Reading Room Search
Go here for complete Reading Room Article Index
Displaying 601 - 607 of 607Home, Home on the Remote: Why Do Men Control "the Clicker"?
Is male fascination with TV technology creating male domination of family entertainment? Edited by Elizabeth Thoman
On a recent segment of a popular television newsmagazine program, the television anchors joked about a new cultural phenomenon: men's almost anatomical affinity for television remote-control devices. The segment ended when the female member of the team noted that in view of male tendencies not only to control situations but also to maintain some distance from their activities, their liking for zapping the channel flicker from afar made perfect sense.
Referring to the new world of communications media as "a masculine domain," West Germans Jan-Uwe Rogge and Klaus Jensen are one of several... Read More
STARTING POINT: Media are the World; Media Literacy is the Guidebook
A reflection on media literacy, democracy and world peace. Elizabeth Thoman, Executive Editor
A few years ago we edited an issue of Media&Values on “cultural imperialism,” defining it with the slogan, “The sun never sets on U.S. media influence.” Since then signficant changes in the world’s access and use of media and computer technology challenge us to broaden our view about the impact of communications media around the globe. Consider these recent developments:
Revolutions have been started by the FAX machine, wars have been fought in real time by satellite and empires have fallen because their economies failed to provide the material goods television presents in glittering... Read More
WORKSHOP REPORT: How to do Assessment and Evaluation in Media Literacy
A Professional Development Seminar with Chris Worsnop By Lisa Tripp
On Saturday, March 18, Chris Worsnop – one of Canada's foremost media literacy teachers, authors and leaders – led an invigorating professional development seminar in Los Angeles about one of the most important issues in media literacy – how teachers can fairly assess student work in film, video, audio and other formats from popular culture.
Sponsored by the Felton Media Literacy Scholars Program at the Center for Media Literacy, the day's events included video presentations, discussions, and role-playing activities to help make theory come alive. With both humor and rigor, Chris covered key... Read More
Set guidelines about what is appropriate viewing in your family. Apply guidelines to all media: TV, cartoons, videos, movies, videogames, magazines and comic books.
Help children select programs within your family's guidelines. Seek to add positive programs while limiting negative ones.
Be aware of what children are watching outside your home. Communicate your standards to neighbors, grandparents, babysitters and others who may care for your child or children. Ask for their cooperation in limiting violent viewing.
Be a good role model when making your own viewing selections.... Read More
Media Violence: What if we Changed the Question?
An overview of the issues and five guidelines for action. By Elizabeth Thoman
When Dr. Deborah Prothrow-Stith, assistant dean of Harvard University’s School of Public Health, begins one of her speeches on the growing crisis of violence in society, she often tells the story of a young gunshot victim she treated in a Boston hospital emergency room. He expressed surprise that his wound actually hurt.
"I thought, boy, he’s really stupid, anybody knows that if you get shot, it’s going to hurt. But then it dawned on me that on television, when the superhero gets shot in the arm, he uses that arm to hold onto a truck going 85 miles an hour around a corner. He overcomes the... Read More
For 40 years, researchers have asked the wrong question about media violence: Does watching violence cause someone to become violent? Although there is evidence that some children imitate Ninja kicks, and that occasionally someone will "copycat" a crime they've seen or read about in the media, we know that watching violence does not itself cause people to be violent, or we would all be murderers! A more relevant question is: What is the long-term cumulative impact of excessively violent imagery as entertainment doing to us as individuals and as a society?
Children have always learned how to... Read More
Test Title - Reading Room Article
Test Sub Head - Reading Room Article Test By Line - Reading Room Article
tributecards2004
"Give me liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according to conscience, above all liberties." -John Milton
Although articulated by an English poet and statesman, the expression by John Milton quoted here represents the principles of free expression that most Americans fondly believe in as the guiding principles of their country. It is commonly believed that as a child of the Enlightenment, the United States inherited and installed a libertarian model of a press open to all shades of opinion. As research reveals, however, the actual history of U.S. free expression is not... Read More