When media literacy meets English High School -- stories from front; convergence strategies fromJenkins; Concord study results

Real stories from a Boston high school, background on major research underway, and a report on a 10-year study involving Concord, N.H., teen-agers were among presentations as teachers, media professionals and reformers gathered on Saturday at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Participation, transparency and ethics are three core challenges facing the field of media-literacy education, according to MIT Prof. Henry Jenkins.  Jenkins keynoted the Oct. 27, 2007, day-long "2007 Media Literacy Conference: Creating and Learning in a Media Saturated Culture" at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 

 What happens when a video teacher and administrator at Boston English High School start to infuse media-literacy principles in the school day? Listen to this unedited audio of a session at conference. The panel, lead by Renee Hobbs, of Temple University, included (in first order of speaking): Rona Zickower, of Media Power Youth, Manchester, N.H.; Xavier Rozas, media teacher, Boston English High School; and Chris Toulet-Cote, assistant headmaster of English High.  Click here to launch an audio stream, or DOWNLOAD MP3 PODCAST.

Also:

• AUDIO: Listen to a 58-minute streaming excerpt of Jenkins' talk by clicking on the Hipcast carat below. Or download an MP3 PODCAST:   

Jenkins says there's a participation gap because only abougt 57% of youth say they have produced media while the other 43% remain passive media consumers.  Education efforts need to be transaparent, he says, not pitting old literacies such as reading, against new literacies such as video production or virtual-reality gaming. And educators must figure out how to address the challenge of teaching media ethics to youth without resorting to what Jenkins terms a "surveillance culture." 

The MIT efforts come at a time when both the Ford and Knight foundations are seeding efforts at media-education at both the high-school and college-level via grants to  Stonybrook University on Long Island.

There's a massive shift going on in American society as youth become producers, not just consumers of media, said Mark Tomizawa, a Brookline-based advertising-industry executive who is working on media-literacy efforts. "They don't yet undersand their power as producers, not just consumers," said Tomizawa, who moderated one panel. "When they begin to understand their power, we are going to begin to see some significant impact."

CONCORD STUDY RESULTS

A total of 300 Concord, N.H., high-school students tracked in a 10-year study of media-literacy education effects showed quantifiable improvements in academic achievement, according to results presented by Renee Hobbs, a Temple University professor.

 Seven teachers took part in the curriculum study, which involved allocating their junior year to media-literacy focused English curriculum. The methodology and outcomes are described in Hobbs' book, published in March, "Reading the Media: Media Literacy in High School English."

Hobbs studied reading reading compensation and writings skills, through classroom observation, 21 hours of transcribed interviews and samples of student-made videos. Among books in the 11th-grade curriculum were: Orwell's 1984, Shelley's Frankenstein, Star's Glued to the Set, Kesey's One Flew Over the Cukoo's Nest, Junger's The Perfect Storm, Anderson's Feed and Faulkner's As I Lay Dying. Films included Tough Guise, All the President's Men, High Fidelity and Bamboozled.

A key finding of Hobbs' research -- graduates of the Concord media-literacy track were much better at figuring out what was missing from news accounts -- i.e., the "frame" of the author -- then a control group of Concord teens.  Hobbs also tried to measure the students' reactions to advertising, their critical viewing skills, their civic engagement and their reading comprehension and analysis.

Hobbs concludes the program was effective because it was initiated by the faculty themselves, yet supported by the superintendent, it was carefully planned, a vibrant school library and media center participated and there was involvement by reporters and editors from the family-owned daily newspaper, the Concord Monitor. Students seemed especially engaged because they perceived the curriculum to be relevant to life outside school, she added.

Hobbs has three worries, however. One is that video-production-based media literacy efforts will replace traditional print reading literacy efforts for "at risk" students who teachers think are unlikely to ever read well. A second is students will develop a general "anti-media" attitude if teachers don't emphasize critical thinking and skepticism rather than cynicism. Finally, she says educators need to avoid the temptation to silo efforts as analysis, practice or production, instead of blending all three.

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EARLIER ANNOUNCEMENT OF CONFERENCE