Chapter 5 – “Not surprisingly, critical media literacy is
being heralded as a counterforce to this postmodern logic that, like the
growing emphases on network relations, presents serious challenges to
maintaining and reconstructing Discourses of active and informed political and
civic involvement.”
This is a perfect time to bring this quote up since we are
currently in an election year. Critical media literacy does play a large role
in how informed the public is about candidates. It allows people to look beyond
what a candidate says and for them to see what they are actually doing. Being
able to look back on what a candidate has said in the past and compare it to
what they are now saying in a matter of minutes. Critical media literacy is a
new driving force for education and for the public to use as a tool to educate
themselves.
Chapter 6 – “Practicing a powerful literacy, so defined, can
provide the bases for reconstituting our selves/identities and resituating
ourselves within society.”
I think this quote speaks volumes because it eludes to how
we, as a civilization, are reconstituting our selves/identities. Powerful
literacy is not more accessible and affects everyone because we all have access
to the literate. Resituating ourselves within society means that we are able to
better ourselves and bring ourselves to a higher level within the society, once
again being able to achieve the American dream that has been seldom heard of in
recent years.
Your post mentions the flipside of mine. The American Dream has actually been in the news a lot in recent years, mostly because social mobility is nigh impossible when you have high rates of poverty. Add to that the fact that poverty has adverse effects on childhood physical and mental development, along with all the other things that accompany it, and we have a big problem. Some links to ponder:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.cbsnews.com/news/nobel-prize-winner-joseph-stiglitz-american-dream-is-a-myth/
http://www.law.unc.edu/documents/poverty/curriculum/unit1americandreamslides.pdf
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/poverty-disturbs-children-s-brain-development-and-academic-performance/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2014/10/29/child-poverty-in-the-u-s-is-among-the-worst-in-the-developed-world/
Sean, Media plays such a big role in our everyday lives that the need for "proper Literacy" now extends far beyond written text into all types of electronic media. Even games have overt and hidden agendas for the gamer to interact with during the game or in advertising. This along with greater access to current, recent past, and past (older than a year) events or news can be a great asset for learners to expand their own understandings. Access to information and the desire to learn more will change the world... Hopefully for the better. Not sure if an evolving Pikachu qualifies as better..Lol... good pic choice!
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of how the public can now not only hear what a candidate says, but also see what they do now, and what they've done in the past, there was just a story about that on NPR yesterday. The group BuzzFeed has been doing that for the public for a few years, now, but are now generating a much greater following and more respect because of their critical media literacy skills. I think it is a new literacy that many people, young and old, are beginning to develop greater skill in, and beginning to understand the importance of. I know specifically, from the perspectives of my two young adult children, they are tired of being duped online, or led on a wild goose chase when they see information posted online. They've learned how to better check the validity of that information.
ReplyDeleteTo add to what you said about critical media literacy...not only must we learn to see past what the candidates are saying, but we also must be able to see past what the media says about each candidate because all media outlets have an agenda that it sometimes gets tricky to see past.
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