(Person) Percentage - Sabanci University Research Database

The Asian Media & Mass Communication Conference 2010 Osaka, Japan
diverse audiences make meaning of, and respond critically to, these extraordinary spectacles and
large-scale international affairs. The concept, necessity, and relevance of media education are
explored alongside the challenges and complexities of its implementation. Examples of the
students’ work and an examination of the teaching and learning processes highlight some of the
realities of preparing students as critical scholars and active participants in globalized, mediasaturated
society.
Media Education: For a New Generation of Learners
As social commentators and public intellectuals continue their fervent attempts to define the role
of new generations in increasingly media-saturated environments, the characterizations of youth
have ranged from vulnerable, uncritical audiences of popular culture to empowered, active
players in the new media landscape. Yet young people themselves have few, if any, opportunities
to be a part of that conversation or to carry out their own debates on the nature of their
relationship to media culture. Formal educational institutions have largely ignored the issue
altogether, while scholars in the field of media education have argued the necessity of studying
these relationships and experiences for their impact on identity development. As Stephen
Goodman (2003) asserts, “While the precise impact of this media consumption is subject to
debate, it is clear that over time, as these messages are repeated in numerous forms day in and
day out, they contribute to young people’s evolving sense of identity, community, and
worldview” (p. 2). Likewise, David Buckingham (2003) states that “The media are embedded in
the textures and routines of everyday life, and they provide many of the ‘symbolic resources’ we
use to conduct and interpret our relationship and to define our identities” (p. 5). Schools have
been slow to react or even actively resist addressing these realities for a variety of reasons,
including fear, confusion, or lack of resources, support, and training (Butler, 2010). But the
matter is growing urgent and the obvious disconnect between pedagogy and everyday life
continues to pressure administrators and teachers in their efforts to manage classroom learning.
Official curriculum needs to incorporate a study of the media in order to be relevant to the lives
of individual youth and to the wider society they inhabit (Buckingham, 2003). Education should
enable students to develop as critical media scholars in conjunction with their development
outside of school as sophisticated media consumers, producers, editors, and distributors (Butler,
2003).
At its foundation, Buckingham (2003) describes media education as “the process of teaching and
learning about the media,” while media literacy is “the outcome – the knowledge and skills
learners acquire” (p. 4). Media education should involve critical thinking of, and active
participation in, mainstream and user-generated content (Buckingham, 2003; Butler, 2010;
Goodman, 2003; Hartley, Burgess, & Banks, 2008; Kellner & Share, 2007; Tyner, 1998). There
is a common emphasis on both analysis and production that has been reasoned in several ways.
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