Double Entry Journal #9

 Quote:

"Mass communication in our contemporary culture might arguably bear greater similarity with the late 10th century, when there was a revival of the image, not the word..... theologians used church paintings, sculptures and the very church buildings themselves as a form of collective communication to teach the Bible to the unlettered masses.... Within the context of our 21st-century media culture, the language of images also tells stories and teaches lessons about the order of things. However, today's symbols are most commonly used to teach that the promise of salvation is brought about through material acquisition instead of spiritual devotion." (Goodman, 2003)

Extra Resource:

http://www.ithaca.edu/chartres/learn/glass/glass_master.html




Response:
 I wanted to respond to both the quote I chose from the text, and the additional resource I found this time, because I was really struck by the comparison the author brought up. It made me recall my trip to Europe as a young teenager, and the beautiful, awe inspiring cathedrals I visited while I was there. The stained glass windows that adorned these cathedrals were just amazing, much older and much much more elaborate than I had ever seen in this country. I remember being taken aback by them and learning that these elaborate stained glass windows were developed with the intention of education in mind. They depicted bible stories at a time when very few - the most wealthy and most powerful- knew how to read the actual bible. The images conveyed the stories that the leaders of the church wanted the congregants to know.

This led me to an online search to look for examples of stained glass and what continually came up in my web searches was the Chartres Cathedral in France, which dates back to around 1200 ("United nations educational," 2009). The glass and architecture of this cathedral is beautiful. It is awe inspiring, and I can clearly see how it made a person feel as if they were in the presence of something greater while within that space.

Unfortunately, I fear that the modern day equivalent of the Chartres is something akin to Disneyworld. I feel when we look at pictures of these amazing stain glass windows, we are seeing the 12th century's version of glossy, colorful magazine covers and advertisements. The places being built today that give people a sense of amazement, (eyes up.... mouth agape) are places like Las Vegas, amusement parks, football stadiums, fancier shopping malls. When I think of modern-day icons and symbols, I think about logos such as Gucci's and Apple's. When I think about bright, colorful beautiful images, I think about advertisements - billboards, posters, and commercials.

Critical media literacy allows the viewer to understand that these modern-day media images - albeit beautiful and awe-inspiring - are manipulating the uneducated, often into spending their money on something they only think they need.  Much like the 1200s, the wealthy and powerful - media moguls and corporate giants - control what the populace sees. The unfortunate part is that today the message the corporate media is sending is that happiness is only acquired through material goods.





Additional Questions:

1. According to the author, what is the main reason school have ignored engaging student with critical media literacy. Schools, along with the system of global media, both want young people to "be passive and willing vessels for a prescribed set of knowledge and skills." Media wants students to be consumers, schools want students to be orderly and not question authority and systems. Critical media literacy teaches students to question the authority and meanings they read around them, and this might lead to a question of school's authority. Furthermore, the author argues American schools are factory-schooling, where a supervisor (the principal, the teachers), expect total obedience from the worker (the student). Critical media literacy encourages and seeks community collaboration between teacher and student, and this disrupts they typical structure of a school system.

  2. Define critical media literacy. Studying media with a critical eye towards the power dynamics and economics at play within the media by identifying the codes and constructions media uses to manipulate the viewer.

 3. How can film making or digital story telling support the goals of critical media literacy? By creating media, especially film & digital stories, students (people!) learn the countless choices and decisions made throughout the process of producing a piece. The act of producing media leads students to understand more thoroughly the ways in which media can manipulate the viewer because they themselves will be manipulating their footage to get the story they want out of it.

4. Why does teaching media literacy become more complicated as student become consumers of news? News is a business, which makes money by increasing market share via increased viewership. For this reason, news has relied on spectacle and students have "grown up in a culture that has normalized the notion that entertainment is news and news is entertainment."

 5. What is the difference between learning through the media and learning about the media? Learning about the media includes being critical about the message and the pro-consumer bent the media is teaching you. It is about being aware of the codes and constructs the media uses. Teaching through media is just about using media as a vehicle to teach a set curriculum - like watching an educational film about water quality in science class.

Sources:

 Goodman, S. (2003). Teaching youth media: A critical guide to literacy, video production & social change. NY: Teachers College Press.


United nations educational, scientific and cultural organization. (2009). Retrieved from http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/81