Mediacology

Mary Rothschild, director of Healthy Media Choices, invited me to be a guest on her weekly radio show, “How Are the Children?” on Brattleboro Community Radio (you can hear the stream here). I’ll be on Tuesday, July 15 at 1:00 pm Eastern Time. We’ll be discussing my book, Mediacology, along with the founders of the citizen journalism site, ibattleboro.com,Christopher Grotke and Lise LePage.

For a preview we have been having a preliminary interview via email:

MR: Starting with, what is Mediacology?



Antonio: This is the conflation of media and ecology, my effort to bridge media literacy and ecoliteracy. The reason I find this necessary is because of past difficulties I’ve had trying to communicate media literacy to ecologists, and ecological concepts to media literacy folks.

MR: What is GridThink and HoloGrok

Antonio: It is the difference between left brain and right brain thinking. From my “definitions” page:

GridThink - A type of literacy based on left-brain functions that are rational, abstract and linear.

HoloGrok - A type of literacy based on new media, which primarily requires right-brain processing that is spherical, musical, multi-sensory and nonlinear.

MR: What are “usual” approaches to media literacy that get in the way of a holistic approach? My experience is that many media literacy ed people use production as an integral part of the work.

Antonio: Agreed, but most media literacy practitioners don’t do production, and most production educators don’t do media literacy. I think there needs to be a balance between both.

My problem with deconstruction (the “usual” approach) is that it’s usually done outside the context of the individual’s local values and beliefs. Tobacco ad deconstruction, for example, has a different meaning in a native american context. A lot of media literacy fails to recognize that tobacco is a sacred plant. It’s important to go into a community and acknowledge that before demonizing tobacco companies because the issue gets confused. Also, it is true that beer ads target youth and influence their behavior, but the reasons for drinking and drug abuse often have more to do with the family or community environment. Deconstruction is a good way to talk about the issues, but how does it relate to poverty, abuse, and other local factors?

Also, deconstruction is often mistaken for a total solution. The assumption is that if we know media codes, then we can be liberated from media messaging, but media are not just about codes and symbols, but also about the form. The medium is the message too. Different media produce different kinds of thinking. Books are often considered to be the solution to TV, but books have also have had negative influences too, such as the abstracting of reality or the codification of a “self.” Native Americans were taught literacy as way of “killing the indian, but saving the man.”

MR: The program is called “How Are the Children?” and eventually we need to get around to, however briefly, showing how all this relates to the practical day-to-day life with children and media.

Antonio: My basic message regarding children and media is to not be afraid of it, but become critically engaged and empowered. If we agree that learning to read and write is a requirement for a healthy child, why not also have the same belief regarding multimedia? Teachers and parents should not be afraid of new media, because that prevents them from guiding children to use it in a positive manner. Also, if you strengthen other aspects of the child’s environment, such as diet, play, nature, art and creativity, then media wont impact them as strongly. It’s troubling when media activists say that media brainwash us. I find that a little hypocritical because it doesn’t explain why they themselves weren’t brainwashed. Clearly there was something in the activist’s experience that enabled him or her to be critical of media. Why is that?

MR: However, given the real situation on the ground, isn’t the deconstructive/protection part a necessary stage since media is not actually dominated by collaboration, but rather by coarse commercial interests?

Antonio: Yes, schools are huge problem. But returning to the old days won’t work. We have to rethink the whole concept of education and start designing programs that are not meant to replicate the system but to produce empowered individuals.