VG Weeks 3/4: Media and Digital Literacy

Hello class:) This week we will post our reading responses and discussion to the blog and engage with one another this way. Please post your own initial blog response as a "New Post" rather than commenting on this (unless you have specific comments or replies to my prompts or discussion). It makes it easier to follow various discussions. Respond to one another and we will see how this goes.

I encourage you to pick one of the following questions and to develop a thoughtful response, integrating the texts specifically and making connections across texts. Don't feel that you have to tackle all the issues or questions presented. The process itself produces knowledge... Don't forget to integrate and engage the texts specifically, including quotes, passages, references, and/or examples. Feel free to include images, (hyper)links, and other resources. You may also use this blog to post interesting links, articles, etcetera as you find them. 


Media / Digital Literacy

In “Girls Media Education,” Kearney talks about the girls’ advocacy movement and the grrrl power movement, DIY values/movements, and Riot Grrrl (92). She distinguishes between youth subcultures which foster critical thinking about culture and media from media education programs, which are geared toward a broader range of girls and are typically sponsored by corporate-based, educational, or public entities. Kearney mentions several organizations associated with the girls’ advocacy movement, including Girls, Inc. and related media literacy programs, Girl Scouts, and Girls, Women, + Media Project, to name a couple. 

Media literacy programs are based on two assumptions: 1) commercial media represents girls in narrow, stereotypical ways that are damaging to girls’ self-esteem, and 2) alternative, empowering representations of girls are rare if present at all in mainstream media (93). Teaching girls to think critically about the images and media messages that surround them is imperative to counter the deluge of visual and digital images surrounding them/us every day. Such media literacy programs encourage critical thinking but, as Kearney critiques, this is not enough.

• Address some of her critiques, how you feel about them, and why.
• What are some suggestions she makes to make the “girl empowerment” and “media literacy” movements more effective and relevant for girls (GMM 94)? What are some problems or concerns with the earlier media literacy movements such as those started by Girls, Inc.?
• What are some ways we can encourage girls in our own lives (and ourselves) to be more critical viewers and consumers of media? What would Kearney suggest?
• Based on your reading and research, what are some distinctions and/or connections between girls advocacy movements and grrrl power movements? Try to come up with a working definition for each.

Media Pedagogy: A Field—three approaches

1) integration: incorporating media texts and media technologies as alternative channels for delivering information to students
2) production: facilitating students’ knowledge and skilled use of media technologies for documentation, communication, and creative expression
3) analysis: a.k.a. media literacy—entails teaching students critical skills for analyzing and evaluating media texts

Protectionist approach to media literacy: “borrows the rhetorical strategies of conservative social movements of the past, positioning media culture as a cesspool and media literacy as an inoculation against such forces” (98). This functions counter to theorists who posit that media consumers actively produce meaning as they view/consume texts.

• How is the protectionist approach linked to class issues, according to Kearney? (GMM 99)
• How can a media literacy curriculum be disempowering to youth, according to David Buckingham (and Kearney)? Do you agree? Why?
• Discuss some critiques Kearney levels at media literacy programs. Are they fair critiques? Why or why not?
• Chart and connect early women’s social reform movements with the rise of girls’ advocacy and more contemporary girls’ movements, including Girls Studies.

The early '90s saw the rise of “girl” as “troubled” or “in crisis.” Carol Gilligan’s research in the early 1980’s, specifically her book In A Different Voice, prompted increased attention and research around adolescent girls. Her work and the research that developed as a result contributed to the development of the girls’ advocacy movement. 

• What is problematic about the construction of girl-in-crisis? Is it useful? Necessary? 
• What alternatives does Kearney provide regarding girls media literacy? What does she call for? Discuss one of her positive examples and why it “works.”
• Think about “empowerment” discourse. What does Kearney posit as problematic about the notion of empowerment and/or the ways it is deployed culturally and/or in educational/formal settings?

Cybergurls (239)
New technology developments have dramatically changed the notion of media production, making it more accessible and easily distributed than ever. Girls have always been targets and consumers of media and technology but now they have opportunities to become active producers. Digital literacy goes further than media literacy—where media literacy focuses on critically consuming and viewing, digital literacy emphasized production and more active participation.

Some issues for consideration/discussion:

• the digital divide (class-based, race-based, other factors) (Kearney 241)
• computer culture as masculine or “male” (Kearney 244)
• Valerie Clarke writes that young women’s low level of interest in computer science degrees and careers is due to the “unquestioned values, beliefs, and expections” embedded in “the frameworks that structure popular discourse of gender and computing” (Kearney 245). What are some of the values and beliefs related to gender and technology in our (and other) cultures?
• What are some suggestions Kearney and other feminist media scholars provide? Do you have your own recommendations or suggestions for promoting new models of digital and media literacy for girls?
• Kearney focuses on online distro owners because their web development “allows them to merge, and thus blur the distinctions between, several practices essential to media culture: consumption, production, and community development (255). Can you think of other examples of girls’ participation online accomplishes this? Provide a link to such a site or project, if possible. You might find some of your own examples of distro sites, e-‘zines, blogs, etcetera to post.

“The Girls of El Seybo” (GWW 2.0)

Digital Inclusion: rooted within the human development paradigm established by the United Nations Development Program, digital inclusion involves expanding opportunities for all people through equitable access to the information society and calls for an end to “digital poverty.” Women are a key focus in digital inclusion (11).

• What are some strategies discussed in El Seybo for enhancing digital inclusion in girls and women in developing countries? 
• How does the use of internet by girls in the Dominican differ from those in the U.S. and other developed countries? 
• How is digital literacy a “new beginning” for girls in El Seybo (22)?

“Looking Into the Digital Mirror” (GWW 141)

• What might a “safe space” for girls look like online? (143)
• How does the Digital Mirror camp try to accomplish this? (145)

“Online R U Really Reading?” / online reading

• You might link this article to Kearney’s discussion about the cultural “construction of hierarchies that privilege the fine arts over commercial popular culture” (100). 
• Do you think reading blogs and other online content is comparable to reading books or other more traditional texts? Do YouTube and social networks “count”?

“Eight Traits of a Media Landscape” / online reading

• Is Jenkins correct in his assessment of “media landscape”? 
• Think of an example of a specific media site and run it through his traits—does it fit? How might his inventory be useful in promoting digital literacy?
• Read more about participatory culture here. How does the notion of participatory culture relate to girls and digital literacy? 

Jenkins’ Convergence Culture is an excellent analysis of our relationship with technology and its cultural impact.