MEDIA LITERACY: The Younger the Better

When we think of media literacy, we often think of "knowing the news." Of comprehending current events. And this is true -- but media literacy is also about being able to discern what messages are being sent to you, tracking back to the original source of the messages, and determining what and who you can trust and why.

It demands a certain level of cognitive development and, in lot of ways, education and training. I'm not optimistic enough to think that, in many districts, there are time or resources to devote to additional courses, especially when so many students are missing the basics. But I do think that "media literacy" starts in the English classroom with concepts such as "critical reading"- but we should be taught more than just Author's Intent. We should be learning Advertiser's Intent. Assuming reasonable A/V and digital resources (which I do realize that not all schools have, but that's another issue altogether), there's no reason we couldn't devote a couple reading/writing classes a month (or more) to broadcast and online media. Swap out a poem for a commercial, and have students find hidden messages instead of recurring themes. Pop a brand's Facebook fan page onto the overhead and discuss why we feel compelled to answer their discussion questions or include them in our "like"s. I don't mean to suggest reading comprehension is any less important and I'd rather we have more than less, but we need to fit these discussions in somewhere and the Language Arts curricula seems like a logical place to start.