My focus in college was on media studies and some video production on top of that, so applying to be a CTC VISTA with Media Bridges, to serve as a Youth Media Facilitator, seemed like a perfect fit. Media Bridges is a public access center in Cincinnati. They have a summer youth program and run the occasional outreach program for local schools. I was going to serve the organization by building a solid, year-round youth program. I was only a little hesitant. The job description included teaching, which I had never done, but I was ready to try.
Six months into my year of service, and here I am teaching a class of high school students about media literacy. I was anticipating an interesting and eye-opening class for these teens, full of experiential learning and thought provoking questions. I’ve realized, however, there is a disconnect between the program I had envisioned and the program that teens are able to connect with. My knowledge and background was from a purely academic standpoint, but I needed to translate the information I had learned to a room full of teenagers who are admittedly influenced by television but not sure how, or even if they want, to affect the social influence of media.
The first few months I spent planning and putting together compilation videos, I waited anxiously for the real teaching to begin. Then in January, a flux of opportunities came along. It was just a matter of talking to people and letting them know about the opportunities available for in-school, after-school, or individual programs through the local public access center.
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A few weeks later and several students from a charter high school started coming to Media Bridges on Wednesdays, the school's elective day. It was at that point, when I started working with this group of high school students, that I began to realize I needed to adapt the media literacy program I had originally planned.
The first two classes we went over video production basics, and I made a desperate attempt to interject some media literacy. I provided them with activities to get them thinking about how media is constructed, how youth are represented, and how to think critically about the local news, but they seemed to have little interest. Sure, they agreed that the news shows mostly the negative stereotypes of urban youth. And yeah they understand how a video is put together.
The students’ concerns seemed to lie with other issues: working, family issues, and money. They seemed especially concerned about having money to buy the shoes, clothes and gadgets that would provide them with social acceptability. I decided to use this issue as the focal point of our media literacy discussions. We talked about the source of materialism and how wants turn into needs. They knew what contributed to this materialism, too. It’s television, they agreed. But they didn’t seem to care—“that’s how it is and that’s that,” one student said.
I was a bit flustered after our second class. Was my time with these students productive? Having little authority over them and no grading requirements, I was doubtful. All they had to do was show up and they passed. No effort required.
The third class I decided to have a brainstorming session for their film project. They started talking about the gentrification of downtown Cincinnati. Two students broke out into serious debate. Another student thought to film the session and review it later for documentary ideas. The debate grew and entered into other areas of life like social class, race, image, hustling, stereotypes, prison, money, and so on. I let them talk and every so often interrupted with questions and comments about how their topics related to the media. Some students paused and thought about it, others admitted they were influenced by television, but didn’t want to do much about it. When reviewing the tape, more moments of small realization occurred.
Just listening to their opinions and perspectives, I recognized that many of these students are critical of their surroundings, but not so critical of media. These students know they are influenced by the media but assume there’s nothing to be done about it.
I know it takes time to get used to ‘talking back’ to television and challenging media images and representation of reality. In the mean time, I’m learning to adapt the presentation of my academic knowledge, and portray it in a more effective way. In retrospect, I don’t blame the students for not paying attention early in the course. Partly, I wasn’t very effective at teaching. Partly, it isn’t within their scope of possibilities to critically analyze media or work to change the media’s portrayal of certain subjects. Not yet, anyway.
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