American children are captivated by media and are among the heaviest users of media and new media technologies. Increasingly, parents and educators are at a loss to help them understand and decipher the overwhelming number and array of images they consume. Media education is vital in helping teachers understand how children define the world around them. Much of what children learn about diversity, including race, gender and ethnicity comes from the media. It is imperative that we teach our students and children to think critically about the content of these messages and how they affect their sense of self, their self-esteem, their relationships, and their understanding of the communities of which they are a part. Media Literacy encourages critical analysis of all forms of media, including advertising, television, film, video games, and the Internet. It is perhaps the most effective tool in the development of critical thinking skills.
Drawing on our own experiences in the formation of the Connecticut River Valley Institute for Media Education, this paper presents our model for the development of a summer institute in media literacy. We see media literacy as a critical and evolving stance that is squarely grounded in an understanding of the produced, constructed, ideological, and political and economic (also commercial) nature of modern media. Our approach assumes an important integral relationship between analysis of media products and the production of media. Each informs the other and both together are necessary to understanding the relationship between issues of production and reception.
We will discuss the principles and practices that guide our instruction of media literacy in the context of our proposed theme for summer 2004: Media, Diversity, and Uniformity. This institute will provide a focused examination of the social and personal implications of media messages and diversity including what kinds of images we see and what kinds of images we do not see. In this context we will introduce participants to the basic principles of media literacy and implement a specific approach to media literacy that emphasizes its relevancy for developing critical thinking skills. That approach integrates critical frameworks, curriculum development, and production to the learning and teaching of media literacy.

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Keywords

• Media Literacy
• Representation
• Diversity

(Virtual Presentation, English)