Students as Keymasters

Amanda and Sofia raise an important question about how the media’s role as  gatekeeper is being altered in the face of more open source, on-line available texts.  Hobbs very clearly points out the power of the media to manipulate the truth in whatever fashion they want, but also suggests that through a critical study of media, and involvement in media, our students can take some of that power back.  To use a lame Ghostbusters reference, I think our students need to become keymasters, and unlock the flood of information that is available to them if they search for it.  Not only must we help our students think critically about the media, as in the reality t.v show activity that Hobbs describes, but we must direct them to media sources that they wouldn’t ordinarily look for. 

I don’t think that Hobbs believes that the media, or people for that matter, can ever be completely objective, but certainly we can come closer to the “truth” if we are able to engage in critical discourse about the media, and study it as if it were a text.  As Professor Stearns likes to say, English classes no longer need to center around a novel; we can inquire into and evaluate the media as if it were a story.

As Amanda and Sofia point out, the fact that anyone can publish online profoundly changes the way information can be communicated.  Although the larger media corporations still dominate, there is room for talented individuals to express their ideas, to tell their stories, and to shape their world.  As far as how this changes the English classroom I think it’s somewhat obvious, although I wouldn’t have thought so three months ago.  Students need to act as both critics and participants in the media which exerts so much influence over their lives.  Teachers must find ways to help students look at the media they see everyday with a critical lense: t.v shows, news, movies, and video games are texts that can be interepreted in the same way as poems, novels, or short stories.   Although a curriculum based upon the study of media is a drastic departure from the way the ELA curriculum is usually organized, I believe teachers can hit many of the same literacy standards as if they were teaching in the traditional manner.  It is simply the text that is changing, not necessarily our methods of analyzing that text.

When considering how students can participate in the media, and help shape the attitudes and values of the culture at large, I can’t help but think about our genocide awareness project.  When we traveled to Oneonta today, we were able to make significant contacts in the professional world, who will be able to help our project succeed.  But I also know that if we are not able to communicate with them about our progress, through blogs, vlogs, e-mail, podcasts, etc., we will lose the audience that we have just gained.  People are interested in what we’re doing, but we need to maintain that interest by continuing to publish what we are doing.  In short, people need access to us- they need information and communication in order to be involved from a distance.  

Today, Action News 12, WBNG, came to do a story on our meeting with Joe Fab.  I believe that running this story will help us with the project, but I also believe that a sustained, independent, media effort on our part will do more for the project in the long run.  We need to take ownership of our own media, not just to get the word out about our project, but to take control of what we want to express.  I noticed today that the interviewer from Action 12 asked the most inane, ridiculous questions about our project, and made many of my students uncomfortable.  It was difficult to watch this most inexperienced reporter put my students on the spot, but it made me think about what happens when the media takes control of a story and manipulates it in subtle and not so subtle ways.  My lesson from this experience is that we cannot leave things to chance.  Not only do we need to create our own media, but we need to rehearse our responses for media which might not understand where we are coming from.   Now that we are in the public sphere, we will be at risk for misinterpretation on a variety of different levels.  As new members of the media,  we need to make sure that people get the point that we are trying to make.  This will not only help us succeed in our project, but also help us clarify in our own minds, why we are doing the project in the first place.

~ by scrollman on October 30, 2007.