These readings were pretty difficult to get through, and I responded more to the Critical Media Literacy chapter than the Cyberactivism chapter. In the Critical Media chapter, the author talked about students who studied the 2000 Democratic National Convention and the media coverage that surrounded it. The students' findings, that the media portrayed actively engaged youth as dangerous and violent, reminded me of the deficit ideology we studied in class. The media's narrative on youth is structurally flawed, because if they choose to be active citizens involved in something like a presidential election (even peacefully), their media coverage focuses on weapons and violence rather than the issues they are passionate about. On the other hand, if they are not actively engaged in the voting process, their is a media narrative that presents them as lazy, uninvolved, uneducated, and uninterested in politics. In either case, it is impossible for them to be presented positively. I think that is where critical media literacy comes into play. It is important for students to learn that, when they need to gather information on a topic in the news, they should avoid mainstream media and instead look for less biased websites like those suggested in the chapter. It becomes dangerous when students only rely on mainstream media for information, because they develop ideas about the world that are skewed, as well as ideas about themselves from certain media narratives. As teachers, critical media literacy should be something we give as much attention to as the traditional critical literacies that we use in our classrooms every day.
I also find it important for students to look for less biased websites when researching anything, especially a social justice activity. I am not sure how long ago these chapters were written, but there has been a surge of unreliable media sources on the internet that students may view as "real". I think it is really important to teach students how to navigate through online media sources and show they how to distinguish an accurate, reliable source from other non-reliable ones.
ReplyDeleteI agree that much of the media's display of weapons and violence has made a huge impact on today's youth. Students will respond to what is being told in the media and with weapons and violence, this cannot produce a positive outcome. With easy access to media especially in classrooms now, with chromebooks and other technology in schools, students do need something to read that motivates and inspires them. Media literacy has become the norm for children in the technology age and the negativity in the media needs to decrease for fear of negative impacts on the next generation.
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