Teaching Media Literacy within the Social Studies

Whether modern media support or subvert the development of informed, responsible citizens may depend less on the products and programs themselves than on the process by which creative teachers bring them into the classroom and curriculum to meaningfully engage students in thinking critically about media representations, industries, and ideologies, together with social effects and consequences.

Considine, D. (2009). From Gutenberg to Gates: Media Matters.

The Social Studies, 63-73.

Teaching student to read through and about the newspaper better prepares them to be educated citizens. We believe that an active sense of citizenship entails being critical of how news is received and used in society. Developing the practice of critically reading the newspaper fosters no only newspaper reading skills that are useful for citizens but also general practices that allow citizens to discern the world around them and act accordingly.

Segall, A. & Schmidt, S. (2006). Reading the Newspaper as a Social Text.

The Social Studies, 97(3), 91-99.

The media is a pervasive, influential part of students’ daily lives and one that they need to be aware of and understand, both as consumers and as producers. Both Considine (2009) and Segall & Schmidt (2006) express the importance of students learning to be critical of the media and its message, and suggest methods to teach to these skills. Considine (2009) covers the wide array of media that students encounter – from news outlets, to movies, to music – and offers an method to help students make sense of their encounters with all of these types. The TAP method (Considine, 2009, 64) has students examine each media representation through looking at text, production and audience. Similar to Lesh’s (2011) “text, context, subtext,” the TAP method teaches students that media is just another form of the texts they will encounter and teaches them how to read (or view, or listen) to them in a way that they understand the author’s purpose and to be aware of how that affects their understanding. Segall and Schmidt (2006) focus on an examination of newspapers. They see how newspapers are often used in the classroom as an extension of the textbook – a seemingly unbiased “living textbook” – and explain the importance of reading them, and thinking about them, critically. They argue for teaching activities that teach students to read the newspaper, examining it from front page on with a critical eye for how the language, layout and content choices create the news.

Being a critical consumer of media is an important aspect of citizenship. Just as students need to be taught that there are many representations of history, the same is true with what is happening currently in the world around them. The same skills that students use to examine any text or video in the classroom should be extended to modern media. Media literacy does not need to be a pull out class, or taught only in a Civics class, there are many opportunities for it to be integrated into the Social Studies curriculum. Historic newspapers, advertisements, photographs and other media can be examined as primary sources using the “text, context, subtext” method – adding another dimension to the study of many eras and historic events. Using the media as a primary source lends itself to the examination of media as a primary source about the world today and a discussion about how just as historic documents are examined on multiple levels, the same needs to apply to modern media.

Just as it is important to be a critical consumer of media, it is also important that students learn to see themselves as producers of media and to understand the power of the free press and what that can mean, and what responsibilities, that holds for them. The media can be a method of civic engagement and offers individuals opportunities to have their voice heard – if they know how to use it. The role and responsibilities of a free press (and what limits that entails), is especially important now that it is no longer just reporters who are producing media, but rather any person who blogs or tweets, or even re-posts something on facebook. Media literacy is no longer just about what one receives, but also how one interacts with it. The responsibilities that the press must hold itself too – including issues on liable and privacy – can now apply to individual students. Creating opportunities in the classroom for students to create media – weather it be interacting with newspapers through writing letters to the editor or submitting an op-ed to a local paper or making videos or a blog, and opening it up to the outside world, these are important skills for students to practice, and to understand.

Here are some other resources for teaching media literacy (in all its dimensions) in the classroom:

• ·      Newseum (resources for teachers on teaching media literacy): http://newseum.org/education/teacher-resources/lesson-plans/index.html
• ·      Bill of Rights Institute (articles about current controversies over the freedom of the press): http://billofrightsinstitute.org/resources/educator-resources/headlines/freedom-of-the-press/
• ·      Library of Congress (teaching with historic newspapers): http://blogs.loc.gov/teachers/2013/03/teaching-with-informational-text-historic-newspapers-from-the-library-of-congress/