 |
A lesson in media literacy
By Peggy High
Wearing colorful cardboard eyeglasses of their own creation, which magically confer upon the wearer the “vision of an artist,” Class 3 girls arrived at their classroom last Friday prepared to tackle the topic of media literacy with their art teacher, Duane Neil. They are among the youngest students at Chapin to study this subject, which Mr. Neil hopes will make them perceptive interpreters of the words and images they see on a daily basis.
Mr. Neil began by helping the girls define media literacy, breaking the term into its component parts. In reply to his question about the media — “Where do you get your news?” — the girls not only came up with expected answers, such as The New York Times and television, but had more interesting ideas as well. One student, thinking globally, suggested looking at “newspapers from different countries,” and another proposed an on-site visit to a news scene. “Let’s say there’s a Hurricane Katrina,” she said. “You could go to New Orleans to see for yourself and paint a picture.” And when Mr. Neil requested a definition of literacy, one third-grader offered this: “It means to be honest, to write something that has very good English.”
To illustrate how differently media outlets can treat the same piece of news, Mr. Neil had his students examine news of the recent birth of Prince Hasihito, the Japanese heir to the throne, and compare his story in newspapers and on television. The girls, soon familiar with terms such as “headline,” “byline” and “date line,” were quick to perceive that the use of color and placement of an article in a publication determined its importance. As for television’s use of multiple images to report a single story, one student commented: “That’s why a lot of people say, ‘A picture’s worth a thousand words.’”
Next week, the students will continue their exploration of media literacy, creating their own news stories. “The media we use in the classroom — books, videos, charts, and the Internet — are meant to convey information and stimulate thought,” Mr. Neil said. “In that context, media analysis is important in understanding how it does so by considering the inherent bias of any given form of media. We want our students to be smart media consumers and producers.” |
 |
