Journal of the College of Education/University of Hawai …, 2005
Literacy has traditionally been associated with the printed word. But today, print literacy is no... more Literacy has traditionally been associated with the printed word. But today, print literacy is not enough. Children and youth need to learn to 'read' and interpret visual images as well. Film, television, videos, DVDs, computer games, and the Internet all hold a prominent and pervasive place in our culture. We have all heard the oft-quoted statistic that by the time children are eighteen they will have spent more time watching television than attending school. The media is not going to go away. Its presence in our lives is only going to increase. For this reason, the acquisition of media literacy skills is a necessity for today's children and youth. They need to know not only how to use new technology, but also how to critically assess its influence and impact. This is what media literacy is about-the ability to access, analyze, evaluate, and produce information for specific outcomes. Media education in the U. S. lags far behind that of Canada, Australia, and Great Britain. This may be due to the fact that we have taken a largely protectionist stance regarding children and the media. The media is bad. Therefore we need to protect children from its influence. The political left and right are in rare agreement on the topic of the detrimental effects of media on children. They only differ on what is at fault: the right blames the media for undermining the morals and values of society, and the left blames the media for perpetuating them (i.e., capitalist consumerism, gender stereotyping, militarism). Television is the medium that is the primary object of criticism. It is the "plug-in drug" that is accused of seducing youth away from reality, and contributing to delinquency, amorality, acts of aggression, declining literacy skills, obesity, and a desensitization to crime and violence. However, several decades of research and debate on the effects of television have proven inconclusive. Numerous studies have suggested a link between television and movie violence and increased aggression in viewers. But these have been correlation studies that are not designed to prove that viewing violence causes aggressive behavior. It may be that viewers who are already predisposed to aggression choose to view more media violence than others. Research on media effects has produced inconsistent results. Many of the studies have focused on direct effects through controlled laboratory experiments. One of the most
This study was an investigation into the ways in which two classes of six- and seven-year-old chi... more This study was an investigation into the ways in which two classes of six- and seven-year-old children in Hawaii talked about the media. The children were shown video clips from a variety of media and asked to respond both orally and in writing. The qualitative data gathered in this study were researcher notes, video and audio-taped focus group interviews with the children, and their written responses to open-ended questions about the media clips they viewed. The results suggest that these children were more media savvy than commonly assumed, and already grasped basic understandings of key media concepts. Drawing upon Foucauldian theory, we argue for the need to move from the dominant model of developmental stage theory in media education, based on a deficit view of the child, to a strengths-based approach that recognizes and validates young people's varying experience with and knowledge about the media, and their agency when interacting with it.
Journal of the College of Education/University of Hawai …, 2005
Literacy has traditionally been associated with the printed word. But today, print literacy is no... more Literacy has traditionally been associated with the printed word. But today, print literacy is not enough. Children and youth need to learn to 'read' and interpret visual images as well. Film, television, videos, DVDs, computer games, and the Internet all hold a prominent and pervasive place in our culture. We have all heard the oft-quoted statistic that by the time children are eighteen they will have spent more time watching television than attending school. The media is not going to go away. Its presence in our lives is only going to increase. For this reason, the acquisition of media literacy skills is a necessity for today's children and youth. They need to know not only how to use new technology, but also how to critically assess its influence and impact. This is what media literacy is about-the ability to access, analyze, evaluate, and produce information for specific outcomes. Media education in the U. S. lags far behind that of Canada, Australia, and Great Britain. This may be due to the fact that we have taken a largely protectionist stance regarding children and the media. The media is bad. Therefore we need to protect children from its influence. The political left and right are in rare agreement on the topic of the detrimental effects of media on children. They only differ on what is at fault: the right blames the media for undermining the morals and values of society, and the left blames the media for perpetuating them (i.e., capitalist consumerism, gender stereotyping, militarism). Television is the medium that is the primary object of criticism. It is the "plug-in drug" that is accused of seducing youth away from reality, and contributing to delinquency, amorality, acts of aggression, declining literacy skills, obesity, and a desensitization to crime and violence. However, several decades of research and debate on the effects of television have proven inconclusive. Numerous studies have suggested a link between television and movie violence and increased aggression in viewers. But these have been correlation studies that are not designed to prove that viewing violence causes aggressive behavior. It may be that viewers who are already predisposed to aggression choose to view more media violence than others. Research on media effects has produced inconsistent results. Many of the studies have focused on direct effects through controlled laboratory experiments. One of the most
This study was an investigation into the ways in which two classes of six- and seven-year-old chi... more This study was an investigation into the ways in which two classes of six- and seven-year-old children in Hawaii talked about the media. The children were shown video clips from a variety of media and asked to respond both orally and in writing. The qualitative data gathered in this study were researcher notes, video and audio-taped focus group interviews with the children, and their written responses to open-ended questions about the media clips they viewed. The results suggest that these children were more media savvy than commonly assumed, and already grasped basic understandings of key media concepts. Drawing upon Foucauldian theory, we argue for the need to move from the dominant model of developmental stage theory in media education, based on a deficit view of the child, to a strengths-based approach that recognizes and validates young people's varying experience with and knowledge about the media, and their agency when interacting with it.
Uploads
Papers by Donna Grace