Ask These 5 Key Questions About Your Media Diet

When you consume media, whether it’s watching a TV show, playing a video game, or reading an article online, and looking at an a billboard, poster or online/magazine ad, ask yourself and your kids these 5 key questions:

1. Who sent this message? (gives background/context)
2. What techniques are used to attract my attention? (artistically? flashy?)
3. How might other people understand this message? (different perspectives)
4. What values, lifestyles, and points of view are represented in or omitted from this message? (slant)
5. Why was this message sent? (gain profit/power/influence?)

Discussing these questions with your children along with the values you set will help them begin to deconstruct messages and discern the types of media they should entertain themselves with.

Being Media Savvy Does Not Mean You’re Media-Literate

Credit: Strauss/Curtis

Why is digital media and media literacy so important?  The songs young people listen to, their style of dress, and the way they interact with and treat each other (including bullying), their sexual activity or lack of, drug and alcohol abuse, teen dating violence. Self-esteem is a fundamental, root factor that affects these issues that plague teenagers. Digital media interests them (online access to music, video, and social media) and their level of media literacy affects the way they learn.

Most teen and pre-teen students are media-savvy, but most are not media literate. Media literacy is the ability to access, analyze, evaluate and create media in a variety of forms.  Media literacy raises students’ awareness and teaches them critical thinking so they can be more proactive in understanding and interpreting the media messages they receive.

Several factors* comprise media literacy, including:

• an awareness of personal media habits
• an understanding of how the media work
• an appreciation of media’s power/influence
• the ability to discern, critically question
• an understanding of how meaning is created in media texts
• the ability to create and produce media

* Baker, F. Media Literacy in the K-12 Classroom (ISTE, 2012)

They Like the Music and Media… But Are They Getting the Right Message?

Although there are no major national holidays in August (U.S.),  August is pretty synonymous with Back-to-School activities. Back to early mornings, bus rides, PTA meetings, and the hustle and bustle that comes with it. Whether your kids resume classes in August or September, it means a shift in routines, styles of dress and hair, new slang terminology, increased peer interaction, influences and attitudes. Most of the latter are affected greatly by the types and amount of media we consume here in the U.S.

No doubt, today’s youth are growing up in the most media-saturated world of our time. To them, the internet is a regular way of life–they don’t know of anything else. They can get news and information whenever they want it, whether on a computer, tablet, or their Smartphone. A 2009 Kaiser Generation survey found that 8- to 18-year olds are exposed to an average of almost 11 hours of media DAILY. They are inundated with thousands of media messages every day, and the effects and influence of print and digital media on our culture ultimately affect the self-esteem and academic success of American youth. That makes a media literacy curriculum in middle schools and high schools an absolute necessity.

Tune into this blog all week for more on how we can use media literacy education to help our children decipher the complex media messages they receive.

Mary Mary: Be U

Tina and Erica Campbell (Mary Mary)

I am a fan of Mary Mary (Erica and Tina Campbell). I saw them perform in Washington D.C. upon the release of their first album, and have always admired their fearless, classy portrayal of the God in them. I knew this book was geared for young people, but I am writing a book for teen girls so I decided to check out Be U to see if there was anything that prompted me to write on another subject, or see if there was anything I left out of my work. Although I enjoyed the book overall, as it contained a lot of spiritual reminders, unfortunately, I also discovered some things that I thought the Campbell sisters left out.

First, let me say that this book is very easy to read for all ages.  It has the format of a devotional, with a page of scripture, a page and half that is a message from one of the sisters, and then 3-4 pages of questions and space for answers (like a journal). The sisters cleverly use their song titles for their chapter themes. The messages don’t go into a lot of depth—they are brief enough to read quickly, but get the point across.

The most touching and powerful anecdotes were those of Erica’s husband overcoming cancer, and Tina dealing with having to leave her preemie daughter in the hospital for almost a month until she could come home (that had to seem like forever!). However, I don’t know if young people can really relate to such stories. I thought some “youth-friendly” stories were missing, and I’m sure Erica & Tina had some, as they come from a big family.

I saw Tina on The Mo’Nique Show to promote this book, and have heard both sisters on radio interviews too—they are always on point. But I wish the Q&A chapter had more questions about practical, youth-friendly issues.  From an editorial standpoint, I noticed a few typos in this chapter as well (not to be picky, but I’m a technical writer–I can’t help but notice these things).

Something else that is very important is missing from this book—how to invite Jesus to become your personal Lord and Savior. I think this book assumes that every young person who picks it up is “churched” and understands terms like “grace” and so on. Be U is a nice overview for youth who want to or need to begin developing a personal quiet time of devotion with God. I hope this book plants a seed that will make them want to stay connected to God and commit to a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

You Can Teach Them, But Can You Reach Them?

One of my co-workers told me that her son’s girlfriend writes emails to her (the mother) exactly like she speaks, excepts she uses abbreviations as if she’s texting. In the time it took her to create all those abbreviations, she could have written grammatically correct sentences, since emails have no character limit.

A teacher I met last year has teenagers, and they asked her to add a texting package to her cell phone so they could communicate “easier.” The teacher said, “Why do I need to text you when I can just call you?”

Them: “We don’t want you to call.”

Her: “But I want to talk to you. I want to hear your voice.”

Them: (Matter of factly, without an attitude) “But we don’t wanna talk to you, Mom.”

With all of our high-tech devices, we’re more accessible, but we’re also more disconnected And kids’ social skills are getting worse as a result.

What are we going to do about it?

Beauty and the Beat

One of the things I’ve always loved to do is dance. I would learn all the moves I could in the music videos that played on VH-1 and MTV. Back then, they only played videos. And my cable service didn’t carry BET until I was a teenager. So mainly I would emulate the black music videos that incorporated dance, such as Janet Jackson, Paula Abdul, Salt-N-Pepa, and so on. This was from the mid-80′s to the mid-90′s.

My favorite dance video of all time is Janet’s “The Pleasure Principle.” I didn’t have a clue what she was talking about in the song, but the video had me mesmerized. It was just her dancing in an empty warehouse, full of passion, but not wearing anything revealing or suggestive– just a cinched tee shirt, jeans, and sneakers, with her hair bone-straight. You couldn’t tell me anything when that video came on, and if I did have a friend over talking to me or playing with me, it all stopped as soon as that song came on. The coffee table got pushed to the side, and before long my glasses would fly off across the room doing those moves. The only thing I couldn’t do was the back flip off the chair. And even now at 32 years old, I have no problem with it if I ever occasionally see the video again. And I don’t own a coffee table.

But we all know that sexually suggestive music videos and songs were around even then, way before the heat in recent years from the blatantly violent, misogynistic hip hop videos came along. Being that MTV used to play a lot of rock videos, I would constantly see images of white women with hoses, or lying around on cars, even though rap and hip hop had not yet started to become popular there. So this stuff didn’t start with hip hop.