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Media Education: Literacy, Learning and Contemporary Culture
This book examines recent changes in media education and in young people’s lives, and provides an accessible set of principles on which the media curriculum should be based, with a clear rationale for pedagogic practice.
- GenresEducationNonfiction
232 pages, Paperback
First published September 19, 2003
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
February 1, 2014
Media Education: Literacy, Learning and Contemporary Culture is an excellent book by scholar David Buckingham of the University of London. Though published in 2003, the ideas presented in the work are very current and important to both the education and digital media literacy world of today.
The author discusses the changes in what childhood is like now compared to what it was, and how media literacy is more important as things change because children are growing up earlier due to the fact they have access to content much earlier in their lives than past generations (e.g. TV doesn't take time or much education to consume like reading a print Encyclopedia). Because of the decline in childhood, the need to help children identify how they consume and evaluate what they create in the media increasingly becomes more essential.
Buckingham offers a clear definition of media education: "Media education aims to develop both critical understanding and active participation. It enables young people to interpret and make informed judgements as consumers of media; but it also enables them to become producers of media in their own right. Media education is about developing young people's critical and creative abilities."
In relation to education, Buckingham seems to be focused primarily on what he calls the "widening gap" between what goes on in a student's life inside and outside the classroom. He pointedly notes that in many ways our current school culture is not only stagnant, but moving backwards as the world around it is continues to change rapidly.
Toward the middle of the book, the author gives many examples of effective ways media education can work in the classroom. He mentions topics such as production, language, audience, and representation as important concepts made up of many smaller sub-topics that should be a part of a media educator's curriculum. In addition to these topics, Buckingham also gives a brilliant overview of how media studies have often been misplaced and bounced around different fields. Some educators have felt that each department or subject should invest time and energy towards media education, while others have pushed the subject to certain fields like English and history. I think this is an important point, and one in which everyone should be thinking about. If media is such a large role in the average student's life, shouldn't each department be aware of the impact of that influencer on their student?
Central to his argument about media education in actual classrooms, Buckingham argues that production should be a pithy component of media education. His view of production however, is not merely expressing ideas or "displaying creativity", but the importance of the collaborative nature of production. Much of what the author writes when it comes to involving students in learning reminds me of Daniel Pink's book Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us. This quote from Buckingham shares the concept of autonomy, an idea Pink wrote about extensively.
"Much of the value of practical work lies in the fact that it allows students to explore their affective and subjective investments in the media, in a way which is much more difficult to achieve through critical analysis. If it si to be effective in this respect, we have to allow - and consciously construct - a space for play and experimentation, in which there are genuinely no 'right answers.'"
Later in the book, Buckingham makes some great points of how students must learn to effectively perform self-evaluations. I feel like Buckingham's answers to the many questions posed throughout the book come back to helping children learn how to evaluate media and themselves. He points out that that a fundamental element is what motivates one to evaluate their consumption, production, and social connectedness with media. I think this is incredibly important. Buckingham predicts that "media education can potentially cross the bounderaies between formal education, everyday life, and public culture." It is my impression that such shifting of learning has been going on quite strongly since the book was written.
A final point I thought was fascinating is the seemingly subversive consumer culture role the media has played in the past, should be considered and handled in a way where teachers willingly recognize the influence it has on their students. Buckingham makes the point that it can be hard for students to take their teachers seriously if they are unwilling to recognize the problems of our current formal school culture. There is a difficult balance for educators to keep, and Buckingham talks about how teachers can open their classrooms by allowing students to express things, but must do so in a way that is still appropriate and clean.
I appreciate this book a great deal when it comes to my own thoughts and feelings of pop culture and education. Like Buckingham, I feel that more and more students are immersed in media and often don't know how to evaluate and critically understand what they are consuming and being influenced by. By properly taking a step back and discussing elements of media (and popular culture things like films) students can become more engaged in learning and will see the relevance of school in their lives. Also, I feel this kind of learning encourages informal education and life long learning in that students will develop passions and interests of which they will begin to seek out when not sitting in a desk at school
I feel like this book discusses important issues, and effectively illustrates the need to look at deeper aspects of education than what has been done in the past. Broad concepts like autonomy, trust, and being realistic can be applied in a variety of ways. Media education and literacy seems to be a field where these attributes are needed now more than ever to help developing students develop the skills necessary to engage in the world around them in meaningful ways.
The author discusses the changes in what childhood is like now compared to what it was, and how media literacy is more important as things change because children are growing up earlier due to the fact they have access to content much earlier in their lives than past generations (e.g. TV doesn't take time or much education to consume like reading a print Encyclopedia). Because of the decline in childhood, the need to help children identify how they consume and evaluate what they create in the media increasingly becomes more essential.
Buckingham offers a clear definition of media education: "Media education aims to develop both critical understanding and active participation. It enables young people to interpret and make informed judgements as consumers of media; but it also enables them to become producers of media in their own right. Media education is about developing young people's critical and creative abilities."
In relation to education, Buckingham seems to be focused primarily on what he calls the "widening gap" between what goes on in a student's life inside and outside the classroom. He pointedly notes that in many ways our current school culture is not only stagnant, but moving backwards as the world around it is continues to change rapidly.
Toward the middle of the book, the author gives many examples of effective ways media education can work in the classroom. He mentions topics such as production, language, audience, and representation as important concepts made up of many smaller sub-topics that should be a part of a media educator's curriculum. In addition to these topics, Buckingham also gives a brilliant overview of how media studies have often been misplaced and bounced around different fields. Some educators have felt that each department or subject should invest time and energy towards media education, while others have pushed the subject to certain fields like English and history. I think this is an important point, and one in which everyone should be thinking about. If media is such a large role in the average student's life, shouldn't each department be aware of the impact of that influencer on their student?
Central to his argument about media education in actual classrooms, Buckingham argues that production should be a pithy component of media education. His view of production however, is not merely expressing ideas or "displaying creativity", but the importance of the collaborative nature of production. Much of what the author writes when it comes to involving students in learning reminds me of Daniel Pink's book Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us. This quote from Buckingham shares the concept of autonomy, an idea Pink wrote about extensively.
"Much of the value of practical work lies in the fact that it allows students to explore their affective and subjective investments in the media, in a way which is much more difficult to achieve through critical analysis. If it si to be effective in this respect, we have to allow - and consciously construct - a space for play and experimentation, in which there are genuinely no 'right answers.'"
Later in the book, Buckingham makes some great points of how students must learn to effectively perform self-evaluations. I feel like Buckingham's answers to the many questions posed throughout the book come back to helping children learn how to evaluate media and themselves. He points out that that a fundamental element is what motivates one to evaluate their consumption, production, and social connectedness with media. I think this is incredibly important. Buckingham predicts that "media education can potentially cross the bounderaies between formal education, everyday life, and public culture." It is my impression that such shifting of learning has been going on quite strongly since the book was written.
A final point I thought was fascinating is the seemingly subversive consumer culture role the media has played in the past, should be considered and handled in a way where teachers willingly recognize the influence it has on their students. Buckingham makes the point that it can be hard for students to take their teachers seriously if they are unwilling to recognize the problems of our current formal school culture. There is a difficult balance for educators to keep, and Buckingham talks about how teachers can open their classrooms by allowing students to express things, but must do so in a way that is still appropriate and clean.
I appreciate this book a great deal when it comes to my own thoughts and feelings of pop culture and education. Like Buckingham, I feel that more and more students are immersed in media and often don't know how to evaluate and critically understand what they are consuming and being influenced by. By properly taking a step back and discussing elements of media (and popular culture things like films) students can become more engaged in learning and will see the relevance of school in their lives. Also, I feel this kind of learning encourages informal education and life long learning in that students will develop passions and interests of which they will begin to seek out when not sitting in a desk at school
I feel like this book discusses important issues, and effectively illustrates the need to look at deeper aspects of education than what has been done in the past. Broad concepts like autonomy, trust, and being realistic can be applied in a variety of ways. Media education and literacy seems to be a field where these attributes are needed now more than ever to help developing students develop the skills necessary to engage in the world around them in meaningful ways.
April 5, 2008
This is my first one-hour book. I "read" it in a little over an hour, enough so that I am familiar and comfortable with discussing the main point: Popular culture should be used in the classroom. Reading this book was a major breakthrough for me, not because of the subject matter at all, but because for the first time I understand what it means to skim, and be able to get the gist (as well as several anecdotes and support points the thesis) of a book after just a short amount of time.
July 3, 2020
Media literacy is a gamut of competencies that facilitate people to analyse, evaluate and create messages in a wide variety of media modes, genres and formats.
Media education is the process of teaching and learning about media. It is about developing the public's critical and creative abilities when it comes to the media.
Media education should not be confused with educational technology or with educational media. Being able to understand the media enables people to analyse, evaluate and create messages in a wide variety of media, genres and forms.
When considering the importance of media education, Buckingham first defines the central role of the mass media in social, economic and political processes today: "The media are major industries, generating profit and employment; they provide us with most of our information about the political process; and they offer us ideas, images and representations (both factual and fictional) that inevitably shape our view of reality. The media are undoubtedly the major contemporary means of cultural expression and communication to become an active participant in public life necessarily involves making use of the modern media. The media, it is often argued, have now taken the place of the family, the church and the school as the major socialising influence in contemporary society".
Buckingham posits that people more and more define themselves and interrelate through the mass media, which serve as a cultural 'glue'. Consequently, without clearly understanding and effectively using the media, individuals are unable to participate in public life and contribute to the public discourse.
Therefore, Buckingham concludes, traditional social institutions, which previously served as socialisation venues, have ceded power to the media. Buckingham makes a nuanced and valid comment on the nature and prominence of mass media.
First, we can only agree that industrialisation, urban living and more recently, globalisation and digital technologies, have converted mass communication into the primary means of learning about the world and society, leaving one's print on them, and building one's identity.
The mass media, therefore, provide both the material and the channels for the construction, transmission and maintenance of culture.
Buckingham, however, underlines the nature of media content as a representation and not as 'transparent windows on the world', and also stresses the indirect communication and selective versions of the world provided by the media.
This inevitably raises concerns over the ability not only of young people, but of any member of society, to understand the characteristics; content and role of the mass media on one hand and the capacity to access and use the media as an arena to voice their own opinions and to conduct a meaningful dialogue with others.
Separating the understanding and the use of the media would be a misguided step.
Media education is the process of teaching and learning about media. It is about developing the public's critical and creative abilities when it comes to the media.
Media education should not be confused with educational technology or with educational media. Being able to understand the media enables people to analyse, evaluate and create messages in a wide variety of media, genres and forms.
When considering the importance of media education, Buckingham first defines the central role of the mass media in social, economic and political processes today: "The media are major industries, generating profit and employment; they provide us with most of our information about the political process; and they offer us ideas, images and representations (both factual and fictional) that inevitably shape our view of reality. The media are undoubtedly the major contemporary means of cultural expression and communication to become an active participant in public life necessarily involves making use of the modern media. The media, it is often argued, have now taken the place of the family, the church and the school as the major socialising influence in contemporary society".
Buckingham posits that people more and more define themselves and interrelate through the mass media, which serve as a cultural 'glue'. Consequently, without clearly understanding and effectively using the media, individuals are unable to participate in public life and contribute to the public discourse.
Therefore, Buckingham concludes, traditional social institutions, which previously served as socialisation venues, have ceded power to the media. Buckingham makes a nuanced and valid comment on the nature and prominence of mass media.
First, we can only agree that industrialisation, urban living and more recently, globalisation and digital technologies, have converted mass communication into the primary means of learning about the world and society, leaving one's print on them, and building one's identity.
The mass media, therefore, provide both the material and the channels for the construction, transmission and maintenance of culture.
Buckingham, however, underlines the nature of media content as a representation and not as 'transparent windows on the world', and also stresses the indirect communication and selective versions of the world provided by the media.
This inevitably raises concerns over the ability not only of young people, but of any member of society, to understand the characteristics; content and role of the mass media on one hand and the capacity to access and use the media as an arena to voice their own opinions and to conduct a meaningful dialogue with others.
Separating the understanding and the use of the media would be a misguided step.
April 2, 2019
Banale e scontato.
May 28, 2008
This book is a miracle. A practical resource for teachers; a thorough, measured take on the short, fraught history of media ed; a sound theoretical backbone; ungodly careful scholarship; and hands-down the source of the smartest insights about socio-economic class and adolescents I've ever read.
Buckingham's prose is so controlled and scholarly you almost miss it when he drops a bomb. To wit: "To a much greater extent than in conventional academic subjects, teacherly attempts at imposing cultural, moral, or political authority over the media that children experience in their daily lives are very unlikely to be taken seriously. If, as in many cases, they are based on a paternalistic contempt for children's tastes and pleasures, they certainly deserve to be rejected. It is for these reasons that protectionist approaches to media education—whether cultural, moral, or political in nature—are at least redundant, if not positively counter-productive."
And this is Britain he's talking about. If Buckingham saw the protectionist, find-the-hidden-hegemony-in-everything buzzkill that constitutes nearly all media ed here in the states, I think he'd break out the exclamation points.
Kids are already critical of the media they consume, says Buckingham, citing studies of the sophisticated ways children experience media from their earliest years. Thinking you're going to blow their minds with a big shiny word like "representation" is pure condescension. Instead, Buckingham starts where all good teachers should—with respect for students' capabilities and regard for their interests. Where he goes from there is simply amazing.
Buckingham's prose is so controlled and scholarly you almost miss it when he drops a bomb. To wit: "To a much greater extent than in conventional academic subjects, teacherly attempts at imposing cultural, moral, or political authority over the media that children experience in their daily lives are very unlikely to be taken seriously. If, as in many cases, they are based on a paternalistic contempt for children's tastes and pleasures, they certainly deserve to be rejected. It is for these reasons that protectionist approaches to media education—whether cultural, moral, or political in nature—are at least redundant, if not positively counter-productive."
And this is Britain he's talking about. If Buckingham saw the protectionist, find-the-hidden-hegemony-in-everything buzzkill that constitutes nearly all media ed here in the states, I think he'd break out the exclamation points.
Kids are already critical of the media they consume, says Buckingham, citing studies of the sophisticated ways children experience media from their earliest years. Thinking you're going to blow their minds with a big shiny word like "representation" is pure condescension. Instead, Buckingham starts where all good teachers should—with respect for students' capabilities and regard for their interests. Where he goes from there is simply amazing.
September 30, 2009
Forthcoming......
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews