The Critical Media Literacy Guide
Engaging Media and Transforming Education
BRILL, 2019, 126 pp
ISBN 978-90-04-40453-3 (ebook)
ISBN 978-90-04-40451-9 (hc)
ISBN 978-90-04-40452-6 (sc)
It’s hard to tell what’s real anymore. Every time I swipe, a new headline appears stating something different about Covid 19. Images, statistics, photos, scientific reports, articles, videos; how can I know what’s real? How can I keep myself, my family and my community safe?
Although Douglas Kellner and Jeff Share wrote The Critical Media Literacy Guide in 2019, one can’t help but see the value and urgency for this type of learning during the current global pandemic. This guide is an important resource for anyone who teaches children, youth, and adults—anyone who is interested in education to prepare learners to be active and informed future citizens. This type of education includes the ability to read, analyze, and decode media text, the ability to engage in meaningful conversations about the issues threatening society, and the ability to create media to not only express our own feelings but to engage in these social problems in an attempt to help solve them.
Kellner and Share, both educators, have spent the past few decades immersed in critical media education. With backgrounds in social philosophy and photojournalism, they came together to create a guide for those interested in working with students to make sense of media messaging and current social ideologies which often exclude numerous voices. Focused on the need for educational reform, Kellner and Share hope to inspire more informed and active democratic citizens who are able to communicate ethically with one another and who are grounded in the desire for social justice.
The guide is organized into six chapters. The authors begin by referring to underpinnings in theory which highlight the need for educational reform due to the vast number of new digital literacies that are the primary information source for youth. They propose six conceptual understandings for educators to use when engaging in critical media literacy (CML) and proceed to provide examples from multiple settings where these understandings lead inquiry around media texts. The guide reminds us that information is never neutral and that by promoting critical media literacy as pedagogy, we can teach students to disrupt and question the idea of normal, moving towards a more socially just society.
CML is influenced by both cultural studies and critical education pedagogies. This separate pedagogy evolves from the work to stretch and deepen our understanding not only of media but of dominant forms of ideology and social control. The six conceptual understandings and corresponding questions work as a framework to achieve this goal, a compilation of many scholars from around the globe (Buckingham, 2003; Funk, Kellner and Share, 2016; Kovach and Rosenstiel, 2011; Feguson, 2004; Robins and Webster, 2001). Deeply rooted in progressive education, CML has been shaped by the work of John Dewey and Paulo Freire, encouraging a partnership between teacher and student, one that requires praxis and reflection together towards a given social solution.
Kellner and Share urgently call for educational reform which includes CML. Drawing on examples from numerous social issues, they connect the context for this learning to thrive within while partnering CML with educational philosophies such as standpoint epistemologies. They argue that problem-posing education is not only relevant, it is necessary in order to both recognize and repair social inequities and systematic structures of oppression. Kellner and Share argue the need for society to be able to engage with and about information in order to question and change dominant ideologies and engage critically in the politics of representation. Creating this type of society begins in the classroom with CML.
In chapter 3, “Putting Theory into Practice,” Kellner and Share provide practical examples for educators to integrate CML into practice. Using research from numerous classrooms from K to 12, the authors argue that students of all ages can and should engage with these ideas across various subjects. The section on photography offers perhaps the most useful examples, especially for educators who are just beginning to use the framework of CML. These examples provide an entry point for almost all students, including ESL and those who generally struggle with print-heavy curriculum. Photos are also incredibly relevant to all age groups as most have portable and readily accessible cameras on their devices, thus providing a perfect tool for CML pedagogy.
One specific example—a fourth-grade class—illustrates the benefits that can be achieved by partnering CML and photography. Here, students created photos to represent their vocabulary words for various subjects. They analyzed how a single word could be conveyed through an image, exploring camera angles, composition and lighting. Within this project, a door was opened to explore the CML framework across subjects, interpreting meaning from one sign system to another. This transmediation of meaning positions students to consider not only the message but also the medium, “moving teaching with media to teaching about media.”
Another section for practical implication reflects upon the CML courses offered at UCLA for both graduate and undergraduate education students. The chapter highlights how the courses are taught while also providing actual examples of student work and, in turn, how teachers took their learning and implemented it in their own classrooms. Students transmediate the information they learn into a variety of media such as wanted posters for fellow students, racial myth-busting memes and niche advertisements. As teachers become more media literate themselves, they are better equipped to guide their own students in CML, helping them to both question and create alternatives to the messages they are seeing, hearing and using every day. Kellner and Share stress the importance of pedagogy over technology, deepening inquiry to include the CML framework. The explanations and examples are useful for both new teachers and experienced teachers looking to begin this type of critical teaching within their classrooms.
Children and youth are engulfed by media messages and have access to a sea of digital technologies which enter every part of their lives—their lives outside of school, that is. Kellner and Share attempt to instil a sense not only of urgency but of responsibility, to help our students critically engage with and about these influencers.
Information is never neutral and yet few students understand the importance of disrupting ideas. This guide offers a framework and guiding questions to help all educators begin this work in their classrooms. For new teachers, the guide provides a starting point. For those already engaging in critical discourse, the guide helps solidify both the urgency and importance of this type of learning. Additionally, numerous resources are cited (QR Code), leading educators to other, perhaps more current examples. Overall, Kellner and Share have created a convincing case that CML can and should be implemented across curriculums to prepare students to be active and engaged citizens. Having provided the framework, they hand the baton over to us. It’s now in our hands, and considering the current state of the world, one can only hope that we don’t drop it.
Review by Melissa McKinney-Lepp.
This book review is featured in Canadian Teacher Magazine’s Spring 2021 issue.
