media literacy

Wikipedia defines media literacy as, "the process of analyzing, evaluating and creating messages in a wide variety of media modes, genres and forms. It uses an inquiry-based instructional 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 to detect propaganda,censorship, and bias in news and public affairs programming (and the reasons for such), and to understand how structural features—such as media ownership, or its funding model -- affect the information presented."

When I first looked at this definition I was overwhelmed but as I began to take it piece by piece i realized that what its saying is exactly what we are doing in class. We are watching, hearing, and reading media and asking questions, instead of being blissfully unaware of the "secret" messages imbedded in each piece. Last week we read Linda Christensen's piece "unlearning the myths that bind us" in this article she described how media created for children is imbedded with racial stereotypes, false gender roles, unrealistic body images...not to mention the things they left out; different races, disabilities, and life styles. What we began to learn from Christensen and what she presented to her students was media literacy. She asked her students (and her readers) to review their favorite childhood cartoons, movies, and books, but this time look at them as "social blueprints," a way for society to dictate how we think and what we feel. This is what media literacy is and what that big jumble of words from wikipedia was trying to describe; the idea of looking at media, not as entertainment, but as a way for society to control and dictate how we look at the world.

Attatched is a video taken from the Center of Media Literacy describing what media literacy is and how it affects our society (apparently the blog will not allow me to type after the youtube video so it is at the bottom of this post). They also speak about the five key questions and concepts to deconstruction of media. I found the key questions and concepts they presented really make you think about the media image (like a commercial for instance) and how it's message is being used to manipulate its audience in different ways. These questions can be used by adults, but also are presented in a language that is student friendly as well, so teachers can present these questions in the classroom at an early age and have children begin to open their eyes to media and the images it is projecting apon our society.

My question to present in class and what i am kinda stumped on at the moment is, if the media is in the hands of a few wealthy people and news is bias are we in the book 1984? Is our society already dictating and changing our history? Are we really fighting a war or is all this news just propaganda created by the government and spoon fed to us by wealthy business men and corrupt politicians? How do we know anything is fact? Our thoughts are suppose to be all our own, but are they? Or are we all just meant to walk blindly through life brainwashed by the secret meanings behind all media still believing our minds are free? Are we to late?