Double Entry Journal #7

Quote:

"A camera can only ever show part of an event, and it's the person who uses the camera who decides what to show and what to leave out. (Hobbs, 2002)"

Reflection:

First of all, I think that this article proves that adding media literacy to the school curriculum is not a daunting task.  Ten minute discussions a day would make students much more media literate.  As a teacher, this article was a wake-up call; media literacy can be taught without taking away from the many other objects we must teach a day.

I chose this quote because this lesson was taught to Kindergartners   If five year old children are getting this type of a media literacy lesson, this early in life, they will be pros at analytic media skills by the time they are adults.  What an important lesson for young children to learn.  I would imagine that the kindergartners that learned this lesson would go home and look at their toy and snack commercials differently.  I would imagine that they would also look at anything on TV differently.

Children hear this saying early in life: “A picture is worth a thousand words.”  It is important if they realize that companies may try to sell us a product without showing the “whole picture.”

Other Resource:

I watched the 2012 Olympics, specifically women’s gymnastics.  McKayla Maroney was given a hard time by the media because of her reaction to receiving the silver medal in her vault performance.  She was anticipated to win gold, but shockingly fell on her second vault (extremely uncharacteristic of the athlete who made it to London, solely on her vaulting skills).  The media lashed out at the “scowl” on her face and called her “ungrateful.”  It seems McKayla forgot that “a camera can only ever show part of an event.”

Sources:

Hobbs, R. (2002). Center for media literacy. Retrieved from http://www.medialit.org/reading-room/teaching-media-literacy-yo-are-you-hip