To give my reaction to last week's reading some context, it might help to know that I teach courses on research methods. Upholding ethical standards is key to responsible research. I was flabbergasted that a book recommended by my colleagues contained such a horrible example of research-like education. By "research-like" I mean that KOS and Shooting Back are very similar to research projects done by students at the doctoral level. A doctoral student, however, would never be able to operate in the free-wheeling manner of Rollins or Hubbard. Federal laws protect research subjects from psychological or physical harm. Universities strictly enforce these laws to protect themselves from lawsuits. Any research project involving human beings must first be approved by the University's Institutional Review Board (the IRB). Getting IRB approval for research involving minors is notoriously difficult.
I hope this makes sense.
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Rethinking Popular Culture & Media is useful to the study of critical pedagogy for a variety of reasons. First, it was published by Rethinking Schools - an organization that promotes critical pedagogy and anti-bias education. Materials produced by Rethinking Schools, including its monthly magazine, are heavily used by Visual Studies faculty at the undergrad and graduate level. Anyone who goes through our programs will be exposed to Rethinking Schools.
Second, one of the goals of critical pedagogy is to engage with students in ways they find culturally relevant. It doesn't get much more culturally relevant than popular culture. Most if not all of our students are totally saturated with popular media by the time they are 3. This makes them savvy consumers of popular media, but not necessarily capable of understanding the social/political/economic factors encoded within it.
Third, popular culture and media are overwhelmingly visual. This makes it relevant to art educators. We can do a lot with popular culture. It makes a great starting point for art projects that address pressing social concerns, question norms, learn about the role of corporations in our lives and spark critical dialogue.
Finally, the essays in Rethinking Popular Culture & Media were written by committed, practicing educators. Most of these educators, however, are not art educators. This creates an unique opportunity for us to envision how ideas presented in the essays can be adapted to the art classroom. The aim of this week's blog questions will be to do just that.
One note of caution. I do not expect you to agree with each author's viewpoint. You might find the views expressed in the readings disagreeably left-of-center. Your assignment is to try to understand the argument the author is making. Understanding is not the same as agreeing. Please avoid making ideological arguments, if possible.
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Question #1
What is critical media literacy? What distinguishes it from media literacy?
Question #2
If you are a public school educator, how many corporate logos are present in your school building? To your knowledge, does the school or school district benefit financially from the corporations whose logos and products appear in your building? If you don't know, see if you can find out.
Challenge!
Suggest at least 2 art lessons, units or projects that would address critical issues discussed in at least 2 different chapters from this week's reading. Don't forget to say how you would integrate research, critical thinking and art-making in these lessons.
Some questions to ponder as you prepare -
- How can I challenge students to critique commercial/consumer culture in creative yet thoughtful ways?
- How might I help students see and question "normal" (i.e., taken-for-granted) ways of thinking about race, class and/or gender?
- How might I help students detect bias and omission in school textbooks by examining and playing around with images in their books?
- How can art help students notice how they identify with and build social identities around specific corporate brands, logos, images and styles? Who gains the most from what marketers call "brand loyalty" and who loses?
- How might Facebook or some other social networking site be used for making art?
You might think of other questions to ask. I hope that you do!
Good luck!!!
carolyn
Q1:
ReplyDeleteI think the difference between media literacy and critical media literacy is awareness on the part of the consumer/ citizen. Media literacy is simply and exposer to and understanding of media in a contemporary and cultural nature. I would argue that everyone on the planet has some level of media literacy. Youth in America surely have one of the highest exposure rates giving them very deep media literacy. However I would think most have a low critical awareness to the images and subtext/ context of the images and text they are consuming. This is something I think only comes with a maturity level that develops at young adulthood. When I think of critical media literacy I inevitably think of the scene in Fight Club, I know referencing media to media literacy shameful, where Tyler Durden questions the images of a Calvin Kline male underwear model. I think Chuck Palahniuk's novel is a good critique of consumerism and the overbearing role advertisements play in the contemporary American society. After working my way through the readings I really want to introduce some of these concepts in class, as I am already interested in the concept of history being written by the victor or the powerful and how it is almost always biased.
Daniel, I'm glad you're attracted to this material and want to pursue it with your students. I did critical media literacy with middle-schoolers and found they were very, very interested in the topic. What could be more fun that talking about TV ads in school, right? But I was teaching Critical Thinking so it fit right in with what I was there to do. There are many art educators who have integrated critical media literacy into their curriculum as well. The back-catalog of Art Education (a monthly magazine published by the National Association of Art Educators) is full of lesson plans & ideas. Below is a link to one of the best articles on the the whole topic in general - i highly highly recommend it!
Deletehttp://ucla.academia.edu/JeffShare/Papers/124672/Critical_Media_Literacy_is_Not_an_Option
Well yes, the idea that history is written from the perspective of the victor is extremely powerful. What gives it its power is our innate recognition that said "victors" are not necessary nice guys. A really cynical person might say that history's victors are usually the aggressive people, which is why our take on history emphasizes war instead of peace.
Why is there a Department of Defense but not a Department of Peace? A few years ago the U.S. had a presidential candidate who proposed to change the Defense Dept. into a Peace Dept. - his name was Ralph Nader. He ran in several elections and always received about 1% or the vote. You see, it's a profoundly alien - maybe even subversive - idea to most Americans. This is just one example of history being written from the perspective the victors not only only in the books we read, but also in the minds and lives of ordinary everyday people.
Q2:
ReplyDeleteThere are a handful of corporate logos around the building where I teach. It’s a 5A public high school so there are the normal vending machines with power-aid logos lite up as one might expect. At our athletic fields there are tons of placard boards with local business and corporate sponsors adorning the baseball fields, tennis courts, and football stadiums. Naturally these businesses pay a sponsorship fee that helps buy new equipment and uniforms for the smaller sports such as tennis, soccer, softball. However I know United Supermarkets or maybe Plains Capital Bank, I cannot remember which, paid a fee in the area of a million dollars to have the new football stadium named. I would assume these funds help the districts athletic departments directly. I would venture to say that 0% is put to use in the classroom, however I would also say one cannot discount the positive impact that athletics can and does have on students that participate.
Tomorrow in class I have students finishing a project from last week so I will take some downtime to think out some lessons that are relivant to this weeks readings. I have to say I have enjoyed the readings much more as compaired to the earlier assignment. Not that the other reads were bad, this is just alot more interesing to me personally ;)
ReplyDeleteGood! I hesitated to require this book for a couple of reasons. First, I worried it's perspective might be too liberal for this part of the country, and second, I thought students might wonder what it has to do with art education. I haven't read everyone's comments yet, so this could still be the case, but I'm glad to hear that you're getting something out of it.
DeleteQuestion #1
ReplyDeleteWhat is critical media literacy? What distinguishes it from media literacy?
Media literacy, in my definition, is the examination, which then leads to an understanding, of the content that the media is relaying. Critical Media Literacy takes the action a step further, so as to examine the motives behind the content being relayed. Decoding only the content of media messages is just not enough in todays environment. A critical lens must be placed over all media that we, and our kids interact with, in order to fully understand the intent of those messages. It's basically Decoding Content vs Intent and Motivation of the Content.
I like how you simplify the contrast to : Decoding Content vs Intent and Motivation of the Content. I feel that the basic elements to critical media literacy is understanding and questioning the intent and motivation of popular culture and media.
DeleteMe too! Good job breaking it down, Gail! Excellent.
DeleteI do not teach in the public school environment, but I do teach adults in a private environment. We are surrounded by product logos on education posters, tools, handouts, wall cards, etc. With that said, the adults who have paid to take classes are very aware and prepared that we, as teachers have loyalty to brands, and companies. The companies give us free materials, supplies, and tools, and then implicitly expect that we'll use/model the use of those "things" to our students, which will in turn make the students want to buy those products.
ReplyDeleteBefore teaching, I spent 18 years in corporate marketing. There is a referral source, who works as an "opinion leader". The "opinion leader" is an influencer. The influencers then model the use of the product or service, and the followers/mass market buyers want to be "cool" like the influencer, and they purchase the products. We as adults understand this and are able to distinguish what is worth following and what isn't. Kids, on the other hand, do not have this critical skill yet. So, corporations really do want to get to these kids as early as they can to create habits in them before the kids can analyze what's going on. Parents, for whatever reason, are just not teaching their kids to have this critical view of the barrage of media messages. (If any of you are going to TAEA, take notice of all the free stuff that will be given to you as a teacher to "thank" you for your hard work. You are an influencer....)
From a young age, I would ask my son the following questions when we watched commercials. 1) What are they trying to sell to you? 2) Why did they say you needed it? Sometimes he'd tell me, "They are selling me a truck, and they said I needed it to have fun." I'd then ask him if he needed a truck to have fun, and he would say, "...no mom, I can have fun without that truck, or I have other trucks." Now that my son is 14, he'll decode the commercials and tell me that his life can't go on without that brand of mouthwash and he'll laugh. I'm no perfect parent, but I'm glad that I've taught him to discern the difference between what he really needs and thinks vs what the media tells him he needs and what to think.
The bottom line for me (IMHO) is that there should be a disclaimer stated to kids and adults by whomever is receiving the benefit. People do have the right to be aware of the intent of the logos/messages they are faced with. This discussion should contain both sides of the argument.
The truth is that I am influenced to shop at Target for example because they give money to schools. That's a good thing. But I'm also aware that they do that for public relations reasons, so I'll feel good about spending money there, and it will influence me to continue to do so. So I am acknowledging that they are manipulating me, but I feel that everybody wins in the equation.....Maybe Exxon should do that so I won't be pissed off every time I fill my tank with gas. Ha!
You're a good mom, Gail. The sad thing is that most moms & dads don't think enough about the difference between wants and needs to make this distinction clear to their kids when they're watching TV. That is why we need critical medial literacy in our schools.
DeleteAs mentioned in my response to Daniel's comment, a few years ago I was hired to teach Critical Thinking to middle school students. I thought the best way to go at it was through TV advertising. We had a lot of fun! It was great. Your comment about wants and needs, however, reminded me of something I did in class with my 6th graders one day. I stood at the white board in the front of the class and said I needed them to help me make a list of things that humans need - really need- in order to survive. It took them a long time to get to food and water. First we had to go through iphones (this was #1 on their list), ipods, gameboy, computers, tv, cars, etc.
At a certain point I stopped and asked them how long iphones had been in existence versus how long humans have been on earth. They thought iphones had been around for hundreds of years. They don't have a well developed sense of time or history at that age. So this was a good teaching moment. Want vs. need. Very important!
Question 1
ReplyDeleteMedia literacy is our awareness and ability to understand popular culture and media. But what distinguishes media literacy from critical media literacy is out ability to comprehend what we interact with in popular culture and media. It is delving deeper into what we consume, asking "Why?!" Being critical to what we consume gives both teachers and students an introspective as to why we intake some information and discard other information within the media we view.
Question 2
ReplyDeleteI am not a teacher so I don't know how exactly to answer this question. But trying to recall my publics schools, I remember logos of foods, and companies covering any empty space at our football field. As well as the brief "shout-outs" made during the games. As far as within the walls of the school there is not much I can remember aside from vending/cafeteria locations. As Im sitting here trying to reflect on this, it makes me wonder how much of an impact it actually made on me. If I cant remember something how could it have made any impact on me? If there was a specific impact wanted by the school or company in regards to the logos/advertising why wouldn't they have been more blatant with it? I feel like through middle and high school some people can't discern for themselves what others are putting in their face.
I can't remember which companies had vending machines in my high school either, so don't worry Stephen. I think the thing is that corporations get us accustomed to seeing their products at an early age because they want to develop product loyalty among young consumers. Young consumers can become lifelong consumers, and if lifelong consumers have kids, their kids stand a good chance of developing the same product loyalty.
DeleteOne one hand a vending machine in a school cafeteria is a small thing, but on the other hand, for corporations it's a gift that keeps giving. Otherwise, soft drink corporations wouldn't offer schools sometimes large amounts of money, donations and fancy luncheons for access. They just wouldn't.
Marketers fund psychological research (often conducted in universities) to find out what advertising strategies work or don't work. Every second of every ad is highly calculated. The same goes for vending machine placement, product labeling, packaging, PR & etc. This is because advertising is the engine that drives a free market economy based on competition. The company with the better marketing ploy wins the competition, and the payout is enormous.
I'm sure these same companies would pay to keep Critical Media Literacy programs out of public school education. It would be bad for business.
Challenge - Lesson 1: Images of Women and Girls in Media; The Disney Princesses and Girls Beauty Magazines
ReplyDeleteI might separate the girls from the boys in my class so we could analyze each groups final projects. This would enable us to work a s group to determine and potential biases in our viewpoints. So, here's the project...
I'd have the two groups each make a group collage. I'd give each group the same magazines, newspapers, and websites from which to pull their images. We would discuss that Cinderella and the Prince got married and had children. Two years later, they got into a terrible car accident, and the Prince died. What happened to Cinderella and her kids? The topic would be, "Make a Collage Showing Ever After."
Before they started we'd discuss issues that might influence their collage. For example; does Cindy have a college degree? What is her race? Does she exercise? Is she a vegetarian? They'd need to develop a profile of who they thought Cinderella was before, during and after the accident. Then we'd look at both collages and determine what biases we see on both sides. Boys and girls view things very differently and it might be good to point this out to the kids as well.
Since I'm not a public school teacher, I don't really know if this is truly what you're looking for. But I'm thinking of things that might make the kids question the marketing of characters like Cinderella, Barbie, Snow White, and have them determine why they think the characters are marketed, those ways versus how they envision the characters to function in the real world.
Question #1
DeleteLiteracy comprises gaining the skills involved in effectively learning and using socially constructed forms of communication. In our technological age, media literacy includes the skills necessary to communicate through computer and multimedia technologies. Literacies are socially constructed in educational and cultural practices and they evolve in response to social and cultural change and the interests of the powerful.
Critical media literacy is the recognition that media representations help construct our images and understanding of the world and that institutions and power structures of society have self sustaining interest in creating and maintaining those images, in particular with regard to gender, race, and class.
My understanding of critical media literacy was improved and these paraphrased definitions come from an article I read:
Toward Critical Media Literacy: Core concepts, debates, organizations, and
policy
Douglas Kellner* and Jeff Share
University of California, Los Angeles, US
I like it! I think it would work. Perhaps rewrite and illustrate the story and others with a more realistic ending. Or write a real romance story about people who work for a living and how they handle life,
DeleteThat was to Gail - not sure how it got here!
DeleteJennifer, I'm so happy - and impressed! - that you took the initiative to look up the Share & Kellner article and read it on your own. Douglas Kellner pretty much wrote the book on critical media literacy. At least in my view, his work in this area is unsurpassed.
DeleteI'm so pleasantly surprised to find that everyone in the class seems to really like this whole subject. Critical media literacy is one of my specialties. This is why I selected the book, but I wasn't sure if it would be right for the class. Now I know that you are interested in critical media literacy - gosh, what a great discovery! - as I see it the sky's the limit.
I also like Gail's lesson plan idea. When I suggested this as an assignment, I didn't have any particular idea of what the lesson should look like or, in other words, I wasn't looking for anything in particular. I like to be surprised by the ingenuity of students. And you never let me down.
I do like the idea of having girls and boys make separate story lines. There's a lot students can learn from this kind of experiment. When students finish their collages, the can analyze the similarities and differences. What a great way to get them thinking and talking about gender-based social expectations. These expectations are so deeply ingrained that many people never question them. The behaviors we practice to comply with social expectations are taken as "common sense," normal and natural when in fact, gender is almost entirely learned ("almost" because the hormonal differences are very real).
Question #2
ReplyDeleteI did not read these questions until I got home Friday night. Therefore, I am operating by memory. The logos I am aware of include Chick Fila, Pizza Hut, Gatorade, and Dasani, not a Coke machine anymore - politically incorrect. I think the basketball teams wear NIKE. I will research this on Monday and get some answers about financial benefit to the school. Very intersting to see if I can get any answers!
Question #3
ReplyDelete“Real Women”
Learning Objective
Become aware of the stereotyping of women in the print media.
Become aware of women who break the mold and what they accomplished.
Become aware of women you know who deserve recognition.
Activity #1
In groups of 2-4, survey current magazines such as Vogue, Sports Illustrated Ebony, Seventeen, Time, Texas Monthly, Journal, and ESPN. Count the number of times women are pictured in the following categories: Model/Sex Symbol, Athlete, Business Manager/CEO, Homemaker, Politician.
Follow by a total of all categories with the class and discussion of what they think about it.
Activity #2
In the same groups, survey the same magazines for how many times men are pictured in the same categories.
Follow by totals and comparison with the numbers for women. Discussion of implications – truth or fiction?
Computer Lab for Research – 2 days
Go to: www.npg.si.edu/cexh/woot/
Look at “Women of Our Time”
Read the introduction and peruse the gallery. Read about the women you find there. Survey these women into the same categories you used to survey the magazines.
Choose one woman from this group you particularly admire or identify with. Print her photo and write one paragraph describing her accomplishments and why they are important to you.
Make Art
Take a photo of a “real woman” in your life, someone you admire. Write a paragraph describing her accomplishments and why she is important.
Create a color portrait of her in the style of Andy Warhol. Create a decorative border for the portrait incorporating words that describe her.
All great lesson plan ideas, Jennifer! I like that they demonstrate the huge differences between women as typically represented in popular media versus the women whose actions changed the course of history and/or whose actions are changing the world today. Kids need to understand that being physically "perfect" like a model is a full-time job that doesn't accomplish anything important. A lot of the work we put into looking "pretty" is a big waste of our time, ability and talent. Why fret about pimples or fingernails when we could be developing our potential to make a positive difference in the world?
DeleteDo you think you might implement any of these lesson ideas into your teaching at Estacado? If you do, make sure to let us know how it goes!
Art Lesson # 2
ReplyDelete“Voyages of Discovery”
Objectives
Become aware of other possible discoverers of America
Learn about the art of other cultures
Learn about the beauty of maps
Computer Lab Research and
Geography, World History Books and Maps
Who was Leiv Ericssson and what is known about him?
Find symbols or designs that might have appeared on his clothing. Find a map of the known world in 1400 A.D.
Create a map of your known world. Decorate it with symbols that are meaningful to you and your peers.
Who was Zheng He and what is known about him?
Find symbols or designs that might have appeared on his tea cup.
Make a cup or tea pot in the style of the early Ming Dynasty.
Question 1: My definition of critical media literacy is similar to what others have said about being able to bring an analytical case to the table. In media literacy, we know and are aware of the general idea...but upon analysis of the motives behind the ad, show, product, etc., it becomes critical media literacy.
ReplyDeleteQuestion 2: We do have deals with beverage companies like Dasani, but I was unable to find out what type of benefits they get from them. As far as sports equipment, I always wondered why the districts occasionally switched brands here and there. For example, when I played basketball in high school, the distric regulation ball was a Spalding basketball. Now that I am a coach (9 years later), we are required to use a Baden basketball. I've been trying to get more information about the reasons there are certain brands as regulations and I will definitely update this comment as soon as I find out!!! The biggest thing that I have had to get used to as a Sponsor (c/o 2014) is only being able to get supplies or use certain companies for fundraisers out of a district vendor list.
ReplyDeleteThe state partners with specific companies to get the best deals on mass quantities of regularly-used products like basketballs and footballs. However, I'm not sure how snack and beverage companies make their way into schools.
DeleteChallenge: Reading the intro to the book and the descriptions of some of the topics the authors would be covering made me think of one activity I do during the first week of school. It doesn't really dive into any art projects, but I like to start the year talking about Andy Warhol and his infamous Brillo Pad installation. I begin by asking (Art I) students to indentify famous artworks they might already know about or what they think art is to them. Normally I get the usual response that art is in art museums, worth thousands of dollars, and only become famous after the artist is dead. After that I talk about Warhol and a little bit about how he became a famous Pop artist. (I also bring up an episode of SpongeBob SquarePants that has a part in an episode that relates to Warhol's interview during his public opening of the Brillo Pads.) Then I show them the artwork and we critique and reflect on student responses and what the art viewers had to say.
ReplyDeleteThe reason I like to open my Art I classes with this exersise is because it causes them to want to form their own opinions on what art is. I feel that it creates interest in the art world and they begin to question who gets to decide for the public what is good art and what shouldn't be hanging in art museums.
This is a great way to make art accessible to students and involve them in a discussion of a specific artwork. "What is art?" has been a big question since Duchamp called a urinal a fountain and signed it "R. Mutt" almost 100 years ago. The main point of the Readymade was to point out the arbitrary distinction between art and mass-produced products. This is why many art historians consider Duchamp the "father" of modern art. I would argue that Duchamp was actually postmodern!
DeleteAnyway, Ana, keep pushing your students to notice the highly sophisticated design elements of everyday objects in plain sight. Everything human-made was designed for maximum utility and, to a certain extent, aesthetic value. For example, some desks are plain, bland and ugly and some desks are the exact opposite. All have use-value as desks. Every once in a while you might see a sculpture in a museum exhibit that looks like a desk but doesn't function as a desk because the artist has a different agenda. But that isn't the point. The point is getting kids to see their everyday environment with new eyes and new appreciation for the effort that went into crafting even the most mundane items.
All, I've been dealing with food poisoning or some kind of wicked stomach virus since yesterday. This is why you haven't heard from me yet. I've been curled up in a ball in my bed being "Carolyn, the Sick Professor." Please know that I am thinking of you and will respond to your comments tonight. Hopefully I will feel better by then.
ReplyDeleteIn the meantime, we're at that point in the semester when I start asking students to design the topic questions for the week. Since we are reading selections from Rethinking Popular Culture & Media, perhaps more than one person could write the questions. For example - and this is JUST an example - Daniel could post a topic/question on "Save the Muslim Girl!" (pp. 120-128), Ana could post a topic or question on "Girls, Worms and Body Image" (pp. 138-146), and Jennifer could write a question or topic on "Seventh Graders and Sexism" (pp. 163-171).
Please note that I am not selecting students to write the questions. Rather, I am asking for volunteers. Everybody in the class will have a chance to write the reading questions at least once this semester. This will count towards your grade (see syllabus) in the category of "Reading Responses," which is 40% of your final grade.
The floor is now open for volunteers. If you would like to write a question for one of the three chapters we will cover this week, please indicate your willingness here (on the blog) and select a chapter.
Thank you. I will be back soon!
carolyn
I'm happy to volunteer; May I do Girls, Worms and Body Image?
DeleteAre you alive Carolyn? I hope you are recovered!
DeleteAh yes, I am alive...but barely, it seems. I've been in a huge amount of pain. My doctor thinks it could be colitis...I go in for testing tomorrow. I ask for your patience in the meantime. I promise to respond to your insightful comments tomorrow night. Hopefully by then I'll have some relief. Thank you so much for your patience!
ReplyDeleteGail - thank you for volunteering to write the question/topic for "Girls, Worms and Body Image." You'll like that chapter. It's always a big favorite with students.
We need two more volunteers. Anyone?
I will take save the muslim girl.
ReplyDeleteI hope you get to feeling better Dr. E.
Thanks, Daniel! I am feeling better tonight, thanks to some rather interesting pills....
DeleteAnd I'll do the last reading if no one's called dibs yet! Get well Dr. E!!
ReplyDeleteGreat, Ana! Now we're set for the week. If you have any questions or want feedback before posting your question, feel free to email me. You are not required to send it to me, however. I trust you to write a thoughtful question or suggest what may be a small project-type response (like a lesson idea or a video) without my intervention.
DeleteThank you,
carolyn
Are the questions for this week posted here as comments or somewhere else? Its my usual Saturday afternoon activity and I cant find them. Cant stand to watch anymore of the Tech game!
DeleteHi Jennifer, My apologies for not responding to your question sooner. I was busy taking the GRE (oh joy!) today, as I might take some graduate courses to further my education in Women's Studies and American Culture. After taking the test, I treated my glazed-over mind to a few hours of dumb TV. But I didn't watch the Red Raiders game. I can't believe how much Tommy Tubbyville gets paid to make us look like wimps.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I'm setting up the new conversation site right now. You can post your question in the response area below the main heading.