Street Roots • March 17-23, 2017
News
Page 5
HOBBS, from page 4
has been growing all over the world,
particularly in Eastern Europe where a
campaign to destabilize people’s generally
positive views of Western democracies is
used to justify oppressive authoritarian
governments. What’s unique in the U.S. is
that our president has called The New York
Times (arguably the best newspaper in the
world) a form of fake news, even as he
appears to be getting his policy briefings
from Fox and Friends.
E.G.: In New Mexico, lawmakers have
introduced a bill to hold a hearing where they
would decide how to best teach media literacy
in the classroom. Are American public schools
currently doing a good job of teaching children
how to decipher news from propaganda?
A promotion for Rush
Limbaugh’s Facebook
Presence. Below, just
one o f President
Donald Trump
notorious and
unfounded statements
on Twitter.
Renee Hobbs was a founding partner or
creator of these online tools you can
use to learn about or teach media
literacy.
Visit MediaEducationLab.com, for
inaccurate uses of the
term, implying that
people do not have
Donald «I. Trump
I f W te * I
control over their
«__________i
^reaiDonakfRomp
behavior and
Trte so-called angry crowds in home districts of some
attitudes.
Republicans are actually, in numerous cases, planned out
The rise of Fox
by liberal activists, Sadi
News and right-wing
media in general is
3:28 PM-21 Feb 2017
linked to changes in
American
demographics: As
people get older, they
lessons from Turkey suggest that politicians
get more fearful of loss and death. They feel
and other political leaders are indeed aware
nostalgic for times past and worry that what
of media literacy’s revolutionary potential
(little) they have will be taken away. Rush
and feared its spread, since genuine critical
Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and their ilk exploit
thinking is a threat to authoritarian regimes.
these natural fears. Fear is the easiest
E.G.: “The Brainwashing of My Dad” is a
emotion to exploit To address this, with my
documentary in which a woman explores how
relative, I would watch or listen and stop
listening to right-wing talk radio and watching whenever I notice language that creates
Fox News may have changed her dad’s beliefs
anger or fear. By noticing the patterns in
and personality. He became angry and non-
how the emotion of anger or fear is
receptive to all other news sources. She met
activated, we can discuss: Who benefits from
many others who had
people becoming angry? Fearful? How
friends and relatives this
realistic are these fears? What could be some
had also happened to. Here
intended consequences of making people
R.H.: Teachers and school leaders don’t
get much exposure to media literacy as part
of their teacher education programs, so
many school districts are still not aware of
the importance of integrating media literacy
into the K-12 curriculum. Because there are
15,000 school districts, though, there is
tremendous diversity and there is a lot of
experimentation going on in schools all over
the country. Through publications (available
online) like the Journal of Media Literacy
Education and national membership
organizations like the National Association
for Media Literacy Education, educators are
sharing “what works,” and this helps build a
knowledge base that helps people who are
just beginning to
explore this field.
I’ve been
a t Street Roofc, wewerie
generally surprised " B e rise of Fox Mews aad
by students who find right-w ing media la geaeral Is talking about this movie, as
we interviewed its director a
H ated to ehaages la
TMZ.com to be a
while back, and as it turned
reliable source of
Mmerlcaa deatographlcs:
out, many of us also had an
celebrity news - and Ms people get older, they
older relative who was
who lack awareness
get more fearful of lass aad
engrossed in Fox News or
of how publicists are
death« They feel nostalgic
right-wing talk radio and
deeply involved in
fo r times past aad w orry that had changed, not positively,
the shaping of
because of it.
celebrity news - are what (little ) they have w ill be
Let’s say you have an
also by those who
takes away» Bash Limbaugh, older relative who
are unaware that RT Glean Beck aad their Ilk
exclusively watches Fox
is funded by the
News. This person is
Russian government exploit these statural fears»
Fear Is the easiest ematloa to convinced that all other
Its pro-Russian bias
forms of mainstream media
exploit»
seems obvious to
news are fake or
me, but lots of
misleading, and that only
students don’t
Fox News “tells it like it is. ”
recognize it.
How would you help someone like this to see
E.G.: You’ve studied media literacy
the error of his or her ways without putting
education in Turkey. What can the U.S. learn
them on the defensive?
from Turkey’s program and other media
literacy programs in other countries?
R.H.: I have a little problem with the
R.H.: Turkey is a hot m ess right now with
more than 40,000 educators, journalists and
judges in jail, accused of conspiracy. It seems
like as democratic values really started to
take hold in that country - including the rise
of the internet, a free(r) press, freedom of
speech and a wider variety of educational
opportunities - the authoritarian forces got
nervous of losing power. Many of the
educators who pioneered media literacy
education in Turkey - like my Media
Education Lab colleague Sait Tuzel - are
now in jail or have lost their jobs. The
Online platforms for
learning media literacy
premise because of your use of the term
“error of their ways.” People are entitled to
their interpretations of right-wing radio and
television, and right-wingers are entitled to
see the dominance of liberal journalists and
the New York Times in particular as the
“problem” that they aim to correct Media
literacy educators respect different
interpretations of media messages. That’s a
key concept
The documentary also problematically
uses the language of brainwashing, with
words like “deprogramming,” with
feel fearful or angry? A wareness of the
constructed nature of media in activating
emotion helps build people’s resistance to it,
because it encourages them to substitute
critical thinking for just feeling or reacting.
This technique is even good for knee-jerk, .
crunchy granola Portland liberals. They are
also susceptible to emotionally arousing
messages that activate anger and fear.
E.G.: What about a Facebook friend you
might have, who is always sharing bogus
stories in their thread. What advice would you
give this person on how to check the validity of
an unfamiliar source - let’s say a website-
before sharing the stories it publishes?
R.H.: People should unfriend or reduce
the status of friends who share poor-quality
content, and it’s wise to explain your
rationale, explaining, “When you share
content that is untrustworthy, it wastes my
time, and it reflects badly on you.” For
people who share content that runs counter
to your existing ideology, you should thank
them for helping you get out of the filter
bubble, but also take the time to comment
on what they shared and offer your own
critical interpretation. Friends help friends
by sharing our interpretations - and as I
mentioned in the opening, sharing
interpretations is pleasurable (even when we
have different responses) and helps us to
grow as human beings. Asking questions is a
good response to these friends: Why did you
like this? What value do you see in it? It’s
better to engage people in a genuine way
than simply trying to persuade them against
access to an array of online media
literacy teaching tools for all ages,
lesson plans, videos, links to books and
For free, online access to an 18-uoit
curriculum including video and handouts
Hobbs developed in partnership with the
Discovery Channel for the Maryland
State Department of Education, visit
MediaEducationLab.com/assignment-
media-iiteracy.
Tween girls can use the award-winning
edutainment game at MyPopStudio.
com to go behind the scenes of music,
television, magazines and online media.
Go to Propaganda.
MediaEducatlonLab.com to peruse
and rate contemporary media
messaging at Mind Over Media:
Analyzing Contemporary Propaganda.
The National Association for Media
Literacy Education website, namte.net,
also offers teaching resources and
informationabouMts conference in
Chicago this June.
At jmle.org, you can access The
Journal of Media Literacy Education, an
online collection of peer-reviewed
media-literacy-related studies and more.
their beliefs.
E.G.: I also wanted to ask you about what
you have called “dynamic content.” Can you
tell our readers what this is and how media
consumers can avoid having a limited
perspective because of it?
R.H.: Perhaps you mean my writing about
learning to recognize sponsored content,
which is also called native advertising.
These are the posts on your Facebook or
other websites, like Salon, Slate, CNN, that
sometimes say, “Recommended” or “You
Should See This.” People may not be aware
that this particular content is coming to
them dynamically, customized by the
platform and based on the content of their
emails, the keywords they use in searching,
and their posts on social media. Because
they are highly customized and likely to
appeal to your current interests, people may
be less critical of such content - and such
content is generally disguised marketing and
public relations content, gussied up with a
listicle or celebrity photo.
emily@streetroots. org
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