Media Literacy 101: How to digest what you consume

It is advantageous and in the best interest of students to institute Media Literacy 101 as a part of any curriculum which utilizes any media as part of the course. Neil Postman’s book, Amusing Ourselves to Death, supports Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World fear that what we love will ruin us in addition to comparing and contrasting it with Orwell’s fear that what we hate will ruin us.

Though I cannot find who to attribute the idea to, the thought that who (or in this case what) we love the most has the greatest potential to hurt us reinforces Huxley’s theory.

A 2000 survey quoted in Walt Larimore’s article, “Obesity-Television, Video Games and Your Children's Health” on iMom.com showed that the average American child spends about twenty-five hours a week in front of the television.

Karen MacPherson’s Washington Post-Gazette article quotes a landmark study of American children as devoting thirty-eight hours to television watching, movies, videos, playing on the computer or reading on average over a seven day period. The same article also cites a Kaiser Family Foundation survey which surveyed more than 3,100 children (of a nationally representative population) -- or their parents, in the case of preschoolers stating, “children aged 2-18 spend an average of 5 1/2 hours a day "consuming" media, including two hours and 45 minutes watching TV. Kids 8 and older spend even more time in front of the tube -- nearly 6 3/4 hours a day.”

The Center for Media Literacy advocates a philosophy of empowerment through education. Its philosophy incorporates three intertwining concepts one of which is, Media literacy is an alternative to censoring, boycotting or blaming ‘the media.’ Media literacy does not promote partisan agendas or political points of view. The power of media literacy is its ability to inspire independent thinking and foster critical analysis. The ultimate goal of media education is to make wise choices possible.

This ability to make wise choices possible and to critically deconstruct the media’s messages is vitally useful in refining one’s ability to define the blurred line between reality and media creation. As entertainment as news increases in popularity, (i.e. American Idol and Survivor cast-offs as morning news program interviews) the lines of reality and the media’s composed version of reality melt together.

Postman’s book focuses on learners and viewers wanting to be entertained and having the ability to absorb information better when given in the form of entertainment. Because viewers would rather watch of learn something that is entertaining, I believe Huxley’s theory is clearly correct. People in the United States crave a hard news piece about politics in Russia like they crave dry toast. When someone turns on the television or opens up a magazine the programs or articles about what a celebrity is doing or arts and leisure information are of much more interest and comparable to a super-sized combo meal. Without ample media literacy development, publics are in danger of mistaking what the media feeds them as a complete true depiction of reality.

Center for Media Literacy. “CML Media Lit Kit”. 10 Mar. 2008

Larimore, Walt. “Obesity-Television, Video Games and Your Children's Health”. iMom.
10 Mar. 2008 <http://www.imom.com/article.php?id=93>

MacPherson, Karen. “Kids spend 38 hours weekly watching, zapping, reading”. Post- Gazette National Bureau. 10 Mar. 2008 http://www.postgazette.com/headlines/19991118kidstv3.asp

Postman Part II

AGREE

The notion that advertisers do not sell the qualities of the product or service, but sell how the consumer’s life will be better because of having the product or service is supported by current promotions and can be seen as true when looking through a lens of media literacy.

This statement is supported by the Horn’s advertising in the Bell Telephone romances. “Horn does not express himself. You do not express yourself. Horn expresses you.” (Postman, 135).

The idea is additionally backed up on page 128 of Postman regarding, the commercial being about “the character of the products to be consumed” as well as “the fears, fancies and dreams of those who might buy them.”

The quotations on page 128 tie into other course discussions regarding media playing off of emotional appeal such as fear and fulfillment. These principles were also evident during discussion of exercises relating to analyzing the content television programs and how the media uses certain tools to manipulate the viewer throughout the episode.

DISAGREE

“By endowing things with magic, enchantment is the means through which we may gain access to sacredness. Entertainment is the means through which we distance ourselves from it.” (Postman, 122).

This claim seems far from the truth in the sense that television has become magical. People tune in because the media present an intimate medium with carefully crafted stories of people’s lives. For viewers it is part of something sacred to witness the special moments of others like getting a new house or the birth of a child. These sacred moments are presented as entertainment because they are presented through the format of media. Media are also powerful enough to increase the magic of a moment to fit it to their presentation needs. Viewers are not distanced from sacredness, the sacredness is distorted because it is viewed as a product packaged by media.