Throughout this course, and by having a critical “teacher’s” mindset, I’ve become so aware of how the media can impact our children. This has led me to be a strong advocate for media literacy and education for our children.
The education system in Canada has stepped forward by making media education a mandatory policy nation-wide a decade ago. Media literacy takes up approximately 25% of English or Language Arts programs. The way that this is integrated into the curriculum is based on the individual teacher as there are many ways to do so. Discussing mediums and their strengths and weaknesses, discussing issues within the media and how they are reflected through different mediums, having a complete unit of media literacy, or simply applying it where the opportunity arises, in an integrated fashion. There are numerous guides and websites, as well as articles to present teacher’s with activities and lesson plans. But despite this effort within the schools, this is only one social institution, among many, that are socializing our chidlren. Undoubtedly school alone cannot literate our children.
I’ve persued some research on this topic for both this class, as well as my education class, and found that being able to critically analyse these media messages if the key. Children under the age of 9 years old are unable to comprehend the difference between thee images and reality, therefore, what kind of messages are we sending to these children. Music videos, containing high amounts of violence, vulgar language, and sexuality are being exposed to children as young as 6, children who, again, cannot comprehend these messages. So what messages are we sending our children? And are we surprised when they start to swear, become violent, and wear inappropriate clothing? If we are, we shouldn’t be. Television acts as a babysitter for most children growing up in today’s society. They are literally being socialized by the message that they see during their Saturday morning cartoons, or whatever other shows they are exposed to. And that is simply one medium.
The media itself has been attempting to create positive messages for our children and youth, however, as we noted in class, many of these attempts are discouraged and often are banned for indirect reasons. Since this is the institution blamed for exposing children to these messages, it is possible to use it as the institution that also prevents these messages from being shown to our children. Children are literally saturated with these messages, so what will it take to turn this tool into becoming positive for society rather than as a downfall?
The family is another social institution that is crucial to change in this domain. The school system cannot do it alone, if children are simply going home and sitting in front of the television or computer. If parents become teachers of media literacy within their own homes, and monitor the amount and content of what their children are watching, it could have a positive impact. Researchers argue that less exposure to the media can positively influence many aspects of life.
It cannot be only one social institution to step forward and attempt change, because it’s many social institutions that are contributing to the problem. We cannot simply have the education system trying to teach our children comprehension skills, but still have the media exposing negative messages, and the family allowing children to be exposed to them. We need society as a whole to unite against this epidemic that could have detrimental effects for our future generations.
