Based on some current conferences and publications it doesn’t take too much effort to conclude that there are currently three dominant views on media literacy in the Netherlands. The first one is the view that media literacy first and foremost is about protecting innocent children against all the bad things happening on the Internet: internet filters, special browsers, parental control, crash courses for parents and teachers on how to monitor children on Habbo Hotel, World of Warcraft or whatever social medium they are using. This is media literacy as the guardian angel of the fragile soul of children against the evil empire of bad taste flooding the Internet. (The immediate inclination to state ‘nothing wrong with that’ is there, but I beg to differ, although this is a somewhat different discussion. Another remark though: in a peculiar sense this contradicts the ‘digital natives ideology’ of Don Tapscott and his followers: is not their believe that children/youngsters are completely media savvy and can see through for instance all online marketing scams? So why do they need protecting? And if they do, are ‘digital immigrants’ the most logical candidates to teach them online self-defence?).

A second view is media literacy as a stairway to fame: teach yourself to be famous by making a video clip and upload it to YouTube, promote yourself and make friends via Facebook et cetera. The ultimate goal is to become famous in a very traditional sense: being on TV, having a hit record, and doing ‘meet and greet’ sessions with fans. It is all based on stereotypes (the pop star, the catwalk model, the soap star) fed by the never-ending format mash-ups of talent shows and ‘reality’ soaps. In a recent ‘newsletter’ of the expertise centre on media literacy, nine out of ten articles were on becoming famous by media or on famous people and how they handle the media (the other article was about internet filters…).

A third view is the preoccupation with tools: media literacy is about teaching the use of certain tools (video editing software, profile pages on social media sites, audio tools) mostly in order to ‘imitate’ well known examples. Make a rap just like Jay-Z, be like the 8 o clock newsreader, play as DJ Tiësto (see point 2). We tackled this one in our publication ‘Wijs met Media’ with the conclusion that the tools are there but media literacy is still lacking. So I leave it at that, with the only remark that most people at the DE conference in December weren’t aware of this publication (or slightly less likely: didn’t agree with it!), since a lot of emphasis during the conference was put on the tooling: games for museums as a way to instigate media literacy. No reflection whatsoever on why a game was the right implementation to reach a certain goal (what goal?) and no ‘proof’ media literacy is actually what is happening through such tools as games. The remark on the same conference by the former manager of the media experience in Hilversum that all those fun things to do at the media experience, of course (!) don’t contribute to media literacy substantially, is more than telling…

So, is this it? Are there no other possible ‘views’ on media literacy? At least one view is absent that I find troubling. The view of media literacy as a way to place yourself in a community in a critical and authentic way. This is about building identity, communicating with peers and the world in a constructive way, this is about media literacy as a tool for action in the ‘real’ world…There are so many opportunities right in front of us, with some very nice small scale examples on how to implement these, that it is sometimes necessary to shake ones head and make a statement: media literacy is not about fun but is about action, your action.

tagged with: fun, digital natives, media literacy

Comments

Hans Fröling on 13 January 2011 at 13:05

Media literacy as a tool for action in the real world. I can’t agree more. The national, ‘institutional programs’ as they can be seen under the umbrella of ‘the medialiteracy expert centres’ (In the Netherlands: mediawijzer.net) claim to deal with this point of view (media-awareness) but in practice the activities are mostly in the field of ‘games about gaming’, exercises like ‘how to became famous yourself’, or a glimps behind the scene of media insitutions like broadcasters or providers; so called ‘Meet & Greet programs’, with a high ‘wow’ effect. It only leads to more mystification, dependence and less control. (Especially on the monthly bills…)
A media literacy program should promote ‘back-to-basics’ projects, in which emancipation, general literacy, using different media, social awareness and personal creativity are the real goals. To be achieved ‘by means of the media’.

Rogier Brussee on 17 January 2011 at 14:32

There is at least one aspect of media literacy that you don’t mention:  learning to get an informed judgment of what the value and reliability of information is.  The unfortunate effect of Googles ubiquity is that people (and in particular youngsters) have started to believe that Googles tophit is, “by definition”, the best available information on a subject.  Clearly, great information can be found on the internet, but equally clearly complete idiocy and deliberate desinformation can also be found.  Getting a feel for what is what, is therefore very important. People often point to Wikipedia, which is by no means the most problematic source. In fact I am a great fan of Wikipedia, have contributed myself and more often than not find it one of the best sources of information. My kids (a methodologically sound aselectly chosen group (N=2)) keep suggesting that this is only because their teachers are so hopelessly old fashioned that they don’t want to accept Wikipedia as a reliable source.  They may have a point, but of course it takes background knowledge, linguistic sensitivity, the ability to judge sources for reliability and/or bias, and access to other sources (nothing new here).  Media literacy from this point of view is like real education:  not necessarily fashionable and easy to do as an addon, but desperately needed when “knowing where to find it” is considered a good alternative to knowledge.

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