MediaShift, a decent online column by Mark Glaser about new media hosted by PBS, features a nice article about a youth media conference in NYC that has been going on for a few years, The Overseas Conversation Series, created by filmmaker Jordi Torrent. I was fortunate to be on its panel a few years ago and it was fun to see some sparks fly between academic notions of media literacy and the practical. My friend, Kathleen Tyner, who has written a great primer on media literacy in the digital age, “Literacy in a Digital World: Teaching and Learning in the Age of Information (LEA’s Communication Series)”, complained that getting bogged down with literacy definitions is like counting the angels on the tip of a pin. She was calling on participants to just accept the notion that “literacy” can be used for books or digital media. I tend to agree, but feel that it’s also necessary to acknowledge that the reality of print media is substantially different than that of new media. As McLuhan argued, print represents a linear form of thinking, and new media is more multidimensional, or “acoustic.” An acoustic space comes at you from all directions (such as a forest).
Anyhow, I like Glaser’s overview. I wish I could have been there!
MediaShift . Digging Deeper::New Media Literacy as Important for Educators as Students | PBS:
For so long, the focus of media literacy education has been on helping students understand the media they consume. What are the biases? Who owns what outlet? How are news reports produced? But with the rise of new media, perhaps the focus of media literacy education should shift to educating the educators — and other adults — about blogs, podcasts, social networking, mobile content and virtual worlds. That way, adults could relate better to students and help them understand the world in which they are digital natives.
Technorati Tags: McLuhan, media literacy
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