The Critical Use of Digital Media
The rise of the 21st century has brought about many dramatic changes in our society, including the rise of the Internet, and with that, the rise of Digital Media. As a future teacher, it is important to recognize that with the rise of this new age, the students that we are teaching have access to more technology than ever before and have access to this digital media. I believe that the absolute most important thing to teach students in high school, is how to be digitally literate in the sense of being able to think critically about digital media. Digital Literacy is a complicated topic that encompasses a lot of things and to get a better idea of what it is, check out the video below (U. 2014). Digital literacy doesn’t just apply to working a computer or being able to navigate the Internet, it also applies to being able to think critically about digital media (U. 2014). Adolescents should be exposed to digital media in the classroom and know how to interpret it and they should understand how biases, perspectives, and even writing styles, can change what the reader is thinking.
One version of internet media that students frequently encounter is memes. Students all over the world use them because they are eye catching, spread easily, and usually make you laugh. This is a relatively simple version of digital media yet students rarely think critically about them. There are offensive memes all over the internet, and in the case of student John, they post these types of memes quite often (Warner, 2017, 152). Even though John had posted an offensive meme on multiple occasions, he did not think critically about the meme and when asked about it stated that it was just funny (Warner, 2017, 152). When we compare something simple like memes, which most students don’t realize are offensive or mean at times, we can see how important it is for students to develop critical thinking skills. Those critical thinking skills can best be developed through the study and understanding of digital media.
Now I would like to discuss something bigger than memes, online news and resources. We have almost infinite amounts of information at our fingertips in the 21st century but how do we know what information is reliable? This is one of the most important things that we can teach students, how to think critically about that news source or article and evaluate its credibility and think about what biases the author might have or what idea they are trying to get across to the reader. Buckingham mentions “four broad conceptual aspects that are generally regarded as essential components of media literacy” (Buckingham, 2007, 48). These components are representation, language, production, and audience and they all tell us different things about the reliability of a particular news source (Buckingham, 2007, 48). Students should be able to look at these four things and pick them out of an article to understand the biases, what might be being left out, the effect of the structure of the website, the targeted audience and so much more (Buckingham, 2007, 49).
Redmond talks specifically about how to teach media literacy in her article through the eyes of an English teacher. She mentions her three most important findings on how to promote media literacy and critical thinking skills in the classroom (Redmond, 2015, 14). She mentions that a wide range of print and non print texts must be used for education, that these texts must be relevant and from a variety of popular sources that students readily use and have access to every day, and that teachers must be committed in teaching these critical skills (Redmond, 2015, 14–16). Students must be exposed to the news media that they will have access to every day for the rest of their lives and their digital and critical literacy skills must be developed in order to understand that not everything can be taken at face value. News sources often tell us lies and critically literate citizens can identify those lies or tricks and come to the truth. Students shouldn’t be swayed by every source they read and that is why media literacy is important in the classroom.
Required Readings
Buckingham, D. (2007). Digital Media Literacies: Rethinking Media Education in the Age of the Internet. Research in Comparative and International Education, 2, 43–55.
Warner, J. (2017). Critical Digital Literacies. In Adolescent’s New Literacies with and through Mobile Phones (pp. 143–159). New York, NY: Peter Lang Publishing.
Outside Sources
U. (2014, November 05). Digital Literacy and why it Matters. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2k3C-iB88w
Redmond, T. (2015). Media Literacy is Common Sense: Bridging Common Core Standards with the Media Experiences of Digital Learners. Middle School Journal, 46(3), 10–17. Retrieved from https://www-jstor-org.libproxy.clemson.edu/stable/pdf/24342146.pdf
