Media Literacy In The Classroom
Media literacy is defined as the ability to access, analyze, evaluate, and produce communication in a variety of forms. Many teachers mistakenly think that media literacy is about television and so they fear that teaching media literacy could take away from reading, writing, and arithmetic basics. In fact, media literacy includes skills that extend to all forms of messaging, including reading, writing, speaking and listening, and critical viewing, as well as the ability to make your own messages using a wide range of technologies, including cameras, video recorders, and computers.
As technology changes daily, I support the need to add media literacy to classroom curricula. So much of our culture is media based that it is critical to link what is being done in the classroom with the real world and popular culture. In fact, I believe that if the four functions of media were taught properly through media literacy in the classroom, students would benefit significantly in situations outside the classroom.
The gathering and broadcasting of information, known as surveillance, is the first function of media. Surveillance gives receivers news in formats such as warnings in times of crisis or danger. We usually get these messages in newspapers, by radio, or on television news programs. The next function is correlation, which is the analysis and evaluation of information. This occurs mostly on the editorial pages of newspapers, on news analysis shows, and in magazine articles that analyze current issues. Within these various formats, information is interpreted and analyzed. Teaching these functions in the classroom is essential. From even a young age, everyone should know where to find information about potential dangers. And during times of heightened safety alerts as we have recently experienced, this is especially important. Even if bad weather threatens, students should know how to easily access information through media. In fact so much information is...
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