Articles

Media Literacy in Canada

Written by Barry Duncan and Carol Arcus. Originally appeared in Forum Magazine

Teachers from many disciplines have exploited the teachable moments which surface so readily from the immense territory generated by media and popular culture and the new digital media – discussing 9/11, Katrina, Britney Spears having a psychic meltdown, or debating the pros and cons of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt engaging in celebrity diplomacy in Africa. In this discussion, it’s easy to dismiss youth’s involvement in the media, especially because of the bad rap given to social networking and video games,(whose violent content is allegedly responsible for provoking aggressive behaviour).

Until recently, popular culture has always been contrasted with ‘high culture.’ Opera, Beethoven, Shakespeare, and Michelangelo would fall in this category, whereas Beyoncé, Harlequin romances, blockbuster films and reality television were ‘low culture.’ The distinction is obviously arbitrary, obscuring rather than illuminating debate and discussion. Media and pop culture are ubiquitous and inhabit the lives of our students. Cultural critics want to make the term culture refer to popular culture as well as to that culture we associate with the so-called classics. Cultural critics are as likely to write about The Simpsons as they are to analyze Macbeth. They want to break down the boundary between high and low, and to dismantle the hierarchy that such a distinction implies. They also want to discover the reasons why a certain kind of aesthetic product is more valued than others.

A cultural critic writing on a revered classic might concentrate on a movie or even a comic strip version. Or she might see it in light of some more common form of reading material (a novel by Jane Austen might be viewed in light of Gothic romances or ladies' conduct manuals, showing how texts move back and forth across the alleged boundary between "low" and "high" culture). We need to recognize that in the last twenty years cultural studies departments have gained a strong foothold on North American campuses, offering rich academic opportunities for students. The courses on offer focus on the dynamics of gender, race and class; and on the social, economic and political issues surrounding the media, including the importance of ownership and control of the media industries.

To navigate our multimodal world, students need multiliteracies and media education strategies to survive. Mark Bauerleine, author of the recent The Dumbest Generation, a sadly reactionary rant on media and computers, is a key source liberally quoted by Don Cowans in his Forum Magazine article “The Reading Mind.” Both critics contrast popular culture with traditional culture, denounce those immersed in the quest for relevance and make the case against digital media as having sabotaged ‘the great tradition,’ leaving educators hanging dry. Above all, the notion of a happy co-existence of both domains never enters their minds. (It should also be pointed out that kids on the net are reading/text messaging. Surely this should count?) Cowans recommends that computers be pulled from the library and the classroom replaced with books. To banish media educators, he would eliminate the media strand from English.

Initially a “movement” of enthusiastic teachers, it was not until the 1990s, largely due to the proliferation of digital media, that Canadian media education began to be taken seriously by education policy makers. In 1986, Ontario became the first jurisdiction in North America to make media literacy a mandatory part of the curriculum, from Kindergarten to Grade 12. Following that decision, the widely acclaimed Media Literacy Resource Guide was conceived by the Ontario based Association for Media Literacy (AML) and published in 1989. (Teachers who wish more information about the resources and special services of AML should check the Web site www.aml.ca)

By 1997, the rest of Canada had followed suit and media literacy was embedded in provincial policy guidelines for all English/language arts programs. Regrettably, few teachers are adequately trained to teach media literacy. As more teachers receive in-service training through Additional Qualification (AQ) courses, schools will feel comfortable in including it as an essential part of the curriculum. While the Toronto area has AQ courses at York University and the University of Toronto, the rest of Ontario lags behind and interested teachers should agitate for their availability at other faculties of education. Alternatively, and as a stop-gap measure, teachers accessing the AML resources can conduct their own research. While English teachers are the only ones required to include media literacy in the curriculum, there are some marvelous opportunities to infuse it in subjects such as History, Geography, Health, Sociology and Gender Studies.

Teachers will welcome the media literacy in their classroom, not as an add-on but as a creative and culturally relevant opportunity for learning. In several provinces, media studies is offered as a complete stand-alone credit, usually at the Grade 11 level. University professors in the humanities tell us how pleased they are with the quality of critical thinking skills manifested in high school grads who have taken media literacy courses.

Media education is concept-driven and there is an international consensus on identifying the areas needed to be covered. These key concepts become the organizing elements that give our work the required intellectual coherence and academic rigour. These include the following: [N.B. To make this list relevant, imagine discussing a Coca Cola commercial or a beauty product with a class and trying to apply the key concepts.]

• Media Codes and Conventions – Technical codes such as camera angle and distance, and how they shape the message.
• Values and Ideology – A set of beliefs about the world. Typical questions raised: Who has power? Who does not and why? How are stereotypes used in this text?
• Media and Industry – The commercial implications of media need to be recognized, especially since most of the world’s information and entertainment industries are owned and controlled by a handful of media conglomerates.
• Media and Audience – Used in two different ways: 1) How we as consumers become target audiences; 2) How we as active participants make sense of the media.

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