What do you think?

What do you think about the media?

What do you think about media literacy?
What do you think about media literacy education?

What is the worst thing about reality television?

Please share any of your thoughts!

Modern Media Makers

The final event of the AMLA conference I attended was the Modern Media Makers (M3) presentation. While the conference was going on, a group of local teens along with visitors from California were given the tools and training to create their own media presentations. Teachers volunteered their time to assist the M3 participants and the final results were incredible. The group worked hard and produced some great stuff. They gave us a tutorial on interactive communication. They shared their experiences and excitement. It was energizing to see them so enthused. I could tell they would go on, show their friends and family, and continue to develop their own skills. All we need anymore is a small camera and a computer with editing software and we can make our own movies, send out a pod cast, and communicate worldwide!

This is the "fun" part of media literacy! We get to teach young people how to create their own media and let them run with it. It is amazing what they come up with.

AMLA Conference June 2007

A few months ago, I attended my first ever professional conference. Participants came from all over the world. There was this awesome collection of people from an assortment of professions all having to do with media literacy. People involved
with media literacy now all have their own
angles and agendas. The media is so broad that everyone can have their own area of expertise, and a conference like this is the perfect way to showcase our differences.

The conference also introduced me to the AMLA Graduate Student Caucus. Many members were in attendance; many were presenters for the conference as well. It was so refreshing to meet other students from around the country who were in the same boat as myself. A local group would help us pool our resources and connections within our community.

Art Silverblatt of Webster University (and fellow attendee) at AMLA Conference

Alliance for a Media Literate America

The AMLA's website is a great resource for individuals interested in media literacy. Here are a few definitions taken directly from the site:

Media refers to all electronic or digital means and print or artistic visuals used to transmit messages.
Literacy is the ability to encode and decode symbols and to synthesize and analyze messages.
Media literacy is the ability to encode and decode the symbols transmitted via media and the ability to synthesize, analyze and produce mediated messages.
Media education is the study of media, including ‘hands on' experiences and media production.
Media literacy education is the educational field dedicated to teaching the skills associated with media literacy.

Media literacy-- the ability to ACCESS, ANALYZE, EVALUATE, and COMMUNICATE information in a variety of forms-is interdisciplinary by nature. Media literacy represents a necessary, inevitable, and realistic response to the complex, ever-changing electronic environment and communication cornucopia that surround us.
To become a successful student, responsible citizen, productive worker, or competent and conscientious consumer, individuals need to develop expertise with the increasingly sophisticated information and entertainment media that address us on a multi-sensory level, affecting the way we think, feel, and behave.
Today's information and entertainment technologies communicate to us through a powerful combination of words, images, and sounds. As such, we need to develop a wider set of literacy skills helping us to both comprehend the messages we receive and effectively utilize these tools to design and distribute our own messages. Being literate in a media age requires critical thinking skills that empower us as we make decisions, whether in the classroom, the living room, the workplace, the boardroom, or the voting booth.
Finally, while media literacy does raise critical questions about the impact of media and technology, it is not an anti-media movement. Rather, it represents a coalition of concerned individuals and organizations, including educators, faith-based groups, health care-providers, and citizen and consumer groups, who seek a more enlightened way of understanding our media environment.

Getting Off the Ground Running

Hello everyone!!! As a media literacy student it is about time I began to explore having my very own blog. I always try to keep in mind that a huge chunk of media literacy is teaching people how to create their own media. It is a vital part of the learning process (usually the more fun part as well). I am here to tell you, this is one of the most user friendly sites I have come across in a long time. I had my own blog in five minutes. Ain't technology grand?

On a more serious note, my goal with this site is to create one more forum to reach out to fellow students in the area. An organized network would create support network that many students have a hard time finding. There will also be fantastic networking opportunities, and we can all use that, eh?