MEDIA EDUCATION RESOURCES
‘Every Salesian is a Educator-Communicator-Evangelizer’ asserts Fr. Pacual Chavez in his recent letter to the Salesian family. Hence it is imperative that our institutions must be the first to empower our young people to be critical consumers of the media. Here are 8 key concepts on which our Media Education efforts can hinge on.
Key concept #1: All media are constructions. The media do not simply reflect external reality; they are carefully crafted constructions that reflect many decisions and are the result of many determining factors. The news paper, radio programmes and TV shows are all well planned and executed to give us a seamless report of daily events, but they are all tailored.
Key concept #2: The media construct versions of reality. Much of our view of reality is based on media messages that have been preconstructed and have attitudes, interpretations and conclusions already built in. Even at times our moods for the day are coloured by these perceptions from the media.
Key concept #3: Audiences negotiate meaning in media. Each of us interacts in unique ways with media texts based on such factors as gender, race, age, class, life experiences, prejudices, personal needs and anxieties and so forth. Each of us negotiates meaning in different ways.
Key concept # 4: The media have commercial implications. Media literacy includes an awareness of the economic basis of mass media production. Networks look for audiences to be delivered to sponsors. Knowledge of this allows students to understand how program content makes them targets for advertisers and organizes viewers into marketable groups. The issue of ownership and control is of vital importance at a time when there are more choices but fewer voices. This is very vital especially now in East Africa.
Key concept # 5: The media contain ideological and value messages. Media literacy involves an awareness of the ideological implications and value systems of media texts. We need to decode media messages about such issues as the nature of the “good life”, the virtue of consumerism, the role of women, the acceptance of authority, and unquestioning patriotism. These messages can blur the ‘truth’ as ideology is important for the media owners.
Key concept #6: The media have social and political implications. An important dimension of media literacy is an awareness of the broad range of social and political effects stemming from the media. The changing nature of family life, the use of leisure time and the results of televised political debates are three such examples. The cultural impact of the media is most noticeable element here in East Africa. The media projected values get priority over values affirmed by society.
Key concept # 7: Form and content are closely related in the media. Making the form/content connections relates to the thesis of Marshall McLuhan that “the medium is the message.” That is, that each medium has its own special grammar and bias and codifies reality in unique ways. Thus, different media might report the same event but create different impressions and different messages.
Key concept # 8: Each medium has unique aesthetic forms. Students should have the opportunity to develop media literacy skills that will enable them not only to decode and understand media texts, but also to enjoy the unique aesthetic form of each. Our enjoyment of media is enhanced by an awareness of how pleasing forms or effects are created. Our ability to decode media will depend on our understanding the language of the media.
