The computer transforms information into knowledge. But often it unleashes too much information and not enough communication. The challenge for humanists is to help others evaluate technology's content, as well as the meaning of images from all kinds of media. Film studies faculty and students are helping local school children to develop that judgment in the Telemedia Literacy Program. Berenstein feels an urgency to teach others to look critically at images and their meaning.
TV is pervasive.
It's used as babysitter and trendsetter. Tools for living Paradox prevails in the humanities today. By many accounts, the value of a humanities education is waning in the eyes of parents and students, who look practically at a college degree as a passport to employment. Even in academia, contradiction continues. While the lion's share of prizes, public attention and funding goes to the sciences and technology, the UCI School of Humanities has become one of the highest-ranked schools in the country.