This course provides teachers with the opportunity to develop their understanding of the complex functions of the mass media industries, including newspapers, magazines, television, radio, film and book publishing, with emphasis on techniques for introducing critical analysis of mass media and video production activities into the Language Arts, Social Studies, Art and other subject areas in grades K - 12.
Teachers have a good deal of ambivalence about television.
Most see television as a tool for learning about the world, for relaxing and being entertained. Yet television can be a tremendously powerful force in a child's life, and if given the critical thinking skills and active sense of participation towards television, it can be a productive tool in the classroom as well. Media literacy is defined here as the ability to access, analyze and produce communication in a variety of forms, an extension of the traditional literacies needed to participate in the society in which we live. Through discussion, reading, group projects, role playing and other work, teachers will gain significant knowledge about the complex role of mass media in American culture, develop activities and projects which integrate critical viewing skills and video production activities into their existing curricula and subject areas, and better appreciate the underlying philosophy of media education. British cultural and pedagogical studies is a set of ideas which originated at the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies at Birmingham University in England during the l970's, which explore how mass media and popular culture artifacts have meaning in the lives of individuals, with special attention to the problems of authority, power and legitimation in the construction and consumption of media products.