Blog Post #7 - Media and the Self

I think that two of the most important things we can do to help our students navigate in a media-oriented world are to help them understand their own place in different types of media and the effect of their media consumption. I remember being a teenager and using different types of media every day, and I can only imagine how much more teenagers nowadays use the media. As Hobbs mentioned several times in the reading, the media that teens consume effects them on a personal level and impacts the way that they view their place in the world, even away from the computer screen or TV screen. Part of our job, as educators who utilize media in the classroom, is to help our students look at how their media consumption affects their lives. We can do this by helping them disassemble the different types of media that they consume and analyze the different appeals and components of those sorts of media. This involves students participating in the media they consume in an entirely new way. Instead of just consuming media, they are consuming it critically. This is really essential, I think, because it’s important for students to be able to recognize when media is helping or hindering them. Helping them to understand the effects of their media consumption, whether positive or negative, can help students to realize the roles media plays in their life and then make healthy decisions when it comes to the media they watch and engage in. In addition, I think analyzing media helps students to realize what role they play in the media, for example, are they a customer being sold a product, are they looking to media as an instruction manual for life or relationships, are they part of a community of learners and thinkers who are engaging in meaningful tasks, etc. Part of understanding the effects media has on their lives is the realization that their roles change and that they have control over what they consume and how they choose to approach various forms of media.
Even before I read this chapter, I thought it was really important to help students understand how media can have both negative and positive effects, but there were a few things that Hobb mentioned that I didn’t even think about. For example, the part where she talks about how there may be an emotional fallout when you have students examine media that they use or enjoy and then critique its negative aspects. This really stuck out to me because it’s something I would have never even considered and planned for if I hadn’t read this chapter. It makes a lot of sense though because I think we are very connected to and even protective of the media that we consume. I know that in situations where people have criticized a radio show I listen to or a television show that I like to watch, I do have a defensive emotional response and I feel like I have to explain away the criticism of that particular piece of media. I think this is something we’ve probably all experienced in one way or another, but it is not something I had previously attributed as a possible response my students could have. I know realize that when I’m helping my students navigate their way through media analysis and understanding their place in the world of media, I need to be aware of how to best approach and plan for how my students will perceive and react to different activities. In order to do this, I need to be aware of my students and what their wants and needs are and how they feel about media use in their own lives. Only then will I be able to help them learn what is relevant and important to them in regards to media.
When I was reading the Hobbs article and reading/looking through the Seeing and Writing readings, I kept thinking about how important it is for students to be aware of what they are gaining (good and bad) from a piece of media. For example, if students looked at the migrant mother picture, they might be learning about history or they might be gaining other things like a depiction of what motherhood is like or a depiction of depression or disinterest. In any case, I think it is important for students to realize how a piece of media affects them. An activity that I think would help students to do this would be to have them choose 3 different examples of one type of media that they consume (e.g. three musicians they like, 3 blogs that they read, and 3 social networking sites that they use) and then do a comparison/contrast project. You could have them investigate the three different pieces of media that they chose and then record information about them like: what aspects of the piece of media do you like or dislike, how do each of these pieces of media make you feel, what is the purpose of this piece of media, etc. After they investigate their chosen media sources, students will then create a Venn diagram with three circles for each piece of media they researched. They can compare the aspects of the media that are similar as well as record the differences. Students will then use the different aspects of the media examples that they have in their Venn diagrams to write a short essay on how each of the pieces of media affects them. For example, if I was a student and I chose to research 3 radio shows I like, I might talk about in my essay how a radio show that I like discussed financial information which makes me feel worried about my own finances. In this way, students are not only investigating the types of media that they enjoy and consume on a regular basis, they are also analyzing the effects that those pieces of media have on them personally. This activity would be great if you paired it with in class discussions of different topics relating to media (like ethics of media, common media appeals, etc). Pairing it with other activities like this would help students to be more effective in explaining how their chosen pieces of media affect them in their final essays.