MEDIA LITERACY
We are bombarded constantly by the media. Billboards, radio, movies, and television inundate us with a steady stream of images. They coax us: Buy a television. Weigh less. Eat fast food. Drive a sport utility vehicle. Drink beer. Bank on the Internet. Vote Independent. Save the mountains. Believe in commercialism. The media consistently pushes society into its own commercial construct of reality, while viewers often seem to be barely aware of the process. Media literacy gives viewers the tools to ask the appropriate questions and comprehend the complicated answers they receive.
WHY MEDIA LITERACY?
Why should anyone care about being media literate? After all, can't people simply turn off their television, ignore advertisements they see, and just read a book? In reality, it has become increasingly difficult, if not impossible, to avoid the media. Staying away from the newspaper, magazines, radio, music, television, films, and advertisements is tantamount to avoiding mainstream culture and becoming a modern-day hermit. Rather than hiding from the blitz of media information that we encounter in everyday life, we should try to be more aware of what the media are trying to get us to do. Media literacy can give students the tools to decipher and deconstruct the images that are tossed at them right and left, helping them to engage their intellects and become active viewers.
THE BASICS OF MEDIA LITERACY
The Center for Media Literacy's kit Living in the Image Culture: An Introductory Primer for Media Literacy Education provides an excellent introduction, as it clearly lays out five fundamental precepts of media literacy, explains why they are important, and offers suggestions on how to begin interacting with the "post-print" media in a meaningful way. The first and most basic precept is that 1) the media constructs realities. These realities--whether a cartoon world or the evening news or even a documentary--do not present an objective, unadulterated view of the world, but have been painstakingly crafted in order to achieve a specific purpose. 2) The audience creates their own meaning from the constructed reality. Without the audience the constructed world of the media has no meaning, so viewers thus become an integral part of the process. 3) The media uses specific, identifiable techniques to construct its realities. If viewers can spot how editing, lighting, background music, special effects, and other factors are being used shape a point of view, they can more easily break down and interpret the images they see. 4) Media are commercial business. Edward R. Murrow may have called television "the greatest classroom in the world," but that doesn't mean that it (and all other media) aren't concerned with turning a profit. Finally, 5) the media presents ideologies and value systems. These ideologies may parallel what we see as objective reality, or seem very similar, but there are not necessarily representative of it.
Television may very well be the most influential of all media. Studies have shown that by the time children graduate from high school, they will have spent more than twice as many hours in front of the television as they have in the classroom. Furthermore, most families have the television on for an average of seven hours a day. TV Alert, also produced by the Center for Media Literacy, also discusses the basic principles of media literacy, but focuses specifically on how these principles should be applied to interpret the wide variety of information presented on television.
CAVEAT EMPTOR
Next, let's look at commercials, specifically those on television. The most important factor to remember here is that media are businesses (the fourth basic precept of media literacy). Television stations try to present particular world views that they hope will attract viewers; once a loyal viewing audience is obtained, it becomes a commodity that stations can then sell to advertisers, who in turn try to sell their products to that audience. Every single second of television programming is designed to cultivate this system. Shows are therefore often tailored to attract that segment of the population most attractive to advertisers: white males, ages 18-54, who earn over $40,000 a year. Commercials and television shows thus both present certain ideologies that will help to sell products. According to the video The Ad & the Ego, some of these ideologies are: the world is a dangerous place, women are objects, and a purchase will make you popular, happy, and loved. These ideologies are not true, but without realizing that they have been constructed by the media, viewers can begin to believe that do represent the truth. The Ad & the Ego does an excellent job of exposing these ideologies and also of showing how commercials during the 20th century have evolved from just presenting information about a product to deceiving viewers into believing that purchasing items is the key to happiness and success.
That's Marketing and Why Ads Work concentrate on the minutia of purposeful deception in advertising rather than the broad strokes. That's Marketing stresses the fact that the law of Caveat Emptor (buyer beware) is still valid today, and discusses how two techniques can deceive viewers. Advertisers use doubletalk such as "the taste of", "the look of" "may help", "can fight," and "as many as" to lull the buyer into thinking that they are hearing some sort of guarantee or promise when in fact none exists. Parity claims can also mislead viewers. When products are more or less identical (such as aspirin), each different manufacturer can claim that their product is "the best"; though not technically a lie, it's not really the truth either. Why Ads Work focuses on other marketing methods used to deceive television audiences such as market segmentation, branding, and variable pricing. As long as these methods are legal (though they may not be ethical or honest) then businesses are free to use them; recognizing and understanding these practices-i.e., being media literate-thus becomes a crucial component of caveat emptor today.
POLLUTING THE INFORMATION STREAM
Often on television the viewer will hear a commercial state "nine out of ten dentists prefer
" or "preferred 2 to 1 in taste tests" or "the number one selling car in America." Since most viewers realize that these statistical quotes are being used to sell them something, they usually afford them only the smallest amount of reliability. But the rest of the media, especially the evening news, are often given much more credibility. When those outlets quote a survey or study, many people generally believe them. Part of being media literate means knowing where your information originates. For example, news programs get their facts from a specific source or sources. So when an anchor breaks out a frightening or uplifting statistic and quotes a scientific study (e.g., "One out of every eight children is in danger of going hungry tonight," or "Oat bran lowers cholesterol and reduces the risk of heart attack," or "Heavy coffee drinking boosts risk of heart illness"), the media literate should question who is funding the study or survey, and ask who benefits from the results. In Tainted Truth, author Cynthia Crossen explains how such studies miraculously seem to always produce an outcome that benefits their sponsors the most. She concentrates specifically on the conflict of interest between commercial and academic interests when a company pays for a study at a university.
John Stossel explores the phenomenon of media misinformation in Fact or Fiction, a segment from the ABC News program 20/20. He examines the previously mentioned quote on hunger ("One out of every eight children is in danger of going hungry tonight"), and shows how the study from which it came not only relied upon questionable methodology, but questionable motives as well. In this case, a special interest groups commissioned the studies to support their own goals-something that Stossel asserts happens quite often. The program also notes that when our information stream gets polluted by such misinformation, it casts into doubt all facts presented to us by the media. How Numbers Lie, a follow-up to Fact or Fiction, presents specific examples of how loaded phrasing, taking numbers out of context, slippery definitions, and misleading mathematics can cause unfounded fears. What is perhaps most disturbing about misinformation is that it often appears in the media outlets in which we place the greatest trust. The evening news, local news, and print newsmagazines sometimes present dubious studies as verifiable fact. Viewers must be aware that such studies may be unverifiable and that their results may have been dictated by money, politics, or something other than the search for "the truth."
While still presenting the media as far from faultless, News for the '90s: How to Analyze the News Media provides clues on how to reveal the fuller picture or at least note "holes" in news articles. It focuses in particular on the myth of objectivity, which works on two levels. First, no journalistic entity can ever be truly objective because it can't run the risk of alienating big business-the main source of its revenue. Secondly, objectivity in journalism usually means presenting two extremes, and then revealing the truth that lies in between the two. Assuming that truth lies between opposites leads to another problem: presenting the middle ground as correct promotes the status quo, tradition, and, again, big business. The middle ground thus often gives just another flawed perception of reality. Ultimately them people should not even accept what is usually considered "hard news" at face value, but should apply the same principles of media literacy here as well.
FICTIONAL VIOLENCE
Violence in the media has been blamed for a variety of society's ills. The media in turn has exonerated itself of any blame with a variety of defenses. What is not in dispute, however, is the actual exposure time of children to violence on television. By the time kids have completed sixth grade, they will see at least 8000 murders and more than 10,000 acts of violence. By the age of 18, they will have seen 40,000 murders and 200,000 acts of violence. (These numbers come from Dr. George Gerbner, director of the Annenberg School of Communication.) But these numbers raise a question: Does violence in the media lead to real-life violence, or is it simply a reflection violence in society? Defenders of the media deny that viewing violence on television or in the movies leads people to commit violent acts. Furthermore, many argue that for television shows to be realistic, they must depict violence because, unfortunately, we live in a violent world. Finally, some argue that any attempt to curb depictions of violence in the media would be censorship and violate our right to freedom of speech.
Providing a basic overview, the high interest/easy reading book Media Violence: Everything You Need To Know (part of set) takes a strong position on the issue, portraying media violence as a distinctly insidious phenomenon. It is a clear--although one-sided--account of the effects of media violence. On Television: The Violence Factor also views media violence as a societal problem, using a wealth of studies, facts, and experts to back up its assertions. "What you see on television doesn't represent reality, it represents the values of reality," says Dr. George Gerbner. For example, the video claims that women and minorities are shown as victims most often because they are valued least in our society, while white males are portrayed as authority figures most often because they are valued the most. These very depressing facts are balanced by a few happier ones, such as the fact that on television there is a greater percentage of minorities in professional jobs than there are in reality. Much has been made about the inability to define the "gratuitous violence" which industry pundits, Congress, and advocacy groups all have targeted as the real problem. This video distinguishes eleven factors which precisely define what "gratuitous" and "superfluous" violence involve. Among them are that the perpetrator of violence is rewarded, the perpetrator is similar to viewer, and it makes abnormal behavior seem normal. The video definitely does not champion the media in its present form, but it does present real strategies for changing the medium and it believes television can be used as a means of education.
But what brings home to students the difficulty of judging, changing, or defending television is involving them in the decision-making process. Part of the Decisions Decisions series, Violence in the Media, a CD-ROM simulation, portrays in a realistic and sympathetic manner the conflicting purposes and means which clash whenever a discussion of media violence occurs. The simulation revolves around the possible censorship of a made-for-TV movie that presents violence as an evil part of our society; advertisers, writers, broadcasters, and parents are each given a voice in the ensuing debate. Basing its lessons in group discussion and role playing, the simulation raises all the correct questions without dishing out any easy answers.
OUR VIOLENT WORLD
Fictional violence is often no match for the reality of violence depicted on the local evening news. A basic question emerges here: How can we remove violence from the news when it is happening on our streets? What is frequently in debate is how the presentation of violent news stories. Often graphic pictures (a bloody body, a beaten victim) are shown at length, when a simple sentence would have sufficed to give viewers the gist of the matter. To those who claim that stories involving violence are often needlessly sensationalized, others would say that the news media have an obligation to present the full truth, no matter how brutal and raw it may be. Viewers must return again to the media literacy precepts, and remember that the evening news and other news outlets are all looking to attract a large audience to win advertising dollars. One book, Sensational TV: Trash or Journalism? presents a view that is for the most part unbiased. Readers can tell from the title itself that the author believes that television is flirting heavily with degeneracy, but she points out a variety of ways to use media literacy techniques to glean the necessary information from newscasts without blindly absorbing everything they say.
Part of the 20th Century with Mike Wallace series, the video Violence in the Media presents a number of historical examples from the turn of the century to the present, and refutes the idea that "media violence creates human violence" theory, asserting instead that the media merely reflects violence inherent in human nature and society. Though depictions of violence in entertainment and on the news have become more graphic over the course of this century, and the rise of mass communications have made people more aware of both fictional and real violence, Wallace claims that society now is no more violent than it has ever been. Teachers may want to have students compare this video to On Television: The Violence Factor, and then have students debate the issue for themselves.
EDUCATED VIEWERS-ACTIVE THINKERS
Debates over violence on television, commercial interests, and the sensationalizing of the news are not likely to be resolved anytime soon-if at all. But by applying the media literacy concepts discussed in this article, students can form their own opinions rather than simply accepting the various realities delivered to them by the media. Above all, students need be aware that they as they view, they are also being viewed, since every image, nuance, and sentence they encounter is aimed at influencing them. The choice to be an active or passive viewer is theirs.
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