For now, the technology drives new types of media through social networks and blogging. Where will media go next? This certainly can’t be the end of the line. It will be interesting to see how these subjects are taught in schools and at what grade levels. And the real question is will it ever be enough?

As time pushes technology forward, new research studies and projects should be proposed to see at what levels media literacy is strongest and where it could need work. Perhaps a hybrid of mediums will be the greatest strength in pushing literacy forward. Overall, it is an important issue that will need constant attention and only time will tell.

Looking to the future with optimism through courses taught in communities and by experts, I’m hoping this education will be enough and that those who follow behind us will pick up the torch and continue to make new discoveries in the future.

Through the course of the project, the students targeted the future of world by educating middle- and high-school students about media literacy. To handle the task of educating, the teacher took on the role of advising the college students in the formation of their literacy education program.

The team of students decided in order to educate the younger students, they would first survey them about their media usage, what they liked to watch, play, or listen to, and
their understanding of the media industry. From there they decided the efforts they needed to put into areas of media literacy.

At the completion of the project, the college students felt it was a success and actually decided to move their model into the greater Omaha area. The lesson to be learned from the project is that anyone can take on the magnitude of educating the future of America about media-literacy.

Much like Howard Schneider’s class in New York, the college students reached out to the future of the world by educating a few students about media literacy and an appreciation of media. Looking towards the future it is programs like these that can inspire how we go about spreading appreciation and knowledge of media in the future. As I concluded the last blog post, by educating the population one-by-one about media, we can look forward to a greater informed public in the future. By continuing courses like these, perhaps a trend will be developed across the United States to stress the importance of media literacy in the future.

Source
Tyma, A.W. (2009) Pushing past the walls: Media literacy, the “emancipated” classroom,
and a really severe learning curve. International Journal of Communication, 4, 891-900.

The purpose? To build an audience of citizens – what journalism has always needed and will continue to need in the future especially with movement towards free-lance bloggers and Web journalists.

The course, which stresses topics of objectivity, fairness, sources, and navigation of the Web, provides students with the importance of news and what and why journalists do what they do.

This understanding is especially important as there have been trends that show a downturn in civic events, newspaper readers, knowledge about America and its democracy and current events. By reaching the students, be they journalism students or members of the public, at an important time could create optimism and restore credibility to the industry.

This news-literacy is a large part of media-literacy movement as Temple professor Renee Hobbs said, “It’s irresponsible to focus on the relations between reporters and sources and news value without positioning all of that in a larger context that has to do with increasing competition, the question of revenue streams, and the like.”

While media-literacy does have the commercial aspect in it, news-literacy teaches students excellence and what separates one story from another in quality. The thought is by teaching those about quality journalism, people will want to consume journalism which ultimately affects media-literacy.

When journalists engage the public, there will be much more civic action and a call to hold journalist responsible for their work.

Schneider’s model seems to be working on the small scale of educating society one-by-one. For the future of news- and media-literacy, let’s hope we see more courses like these pop-up in the future to further shape the future of the new industry.

Source:
Garber, M. (2009). Leap of faith: Inside the movement to build an audience of citizens. Columbia Journalism Review, 48(2), 41-45.

The action steps outlined within the High School section of this blog represent a national pledge to standardizing media literacy. These steps have been offered by a leading figure in media literacy advocacy, Renee Hobbs. Hobbs’ work supports standards proposed by NAMLE and The Center for Media Literacy, which are two integral organizations that promote the movement to include media literacy as a fundamental component of high school education.

The steps outlined throughout the blog include examples of how educational institutions have taken a step into including media literacy into their education, and will hopefully serve as a useful model of potential projects and resources that can help educators integrate the same useful information into their curriculum.

Thank you for your interest in the blog, and if you have additional questions or additional resources to contribute, please feel free to contact me.

Thanks

First off, many colleges have general education classes that are required for every student to take part in. Colleges could change their curriculum to include that every student needs to take a course in new emerging topics taught by a variety of professors who have studied and researched areas such as technology (where new media can be studied), current world topics and innovations in discovery. By doing so, no matter one’s major, this information would be learned by graduation from college and prior to entering the workforce.

However, what about those already in the field who wouldn’t have this opportunity to have the new general education class? That is a little harder and would require a little more expertise.

During one of the many in-service days school districts have, a field expert could be brought in and paired with those who already new about the new technologies to teach the rest of the educators about the importance of new media and the tools that are becoming more popular to distribute this new media. A refresher course could be offered each year during an in-service, so that teachers could remain on the current or cutting edge of new technologies.

By this point, you may be asking what does this have to do with media literacy? To educate the students, who are the future of the world and public, educators need to be brought up to speed on the present and future waves of technology that will ultimately distribute and provide news media to the masses. The educators need to be taught, so they can teach the future of the world of the news tools that are available to them. It would certainly be a work in progress, but in the far-off future, it would fix the problems of media illiteracy.

As outlined in my previous post, development of the eighth, ninth, and tenth steps towards supporting Media Literacy include the following steps:

1. Engage the entertainment industry’s creative community in an entertainment-education initiative to raise visibility and create shared social norms regarding ethical behaviors in using online social media.
2. Host a statewide youth-produced Public Service Announcement (PSA) competition to increase visibility for digital and media literacy education.
3. Support an annual conference and educator showcase competition in Washington, D.C. to increase national leadership in digital and media literacy education.

The following are examples of how central Pennsylvania programs can implement these steps into the curriculum of high school media literacy education:

1. Inviting the entertainment industry’s creative community or a celebrity media persona to promote media literacy education is a great ploy, but students develop social norms, especially online, through social media websites. Developing a bridge between online social media and education has been a hot topic, but I spoke with Doug Martin, a teacher at Fix Chapel High School in Pittsburgh, PA. Doug helps students produce FCTV, a school television program which promotes students work through a variety of social media. The variety of work, especially in developing media literacy through television production is impressive. You can see some of the broadcasts produce by the students here. Doug discussed the use of Edmodo as a social media tool to help students  and staff bridge gaps with the student population. The instructor has used the online social site as a way of assessing student production efforts an students have used the site as a way of  promoting internal student buzz and brainstorming stories for production.
2. PSA’s are a great resource for developing media literacy skills and promoting education. Statewide contests have been offered by politicians, local media outlets, and schools.  A national resource for all educators includes MyPSAContest.com
3. A national conference is referenced in a previous post here, and although it won’t take place in Washington, D.C. it is an opportunity to enhance the education of media literacy nationally.

Many of these tools such as Facebook and Twitter are user friendly and easy to get started.  Sometimes the best method to go about it is trial and error. But for the non-technology savvy people, it will be up to educators to let their students know from an early age that these Web sites are powerful online tools to getting news.

Because Facebook (specifically) is practically more open to anyone than ever before, incorporating it into the grade school computer classes should be a focus of teachers. Much like when I was in grade school when we were encouraged to get e-mail addresses and play with the features online communication, students today should be encouraged to experiment with social media and perhaps get a Facebook or Twitter account (when they are mature enough to understand Internet privacy and public information). And instead of being used to keep in touch, educators should emphasize following key figures in the news and organizations that provide news.

However, before teachers can mandate students to get Facebook or Twitter accounts as part of their class curriculum, they need to stress that social media is more than just a way to keep in touch with friends or finding lost sheep to further advance their online farm. Educators need to be be put in the position to show how Facebook can relate to the real world and be used as a new form of media.

From an early age, I can remember learning the importance and significance of news by learning about the function of the press and newspapers, being required in some classes to keep up with current events and by being influenced every morning before morning announcements to watch Channel 1, a daily topical 15-30 minute program that brought news into the classrooms nationwide. This should be no different for the youth of today, however the medium has changed. Instead of reading a newspaper or watching a broadcast, educators can show how and why to use the new tools (social media, blogging and YouTube) to keep their students updated with news.

As a result, the students who grew up with the technology and ability to follow trends and news on the sites will always be ahead of the curve and understanding how media relates to them. However, again, how will the educators be brought to the new technology if this is something they haven’t experienced before?

A recent study released by Faculty Focus, an online tool for higher education employees, showed that college professors and teachers are using new forms of social media to communicate with students.

The survey, which particularly stated one-third of higher education professionals use Twitter to communicate with students and as a classroom educational tool, illustrates another step forward into future media. According to Kohli of Tufts University, the integration of social media into academics is because in a short time, social media will be expected of candidates to be hired in the current job market.

Specifically at Tufts University, professors have incorporated blogs into classwork (much like this blog did at Shippensburg University) and have required students to create their own and read classmate blogs. The focus, again like this blog, is to provide interesting links to Web sites and videos that would supplement class readings and concepts.

Julie Dobrow, the director of the Communications and Media Studies program at Tufts, believes that in order for students to analyze new and emerging media, they need engage in it. She said not only do students need to read and understand it, but they need to know how to be producers of new media.

However, this just isn’t something that is present at Tufts University and no where else. Business schools such as Harvard Business School, UPenn’s Wharton School and MIT’s Sloan School of Management have begun incorporating social media into their curricula. Other teachers and professors across the nation have jumped on the bandwagon as well as they tend to believe most of the content that will be written with students’ future jobs will be online.

Furthermore, the work is not just in blogs, as Twitter and Facebook are being taught to students as an effective tool to keep the public in the loop about headlines and key news events. ESPN.com journalist Maria Ortiz said, “In journalism if you don’t know how to use Twitter or how to blog or promote things on Facebook, you will be behind everyone else.”

The future of media literacy starts here as colleges are making steps to new media by teaching those who will be working in the media. Perhaps this will be a jumping-off point for other educators to follow trickling down to high schools, middles schools and elementary schools?

Source
Social media networks become increasingly integrated into academics, job market

As outlined in my previous post, development of the seventh step in supporting Media Literacy includes the following step:

1. Develop online measures of media and digital literacy to assess learning progression and develop online video documentation of digital and media literacy instructional strategies to build expertise in teacher education.

The following is an examples of how central Pennsylvania programs can implement this step into the curriculum of high school media literacy education:

1. Developing assessments across multiple media formats is a particularly difficult challenge, but some instructors have made resources available to help assess some common media platforms. The Center for Media Literacy‘s website has a page devoted to assessment information. Within this page, they have a workshop report by Chris Worsnop in which he outlines steps and important considerations for assessing media literacy in curriculum.

“As a featured part of the seminar, Chris shared some of the detailed rubrics and other tools which he has developed. These include specific traits that teachers can look for in different components of student work:

1. ideas and content of the piece,
2. its organization and structure,
3. how effectively the piece uses the language and rhetoric of its medium,
4. how the author’s voice is present in the piece and how it connects with the audience,
5. technical competence or how well the author has handled the conventions and the technology of the genre or technology.

This information has helped library source information in the Springfield Township High School library resource center. Their website on information literacy includes assessment tools for information media literacy included with media literacy information. The use of a site known as TRAILS helps the media assessment process and is an online tool to help teachers across the country access media literacy assessment information. “This Web-based system was developed to provide an easily accessible and flexible tool for school librarians and teachers to identify strengths and weaknesses in the information-seeking skills of their students. There is no charge for using TRAILS.”

Will social media like Facebook and Twitter replace what we know and how we get our news? Will a new form of media come out that will revolutionize the industry? Or will all of the technology that has moved the news to Web suddenly die and call for a revolution back to print media, radio and television news?

While many of these scenarios are unlikely, one thing is for sure according to the 2010 State of the Media trends… The cutbacks in old media during the recession will ultimately affect today’s consumers of news as traditional media content still prevails be it on the Web or in print media. What that means for the consumer is while audience statistics show 80 percent of traffic online is to 7 percent of the tops news sites, many of the top news sites are tied to legacy media. When the legacy media cutback in the traditional media forms, it has an additional effect to what people will see online.

As for media literacy, right now while the industry is holding steady, there is nothing that needs to be changed on how people are understanding and getting their news. However, with the evolution of news and heading into the future that may all change.

Reference
2010 State of the Media Overview and Major Trends