies in using media and technology, media literacy education may provide a type of protection to children and young people by helping them make good choices in their media consumption habits, and patterns of usage.[6]
Concepts of media education
Media education can be in many ways. In general, media education has come to be defined in terms of conceptual understandings of the media.[1] Usually this means key concepts or key aspects. This approach does not specify particular objects of study and this enables media education to remain responsive to students' interests and enthusiasms. David Buckingham has come up with four key concepts that "provide a theoretical framework which can be applied to the whole range of contemporary media and to 'older' media as well: Production, Language, Representation, and Audience."[1] These concepts are defined by David Buckingham as follows:
Production
Production involves the recognition that media texts are consciously made.[1] Some media texts are made by individuals working alone, just for themselves or their family and friends, but most are produced and distributed by groups of people often for commercial profit. This means recognizing the economic interests that are at stake in media production, and the ways in which profits are generated. More confident students in media education should be able to debate the implications of these developments in terms of national and cultural identities, and in terms of the range of social groups that are able to gain access to media.[1]
Studying media production means looking at: * Technologies: what technologies are used to produce and distribute media texts? * Professional practices: Who makes media texts? * The industry: Who owns the companies that buy and sell media and how do they make a profit? * Connections between media: How do companies sell the same products across different media? * Regulation: Who controls the production and distribution of media, and are there laws about this? * Circulation and distribution: How do texts reach their audiences? * Access and participation: Whose voices are heard in the media and whose are excluded?[1]
Language
Every medium has its own combination of languages that it uses to communicate meaning. For example, television uses verbal and written language as well as the languages of moving images and sound. Particular kinds of music or camera angles may be used to encourage certain emotions. When it comes to verbal language, making meaningful statements in media languages involves "paradigmatic choices" and "syntagmatic combinations".[1] By analyzing these languages, one can come to a better understanding of how meanings are created.[1]
Studying media languages means looking at: * Meanings: How does media use different forms of language to convey ideas or meanings? * Conventions: How do these uses of languages become familiar and generally accepted? * Codes: How are the grammatical 'rules' of media established and what happens when they are broken? * Genres: How do these conventions and codes operate in different types of media contexts? * Choices: What are the effects of choosing certain forms of language, such as a certain type of camera shot? * Combinations: How is meaning conveyed through the combination or sequencing of images, sounds, or words? * Technologies: How do technologies affect the meanings that can be created?[1]
Representation
The notion of 'representation' is one of the first established principles of media education. The media offers viewers a facilitated outlook of the world and they re-represent reality. Media production involves selecting and combining incidents, making events into stories, and creating characters. Media representations allow viewers to see the world in some particular ways and not others. Audiences also compare media with their own experiences and make judgements about how realistic they are. Media representations can be seen as real in some ways but not in others: viewers may understand that what they are seeing is only imaginary and yet they still know it can explain reality.[1]
Studying media representations means looking at: * Realism: Is this text intended to be realistic? Why do some texts seem more realistic than others? * Telling the truth: How do media claim to tell the truth about the world? * Presence and absence: What is included and excluded from the media world? * Bias and objectivity: Do media texts support particular views about the world? Do they use moral or political values? * Stereotyping: How do media represent particular social groups? Are those representations accurate? * Interpretations: Why do audiences accept some media representations as true, or reject others as false? * Influences: Do media representations affect our views of particular social groups or issues?[1]
Audience
Studying audiences means looking at how demographic audiences are targeted and measured, and how media are circulated and distributed throughout. It means looking at different ways in which individuals use, interpret, and respond to media. The media increasingly have had to compete for people's attention and interest because research has shown that audiences are now much more sophisticated and diverse than has been suggested in the past. Debating views about audiences and attempting to understand and reflect on our own and others' use of media is therefore a crucial element of media education.[1]
Studying media audiences means looking at: * Targeting: How are media aimed at particular audiences? * Address: How do the media speak to audiences? * Circulation: How do media reach audiences? * Uses: How do audiences use media in their daily lives? What are their habits and patterns of use? * Making sense: How do audiences interpret media? What meanings do they make? * Pleasures: What pleasures do audiences gain from media? * Social differences: What is the role of gender. social class, age, and ethnic background in audience behavior?[1]
UNESCO and media education
UNESCO has had a long standing experience with media literacy and education. The organization has supported a number of initiatives to introduce media and information literacy as an important part of lifelong learning.[7] Most recently, the UNESCO Action for Media Education and Literacy brought together experts from numerous regions of the world to "catalyze processes to introduce media and information literacy components into teacher training curricula worldwide."[7]
UNESCO questionnaire
In 2001, a media education survey was sent out by UNESCO in order to better understand which countries were incorporating media studies into different school's curriculum as well as to help develop new initiatives in the field of media education. A questionnaire was sent to a total of 72 experts on media education in 52 different countries around the world. The people who received this questionnaire were people involved in academics (such as teachers), policy makers, and educational advisers. The questionnaire addressed three key areas:
1) “Media education in schools: the extent, aims, and conceptual basis of current provision; the nature of assessment; and the role of production by students.”[8]
2) "Partnerships: the involvement of media industries and media regulators in media education; the role of informal youth groups; the provision of teacher education.”[7]
3) “The development of media education: research and evaluation of media education provision; the main needs of educators; obstacles to future development; and the potential contribution of UNESCO.”[7]
The results from the answers of the survey were double-sided. It was noted that media education had been making a very uneven progress because while in one country there was an abundant amount of work towards media education, another country may have hardly even heard of the concept. One of the main reasons why media education has not taken full swing in some countries is because of the lack of policy makers addressing the issue. In some developing countries, educators say that media education was only just beginning to register as a concern because they were just starting to develop basic print literacy.[7]
In the countries that media education existed at all, it would be offered as an elective class or an optional area of the school system rather than being on its own. Many countries argued that media education should not be a separate part of the curriculum but rather should be added to a subject already established. The countries which deemed media education as a part of the curriculum included the United States, Canada, Mexico, New Zealand, and Australia. Many countries lacked even just basic research on media education as a topic, including Russia and Sweden. Some said that popular culture is not worthy enough of study. But all of the correspondents realized the importance of media education as well as the importance of formal recognition from their government and policy makers that media education should be taught in schools.[7]
History
Media literacy education is actively focused on the instructional methods and pedagogy of media literacy, integrating theoretical and critical frameworks rising from constructivist learning theory, media studies and cultural studies scholarship. This work has arisen from a legacy of media and technology use in education throughout the 20th century and the emergence of cross-disciplinary work at the intersections of scholarly work in media studies and education. Voices of Media Literacy, a project of the Center for Media Literacy representing first-person interviews with media literacy pioneers active prior to 1990 in English-speaking countries, provides historical context for the rise of the media literacy field and is available at http://www.medialit.org/voices-media-literacy-international-pioneers-speak Media education is developing in Great Britain, Australia, South Africa, Canada, the United States, with a growing interest in the Netherlands, Italy, Greece, Austria, Switzerland, India, Russia and among many other nations. UNESCO has played an important role in supporting media and information literacy by encouraging the development of national information and media literacy policies, including in education[9] UNESCO has developed training resources to help teachers integrate information and media literacy into their teaching and provide them with appropriate pedagogical methods and curricula.
United Kingdom
Education for what is now termed media literacy has been developing in the UK since at least the 1930s. In the 1960s, there was a paradigm shift in the field of media literacy to emphasize working within popular culture rather than trying to convince people that popular culture was primarily destructive. This was known as the popular arts paradigm. In the 1970s, there came a recognition that the ideological power of the media was tied to the naturalization of the image. Constructed messages were being passed off as natural ones. The focus of media literacy also shifted to the consumption of images and representations, also known as the representational paradigm.[10] Development has gathered pace since the 1970s when the first formal courses in Film Studies and, later, Media Studies, were established as options for young people in the 14-19 age range: over 100,000 students (about 5% of this age range) now take these courses annually. Scotland has always had a separate education system from the rest of the UK and began to develop policies for media education in the 1980s. In England, the creation of the National Curriculum in 1990 included some limited requirements for teaching about the media as part of English. The UK is widely regarded as a leader in the development of education for media literacy. Key agencies that have been involved in this development include the British Film Institute,[11] the English and Media Centre[12] Film Education[13] and the Centre for the Study of Children, Youth and Media at the Institute of Education, London.[14]
Australia
In Australia, media education was influenced by developments in Britain related to the inoculation, popular arts and demystification approaches. Key theorists who influenced Australian media education were Graeme Turner and John Hartley who helped develop Australian media and cultural studies. During the 1980s and 1990s, Western Australians Robyn Quin and Barrie MacMahon wrote seminal text books such as Real Images, translating many complex media theories into classroom appropriate learning frameworks. In most Australian states, media is one of five strands of the Arts Key Learning Area and includes "essential learnings" or "outcomes" listed for various stages of development. At the senior level (years 11 and 12), several states offer Media Studies as an elective. For example, many Queensland schools offer Film, Television and New Media, while Victorian schools offer VCE Media. Media education is supported by the teacher professional association Australian Teachers of Media which publishes a range of resources and the excellent Screen Education.
Africa
In South Africa, the increasing demand for Media Education has evolved from the dismantling of apartheid and the 1994 democratic elections. The first national Media Education conference in South Africa was actually held in 1990 and the new national curriculum has been in the writing stages since 1997. Since this curriculum strives to reflect the values and principles of a democratic society there seems to be an opportunity for critical literacy and Media Education in Languages and Culture courses.
Europe
In areas of Europe, media education has seen many different forms. Media education was introduced into the Finnish elementary curriculum in 1970 and into high schools in 1977. But the media education we know today did not evolve in Finland until the 1990s. Media education has been compulsory in Sweden since 1980 and in Denmark since 1970. In both these countries, media education evolved in the 1980s and 1990s as media education gradually moved away from moralizing attitudes towards an approach that is more searching and pupil-centered. In 1994, the Danish education bill gave recognition to media education but it is still not an integrated part of the school. The focus in Denmark seems to be on information technology.
France has taught film from the inception of the medium, but it has only been recently that conferences and media courses for teachers have been organized with the inclusion of media production. Germany saw theoretical publications on media literacy in the 1970s and 1980s, with a growing interest for media education inside and outside the educational system in the 80s and 90s. In the Netherlands media literacy was placed in the agenda by the Dutch government in 2006 as an important subject for the Dutch society. In April, 2008, an official center has been created (mediawijsheid expertisecentrum = medialiteracy expertisecenter) by the Dutch government. This center is more a network organization existing out of different partners who have their own expertise with the subject of media education. The idea is that media education will become a part of the official curriculum.
The history of media education in Russia goes back to the 1920s. The first attempts to instruct in media education (on the press and film materials, with the vigorous emphasis on the communist ideology) appeared in the 1920s but were stopped by Joseph Stalin’s repressions. The end of the 1950s - the beginning of the 1960s was the time of the revival of media education in secondary schools, universities, after-school children centers (Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Voronezh, Samara, Kurgan, Tver, Rostov on Don, Taganrog, Novosibirsk, Ekaterinburg, etc.), the revival of media education seminars and conferences for the teachers. During the time when the intensive rethinking of media education approaches was on the upgrade in the Western hemisphere, in Russia of the 1970s–1980s media education was still developing within the aesthetic concept. Among the important achievements of 1970s-1990s one can recall the first official programs of film and media education, published by Ministry of Education, increasing interest of Ph.D. to media education, experimental theoretic and practical work on media education by O.Baranov (Tver), S.Penzin (Voronezh), G.Polichko, U.Rabinovich (Kurgan), Y.Usov (Moscow), Aleksandr Fyodorov (Taganrog), A.Sharikov (Moscow) and others. The important events in media education development in Russia are the registration of the new specialization (since 2002) for the pedagogical universities – ‘Media Education’ (№ 03.13.30), and the launch of a new academic journal ‘Media Education’ (since January 2005), partly sponsored by the ICOS UNESCO ‘Information for All’. Additionally, the Internet sites of Russian Association for Film and Media Education (English and Russian versions) were created. Taking into account the fact that UNESCO defines media education as the priority field of the cultural educational development in the 21st century, media literacy has good prospects in Russia.
Canada
In North America, the beginnings of a formalized approach to media literacy as a topic of education is often attributed to the 1978 formation of the Ontario-based Association for Media Literacy (AML). Before that time, instruction in media education was usually the purview of individual teachers and practitioners. Canada was the first country in North America to require media literacy in the school curriculum. Every province has mandated media education in its curriculum. For example, the new curriculum of Quebec mandates media literacy from Grade 1 until final year of secondary school (Secondary V). The launching of media education in Canada came about for two reasons. One reason was the concern about the pervasiveness of American popular culture and the other was the education system-driven necessity of contexts for new educational paradigms. Canadian communication scholar Marshall McLuhan ignited the North American educational movement for media literacy in the 1950s and 1960s. Two of Canada's leaders in Media Literacy and Media Education are Barry Duncan and John Pungente. Duncan passed away on June 6, 2012, even after retired from classroom teaching but was still active in media education. Pungente is a Jesuit priest who has promoted media literacy since the early 1960s.
Media Awareness Network (MNet), a Canadian non-profit media education organization, hosts a Web site which contains hundreds of free lesson plans to help teachers integrate media into the classroom. MNet also has created award-winning educational games on media education topics, several of which are available free from the site, and has also conducted original research on media issues, most notable the study Young Canadians in a Wired World. MNet also hosts the Talk Media Blog, a regular column on media education issues.
The United States
Media literacy education has been an interest in the United States since the early 20th century, when high school English teachers first started using film to develop students' critical thinking and communication skills. However, media literacy education is distinct from simply using media and technology in the classroom, a distinction that is exemplified by the difference between "teaching with media" and "teaching about media."[15] In the 1950s and 60s, the ‘film grammar’ approach to media literacy education developed in the United States, where educators began to show commercial films to children, having them learn a new terminology consisting of words such as fade, dissolve, truck, pan, zoom, and cut. Films were connected to literature and history. To understand the constructed nature of film, students explored plot development, character, mood and tone. Then, during the 1970s and 1980s, attitudes about mass media and mass culture began to shift. Around the English-speaking world, educators began to realize the need to “guard against our prejudice of thinking of print as the only real medium that the English teacher has a stake in.”[16] A whole generation of educators began to not only acknowledge film and television as new, legitimate forms of expression and communication, but also explored practical ways to promote serious inquiry and analysis—- in higher education, in the family, in schools and in society.[17] Typically, U.S. media literacy education includes a focus on news, advertising, issues of representation, and media ownership. Media literacy competencies can also be cultivated in the home, through activities including co-viewing and discussion.[18]
Media literacy education began to appear in state English education curriculum frameworks by the early 1990s as a result of increased awareness in the central role of visual, electronic and digital media in the context of contemporary culture. Nearly all 50 states have language that supports media literacy in state curriculum frameworks.[19] In 2004, Montana developed educational standards around media literacy that students are required to be competent in by grades 4, 8, and 12. Additionally, an increasing number of school districts have begun to develop school-wide programs, elective courses, and other after-school opportunities for media analysis and production.
Media literacy education is now gaining momentum in the United States because of the increased emphasis on 21st century literacy, which now incorporates media and information literacy, collaboration and problem-solving skills, and emphasis on the social responsibilities of communication. More than 600 educators are members of the National Association for Media Literacy Education (NAMLE), a national membership group that hosts a bi-annual conference. In 2009, this group developed an influential policy document, the Core Principles of Media Literacy Education in the United States.[20] It states, "The purpose of media literacy education is to help individuals of all ages develop the habits of inquiry and skills of expression that they need to be critical thinkers, effective communicators and active citizens in today’s world. Principles include: (1) Media Literacy Education requires active inquiry and critical thinking about the messages we receive and create; (2) Media Literacy Education expands the concept of literacy in all forms of media (i.e., reading and writing); (3) Media Literacy Education builds and reinforces skills for learners of all ages. Like print literacy, those skills necessitate integrated, interactive, and repeated practice; (4) Media Literacy Education develops informed, reflective and engaged participants essential for a democratic society; (5) Media Literacy Education recognizes that media are a part of culture and function as agents of socialization; and (6) Media Literacy Education affirms that people use their individual skills, beliefs and experiences to construct their own meanings from media messages.
In the United States, various stakeholders struggle over nuances of meaning associated with the conceptualization of the practice on media literacy education. Educational scholars may use the term critical media literacy to emphasize the exploration of power and ideology in media analysis. Other scholars may use terms like new media literacy to emphasize the application of media literacy to user-generated content or 21st century literacy to emphasize the use of technology tools.[21] As far back as 2001, the Action Coalition for Media Education (ACME) split from the main media literacy organization as the result of debate about whether or not the media industry should support the growth of media literacy education in the United States. Renee Hobbs of Temple University in Philadelphia wrote about this general question as one of the "Seven Great Debates" in media literacy education in an influential 1998 Journal of Communication article.[22]
The media industry has supported media literacy education in the United States. Make Media Matter is one of the many blogs (an “interactive forum”) the Independent Film Channel features as a way for individuals to assess the role media plays in society and the world. The television program, The Media Project, offers a critical look at the state of news media in contemporary society. During the 1990s, the Discovery Channel supported the implementation of Assignment: Media Literacy, a statewide educational initiative for K-12 students developed in collaboration with the Maryland State Board of Education.
Because of the decentralized nature of the education system in a country with 70 million children now in public or private schools, media literacy education develops as the result of groups of advocates in school districts, states or regions who lobby for its inclusion in the curriculum. There is no central authority making nationwide curriculum recommendations and each of the fifty states has numerous school districts, each of which operates with a great degree of independence from one another. However, most U.S. states include media literacy in health education, with an emphasis on understanding environmental influences on health decision-making. Tobacco and alcohol advertising are frequently targeted as objects for "deconstruction, " which is one of the instructional methods of media literacy education. This resulted from an emphasis on media literacy generated by the Clinton White House. The Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) held a series of conferences in 1996 and 1997 which brought greater awareness of media literacy education as a promising practice in health and substance abuse prevention education. The medical and public health community now recognizes the media as a cultural environmental influence on health and sees media literacy education as a strategy to support the development of healthy behavior.
Interdisciplinary scholarship in media literacy education is emerging. In 2009, a scholarly journal was launched, the Journal of Media Literacy Education,[23] to support the work of scholars and practitioners in the field. Universities such as Appalachian State University, Columbia University, Ithaca College, New York University, the University of Texas-Austin, Temple University, and the University of Maryland offer courses and summer institutes in media literacy for pre-service teachers and graduate students. Brigham Young University offers a graduate program in media education specifically for inservice teachers. The Salzburg Academy for Media and Global Change is another institution that educates students and professionals from around the world the importance of being literate about the media.
-------------------------------------------------
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_literacy
What is the importance of media in education?
In general, "media" refers to various means of communication. For example, television, radio, and the newspaper are different types of media. The term can also be used as a collective noun for the press or news reporting agencies. In the computer world, "media" is also used as a collective noun, but refers to different types of data storage options.
Respected teacher and friends, the topic I've chosen to speak about is Media in Education.
Now, is media education useful or in other ways important?
Media education can help young people put current images and messages about Aboriginal people into perspective by helping them understand how the media work, why stereotyping exists, how decisions are made, and why "it matters who makes it." Media education is not about learning the right answers; it's about consuming media images with an active, critical mind and asking the right questions. Media is the most powerful tool of communication. It helps promoting the right things on right time. It gives a real exposure to the mass audience about what is right or wrong. Even though media is linked with spreading fake news like a fire, but on the safe side, it helps a lot to inform us about the realities as well.
All in all media help us to keep a good check on the things that are going around. http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_importance_of_media_in_education -------------------------------------------------
Media education: a type of pedagogical utilisation of the media intended to teach the critical-reflective use of all media. Where media become important for human socialisation as a means of information, entertainment, education and day-to-day organisation, they become the subject of media education – the media are the subject and object of education (education on media).
Media education concerns all communication media and their combinations made possible by the so-called New Media. These communication media are constituent parts of all texts, regardless of the technology: the word, printed/spoken, graphics, sound, stills and moving pictures. The so-called New Media (including the Internet), being developments and combinations of the above modules, are essentially technologies that serve their distribution and have an effect on several social dimensions. Critical reflection on the possible effects is also included in media education.
The potential to combine data of all kinds into gigantic information networks and to make use of these both in a working and a domestic environment, i.e. to obtain, access and process them, causes the boundaries to be blurred between individual and mass communication, between the book and newspaper markets, between entertainment and business communication. It is especially in the New Media segment that media education is confronted with new issues concerning its autonomous critical use.
3. OBJECTIVES OF MEDIA EDUCATION
Before launching into a discussion of some fields of media education, it seems necessary to define the term “media competence” within the meaning of this Ordinance:
Media competence as an objective of media-pedagogical work includes not just the skills to handle the technical side but, even more, skills such as the ability to select, differentiate, structurise and recognise own needs, etc. It is in particular when using the so-called New Media that issues of individual and social relevance emerge in a media-education context which range beyond the mere use of the media for a specific field.
Examples: What does the sheer volume of information mean for the human capacity to process information? What processes of selection, structurisation and professionalisation need to be put in place? How can the credibility and reliability of information be safeguarded? What are the implications of media convergence? How does content convergence, i.e. the mixture of games and movies, objective information and emotive elements, etc. mean for processing? What is the reference frame that we use for computer simulation? What are the consequences of mixing borderlines and blurring the contents of the terms “real–virtual–fictional”?
3.1. Media use: By offering critical insights into the phenomena of communication, media education should guide pupils/students to media activities that are both conscious and participatory to the extent possible within the relevant life situation. Media activities require that people are active in any communication situation involving media. This means that they negotiate their own importance in a given interaction during their media use. Accordingly, media education, starting out from the pupil’s/student’s personal disposition and with due regard to his/her linguistic abilities, should include not only the cognitive but also the affective field. It should help the pupil/student to rethink his/her own role expectations and recognise his/her own communication needs and deficits.
Pupils/students should also realise and experience that the mass media intentionally arouse the need for consumer-oriented behaviour. They should realise that new types of individual and mass communication extend their options for active participation in economic, political and cultural life. And they should realise and experience that the electronic media have a substantial contributive impact on the personal leisure time organisation and behaviour. In this respect, reference should be made to the close links between the leisure-time and entertainment industry and the mass media with a view to the development of typical behavioural patterns.
3.2. Communication with and through the media: Media education should enable pupils/students to manage in a world about which they are mostly informed by the media. They should be made to realise that the media contribute significantly to their political judgement. They should realise that the expansion of communication technologies provides more opportunities for humans to express themselves and participate in political life by “direct” democracy through the pressing of a button, and provides better political information, better information from government authorities, while at the same time they should find out that the communication media, through encouraging passivity, keep people from direct participation in political life, distract them from political conflicts and expose them to political manipulation from well-financed interest groups. They should learn how to use media to arrive at a critical judgement and thus strengthen their own competence for action. They should experience that the media create their own reality, not just as a mediator of fictitious worlds, but also in projecting an image of reality. Yet the pupils/students should realise that this managed reality cannot be neutral in its values. They should recognise the structure, design and effect of the various types of media, such as movies, transparencies, etc., and they should understand which content is chiefly transported by which media. They should be made aware that identical contents are presented differently and thus have different effects.
Media education should raise awareness for the frequently biased and cliché-ridden presentation of social and gender roles by the media. Pupils/students should become sensitised to the issue of the extent to which the media are realistic in their presentation of every-day life situations (e.g. relations between women and men, between employees and bosses, between young and old, etc.). They should realise that social- and gender-specific roles are subject to stereotyping.
Even though the media cannot on their own effect a change in the understanding of the role distribution prevailing in our society, they are still important in influencing and enlightening the public. By reflecting certain values, they contribute to maintaining mainstream value conceptions and may either strengthen or weaken ideas, models and views. 3.3. Media as an economic factor or mass media as an institution:
The pupils/students should realise that economic, technical, social and ideological prerequisites as well as different organisational structures (under public law or as private enterprises) necessitate certain types of production or distribution, as well as certain criteria for the selection and representation of the contents disseminated. In this context, reference can be made to the types of procurement of news items, to the financing by user fees and advertising, and to the tension between imported and local media products. Similarly, treatment should also be accorded to the role of advanced public relations activities as a partner and supplier of information to the media. Modern public relations activities provide, i.a., an open and long-term dialogue between fractions in society (business, politics, science, social affairs, sports, etc.) and the media. In this context, concepts such as independence, objectivity, credibility, plurality of opinions, manipulation, etc. should be critically analysed. 3.4. Own media creations:
Within the context of learning to act and to experience, the pupils/students should be encouraged to work on their own media products within the scope of media education. Yet regardless of the merits of own productions for a variety of learning objectives, they do not yet constitute media education. It is only when practical work is combined with critical reflection on the production process that we can talk about media-pedagogical work. Such reflection may, i.a., refer to the experience collected in social matters, the creation of a momentousness that underlies media work, etc. This is to ensure that media work will lead to the conscious gain of insights.
4. IMPLEMENTATION
4.1. General
Considering that the topics discussed in the media touch upon all fields of understanding and action, media education is not limited to individual subjects or age groups. Rather, each teacher is obliged to consider them as an educational principle in all subjects with due regard to the relevant subject, as is provided for in the curricula.
For this, project-oriented teaching methods are recommended. In doing so, integrating the mass media in teaching must not be seen as simply using the media as an impulse for teaching a specific subject or as an illustration of the presentation of a subject. Rather, in using and examining the media, awareness should be raised on how they influence our view of the world and how this impacts on social and political decision-making.
It is especially because the media appear to depict the world so spontaneously and naturally that the following should always be included in our thoughts:
Media are never neutral vessels of information. The images, which we think are depictions of reality, are actually shaped, professionally constructed – and this is why their decoding requires a high potential of media competence. Similarly in the natural sciences – which are assigned a high degree of objectiveness in the traditional discourse – the key questions (who informs whom of what, and with what intention?), which we use to dissect media texts, are of eminent importance – and they should be applied just the same as in media texts which are clearly and obviously “made”.
Critical media analysis does not obstruct – as is often feared by practitioners of didactics – the subject-specific information content of the media. Quite on the contrary: dealing with the interfaces between the subject-specific contents and the mediation share contributed by the medium adds significantly to the degree of media competence as well as to the subject-specific knowledge yield. The insight that even those audio-visual media that are specially designed for teaching cannot be objective, shakes the belief in the rightness and truth of other media (such as e.g. school textbooks). Thinking of concepts such as truth or rightness will lead to the questioning of the seemingly naturalness and obviousness of many images which suggest an authentic truth.
Similarly, the use of audio-visual teaching aids, which is absolutely necessary to ensure modern and effective teaching, cannot be accounted for as media education, unless their media-specific properties are discussed beyond the technical side of their use. Thus, next and in addition to the technical content of the medium, consideration should be given to whether and to what extent interests pursued by the media producers will affect the content and arrangement of what is offered.
Media education shall, as a rule, be offered to all age groups, in line with the intellectual development of the pupils/students. http://www.mediamanual.at/en/media.php -------------------------------------------------
The important role of mass media in education
The education of our children has always been emotive and when the mass media is added to the mix, volatility is inevitable.
Hardly a country in the world is spared controversy in education, but when one looks behind the sometimes anarchic scenes, there is a lot about which to be optimistic and hopeful.
Traditionally, the mass media and education have enjoyed a love-hate relationship. On one hand television and newspapers particularly, have provided extensive and extremely useful education content. On the other, however, their newsrooms never seem to hesitate when controversy rears is ugly head.
In theory, it is absolutely vital for the mass media to keep an eye on the way in which governments administer and develop education, but it has to be said that in this day and age of a battle for survival within the mass media industry, the watchdog does tend to become somewhat rabid at times.
Like most businesses the mass media often takes a line of least resistance when problems occur and a first step always seems to blame the trades union movements.
In South Africa the South African Democratic Teachers Union (SADTU) inevitably faces tremendous criticism from the mass media when its members protest the enormous challenges and deprivations they face in the classrooms. Many of those challenges having very little to do with actual teaching.
Regrettably, the relationship between the mass media and education involves a lot of indulgence in blame-games and reaction by both sides to superficial symptoms.
There is undeniably an urgent need for the education authorities and the mass media to join together in improving the lot of our youngsters and young adults. The media cannot just be a watchdog and nothing else and the national and provincial education departments cannot work in isolation or out of the public eye.
It is no good the mass media simply reporting on "delinquent learners burning classrooms" without delving into the underlying causes. Understanding perhaps, that after years of promises for proper school buildings to replace dilapidated, unhealthy, decades-old temporary structures, the only option left was to destroy the old building so that a new one would have to built.
There is no question that the only way in which the mass media can continue to perform its role as an education watchdog but at the same time become involved in helping build an efficient education system, is through improved communication.
This probably sounds extremely glib, but when you think about it, bad or non-existent communication has been the cause of everything from wars between countries to divorces between married couples.
In simple terms, this communication would mean the mass media and the education departments talking to each other a lot more. I have to say, though, that this is a wild hope and probably entirely over-optimistic.
However, I believe that two innovations will force this essential communication to take place.
The first is the involvement by private sector companies in the education environment and the second is new media.
Argo, for example, is a good example of a private sector media company that is successfully creating bridges between education authorities, unions and affiliated and non-affiliated teachers. Companies such as these are becoming vital links in improved communications among stakeholders.
The private sector is pioneering the use of new media, specifically social media in the education environment with for example, websites such as ed.org.za and increasing activity on interactive social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Mxit.
The importance of social media among education authorities, educators, unions, private sector stakeholders as well as schools, pupils and parents, cannot be emphasised enough.
Communication is one thing, it is a vitally important thing, but it is not enough.
Conversation is what is going to ensure increased collaboration by all players in education and the beauty of the social media conversation is its endemic role as watchdog. Not a one-sided watchdog but one that has sufficient information at hand to ensure an even-handed approach.
It would be a grave mistake for anyone in the education sector to assume that things like FaceBook, Twitter and Mxit were strictly for children or young adults. They are extremely efficient creators of conversations among all parties, providing not only information and advice but most importantly able to address misconceptions and wrong perceptions almost immediately.
As technology makes farther inroads into education, as the iPad has already done in private school classrooms, the ability for pupils, teachers, parents along with education authorities to communicate instantly will be an absolute boon in terms of increasing the efficiency and efficacy of education.
There are those that might feel that all this might be a little too transparent and instant.
But, when you think about it, the future of education rests on being as transparent as humanly possible.
And it will be the private sector that leads the way - Twitter, YouTube, FaceBook, Mxit, online forums and pioneers such as Argo.
http://www.bizcommunity.com/Article/196/98/74658.html
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