CML C*O*N*N*E*C*T #2: June 2000

Center for Media Literacy: Empowerment Through Education

CML C*O*N*N*E*C*T #2: June 2000
Your online connection to resources, news and ideas for media education.
A periodic e-letter published by the CENTER FOR MEDIA LITERACY.

Note: All URLS mentioned were current at the time of original publication.

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INDEX TO THIS EDITION:

CENTERpieces:
Download This: Media Literacy Standards Now Located in all 50 States
Around the Media World:
New in the Reading Room:
Spotlight On Resources:
Calendar: CML's Summer Seminar Series
Talkback
Subscribe / Unsubscribe

You may also read this issue and back issues online at http://www.medialit.org

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CENTERpieces
A. DISTRIBUTION SERVICE SHIFTS TO YEAR-ROUND SCHEDULE

Over the past five years, thousands of copies of CML's Resource Catalog have been distributed each year but the frustrating thing is that it always goes out of date as soon as it's printed. Inevitably we just get it off the press and a wonderful new book or video or CD-ROM comes in to review and evaluate for distribution! Well now the Internet is changing all that. So rather than be limited to one annual resource collection each fall, we're going to start introducing new curriculum and reference resources to you on a MONTHLY basis. Watch this e-letter for announcements of NEW resources and special monthly sales on overstocked items. Our reorganized online catalog FRONT PAGE will also spotlight What's New each month. We're currently negotiating for dozens of wonderful new materials so stay tuned. And check the SPOTLIGHT ON RESOURCES below for our first monthly specials!

B. CML's ANGEL TAKES FLIGHT

Speaking of resources, the person who makes sure your book and video orders get shipped properly and on time just completed a major milestone in his life. Angel Diaz, our after-school order and shipping clerk graduated from Daniel Murphy High School June 2. He's heading for Los Angeles City College in September but will be able to continue his part-time work at CML. We're delighted and proud!
Download This!
MEDIA LITERACY STANDARDS NOW LOCATED IN ALL 50 STATES.

Whether or not you agree with the "standards" movement in education today, if you want to introduce media literacy into any area of K-12 education, you'll need to connect it to published standards in the state where you teach. But locating specific standards in comprehensive curricular areas such as English/language arts, social studies or health is sometimes like looking for a needle in a haystack. The task has just been made infinitely easier by Frank Baker, who works at South Carolina Educational Television and is President of the Partnership for Media Education. Over many months he and Professor Robert Kubey of Rutgers University, searched through standards in every U.S. State to locate the exact sections that relate to media literacy. Then Frank posted them in a handy chart at the website below. Just click on your state and voila! - a one-page overview. Check out YOUR state at: http://www.med.sc.edu:1081/statelit.htm

Teachers - here's an idea. Print out your state standards, go to Kinko's and have the page enlarged to poster size. Post it in your classroom for easy reference and for planning with your teaching colleagues and parents. And thanks, Frank (and Bob, too), for a MAJOR contribution to the media literacy movement in the USA. At the top of his chart you can link to a valuable article from Education Week on the importance of media literacy in educating young people for living in the 21st century media culture. It's a great article for principals and administrators.
Around the Media World
IMAGINE HAMLET SET IN 21ST CENTURY

If Shakespeare wrote HAMLET today, how would he tell the story? Although now only in limited release in Los Angeles, New York and a few other major cities, (but do watch for it to come out on video), director Michael Almereyda has crafted an intriguing and original gen-x version of the classic play set in New York City and starring Ethan Hawke as Hamlet, Bill Murray as Polonius and Kyle MacLachlin as Claudius, the corporate CEO of the Denmark Corporation. Elsinore is a luxury high-rise hotel where the Prince of Denmark has an apartment and the Queen mother and Claudius share a penthouse with a pool.

But what will be most interesting to media literacy teachers is the almost perfectly realized visual culture in which the tale is told. The director notes that "there's hardly a single scene without a camera, a photograph, a TV monitor or electronic recording device of some kind." The ghost of Hamlet's father is reported by a security guard who sees a strange figure in his monitors; Ophelia is a photographer with a darkroom in her loft apartment. Hamlet himself is an aspiring filmmaker who has turned his living room into a video suite where, instead of writing a play to "catch the conscience of a king," he crafts an experimental-style video and invites the family to a screening room to see it. The famous "to be or not to be" soliloquy is delivered as he paces the action movie section at Blockbuster.
The Los Angeles Times calls it a "formidable coup…making Shakespeare accessible in an exciting and provocative manner beyond all expectations. We totally agree. If you see it playing this summer - go! The LATimes review is now only available through their archives (for a small price) but the first site below is a review from Cinephiles and the second is an interview with Ethan Hawke including photos of major characters.
New in the Reading Room
A. JUST IN TIME FOR FATHER'S DAY: Dads in the Comics

A recent analysis of the portrayal of fatherhood in comic strips over six decades was featured in the May edition of the national Journal of Marriage and Family Life. The researchers examined 490 nationally syndicated cartoons published each Mother's Day and Father's Day for the past 60 years. "How parents are portrayed by cartoonists immersed in American culture is a powerful indicator of what is mutually understood by most inhabitants of that culture," writes Ralph LaRossa who reviewed Peanuts, Dennis the Menace, Calvin and Hobbes, Family Circus, Little Orphan Annie, Blondie and many more. Although the full article is not available on the web, we got permission to post a summary of the article and its fascinating findings: Family Life is Serious Business in the Comics

B. AND 30 YEARS OF TV FATHERS: Dads through the Decades

A classic article on a similar theme was written by media critic Mark Crispin Miller for CML's 1989 issue of Media&Values on "Men, Myth and Media." He chronicled the rise and fall of the Dads from Make Room for Daddy to the Cosby Show in an analysis that holds up even now many years later: "Today, of course, the old dad-centered universe has become the biggest and easiest joke on television. In simply laughing off early sitcoms however, we overlook their true perniciousness, as well as their implicit critical potential." For the full analysis, go to: Dads Through the Decades: Thirty Years of TV Fathers
SPOTLIGHT ON RESOURCES
CML is pleased to introduce the following NEW just-published resources for media educators:
- EYE SPY: AN INTERACTIVE COLORING AND DRAWING BOOK
  Designed for children 3 - 8, this clever book contains 20 ethnically and gender neutral drawings that kids customize to explore and talk about their experience of television, commercials and the media world they live in. Guiding questions help parents, teachers or caregivers encourage reflection and start discussion. Congratulations to media literacy teacher Sue Lockwood Summers and her colleagues in Denver, Colorado for a wonderful new creative resource for kids. Now in stock in both ENGLISH and SPANISH editions. Click here for a look inside plus ideas for use. EYE SPY: AN INTERACTIVE COLORING AND DRAWING BOOK
- IMAGE MATTERS: VISUAL TEXTS IN THE CLASSROOM
  From Australia comes a fine new book of essays outlining practical classroom activities to explore visual literacy at the elementary level. Published by PETA, the Primary English Teaching Association of Australia, the book provides real-world applications of the visual theories of Gunther Kress, a leading British educator who keynoted the 1999 National Media Education Conference in St. Paul and authored READING IMAGES: THE GRAMMAR OF VISUAL DESIGN. (Also available from CML at http://www.medialit.org/Catalog/visuallit.htm#reading ) The good news is that recommended activities can be implemented around the world because most of the resources (such as large storybooks or Benetton ads) are available globally. The introductory chapter on "reading the visual" is a gem! For more details, go to: IMAGE MATTERS: VISUAL TEXTS IN THE CLASSROOM
  And by the way, CML is the EXCLUSIVE distributor of IMAGE MATTERS in North America. You won't find it anywhere else but here!
AND SOME "OLDIES BUT GOODIES..."
The following resources may not be newly published but they may be new to you, especially if you're new to teaching media literacy. Check these out:
- GENDER, RACE AND CLASS IN MEDIA, edited by Gail Diner and Jean M. Humez
  Looking for some stimulating summer reading? This wonderful book of over 60 short classic essays covers every possible aspect of the broad topic of "representation." Authors represented include almost everyone who has anything to say on the subject: Sut Jhally, Gloria Steinem, Jean Kilbourne, Jackson Katz, Elayne Rapping, Herman Grey and dozens more. You'll find much food for thought as well as usable essays for high school and college classes to explore. Plus it's on sale for the month of June only for $24.95! Click for the complete table of contents and how to order. GENDER, RACE AND CLASS IN MEDIA
- SIGNAL TO NOISE VIDEO SERIES
  If you'd rather view than read, take a few hours over the summer to enjoy the 3-part SIGNAL TO NOISE: LIFE WITH TELEVISION video series, originally aired on PBS. Each of the three 60-minute programs is built around seven short independent videos on a variety of media topics: how the news is made, representation of minorities, the influence of soap operas, the future of the internet - and more! The collection therefore is a goldmine of 21 short segments produced by top video artists that high school or college teachers will use over and over in the classroom. The segments are woven together with commentary by popular media critics Susan Douglas, Lesley Savan, Ben Bagdikian, Stuart Hall and others. Click here for an outline and description of all 21 segments. SIGNAL TO NOISE: LIFE WITH TELEVISION
CALENDAR
CML's SUMMER SEMINAR SERIES

CML's Summer Seminars now have registrants coming from as far away as Kansas in the USA as well as from Japan. There are still some places available for Saturday, June 17 as well as others later in the summer. Do note the 2-day July conference on gender issues in media. It will be innovative, inspiring and provocative! More information about each event and presenter has now been posted at the website below:
All seminars are sponsored by CML's Felton Media Literacy Scholars Program and are open to teachers, parents and anyone eager to explore today's media culture. Attend one or attend them all! For complete details, cost, and registration instructions, go to: http://www.medialit.org/mlsemsslist.htm
Talkback
Do you have any questions about the media literacy field or comments to share about your own experiences? Feel free to e-mail us at: cml@medialit.org
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The CENTER FOR MEDIA LITERACY is a non-profit organization established to promote critical thinking about the media and to provide leadership, training and resources for media education in schools, religious and community organizations. In the global media culture of the 21st century, we believe in "empowerment through education" for children, young people and adults. We rely on tax-deductible grants and donations to sustain and expand our work. Thank you for your support.

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