media centered » media literacy http://erniec.edublogs.org theory & practice of school librarianship Thu, 04 Dec 2008 11:37:01 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.2 en hourly 1 Showing my age. http://erniec.edublogs.org/2008/11/02/showing-my-age/ http://erniec.edublogs.org/2008/11/02/showing-my-age/#comments Sun, 02 Nov 2008 13:55:55 +0000 erniec http://erniec.edublogs.org/?p=59 paper plate clock from analyzer.depaul.edu/paperplate/Clock%20face.htmAs the coffee brews this morning I’m already thinking about enjoying my birthday cake this evening. My father-in-law and his fiancee have come down from Delaware with arm loads of great food, drink, and print materials. Print materials? Yes, print materials. One of the many reasons I love these folks is for their fondness of magazines, newspapers, and books. I also splurged by resubscribing to the the New York Times Sunday edition (because they are running a cheap offer). Here is where I show my age. I don’t think the sensation of walking out into a frost covered morning and heaving that blue bag full of great reporting into my arms will ever be replaced by web-based news content. As I unfurl the paper from it’s bag the headlines greet me. I glance over the front page items in their entirety. Then I do the shuffle. I organize all of the sections into the order I will read them. Off I go into reading the variety of information covered in these sections, magazines, and of course the book review. Ah, the book review! Well I could continue to gush about the pleasures of the printed news but my concern is just that, that I am enthusiastic about it. Have you asked the children and young adults you work or interact with what they think of the print news?

My guess is you get blank looks. That newspaper on the periodicals stand looks as foreign to them as many of the other resources in the library. Soon, through a combination of economics, technology, and user demographics, that physical newspaper is going to disappear. After 100 years of print publication the Christian Science Monitor recently ceased daily print production and migrated most of their news reporting to the web. They are the first major national newspaper to make this move but they will not be the last. When we are teaching about the news and biases, opinion, editorials, we have to start teaching about the differences between news sites, such as http://www.csmonitor.com/, and personal blogs etc. Part of that teaching will involve how to navigate these sites, subscribe to RSS feeds, search archives, and more. Teaching the parts of a print newspaper may serve your students for a few more years but it doesn’t relate much to their personal preferences or the future realities of news reporting.

How about these topics? Do they show our age?

  • how to read a clock face
  • how to write in cursive
  • how to use 3×5 notecards

Can you think of other things that we teach mostly because they are relevant to us as adults?

]]> http://erniec.edublogs.org/2008/11/02/showing-my-age/feed/ 4 Food Marketing to Children & Teens http://erniec.edublogs.org/2008/07/30/food-marketing-to-children-teens/ http://erniec.edublogs.org/2008/07/30/food-marketing-to-children-teens/#comments Thu, 31 Jul 2008 00:31:38 +0000 erniec http://erniec.edublogs.org/?p=42 A new report from the Federal Trade Commission entitled Marketing Food To Children and Adolescents: A Review of Industry Expenditures, Activities, and Self-Regulation: A Federal Trade Commission Report To Congress has been made public. The press release and full report (PDF) are available online. Some highlights from mandatory reporting from 44 companies in the year 2006:

  • spending was $1,618,600,000.
  • 63% of this total marketed fast food, carbonated beverages, or breakfast cereals.
  • television is still the predominate advertising medium intended for children (46%).
  • new media (Internet, text, email, viral web) accounted for only 5% of youth marketing expenses – keep in mind it is cheaper to produce this type of media.
  • spending on packaging (e.g. cereal boxes) and in-store displays equaled 12%.
  • cross promotion was used for as many as 80 movies intended for youth. This advertising technique, which includes fast food tie-ins, toys, and Internet games is growing in its sophistication.
  • The report includes information about industry self-regulation to improve advertising for healthy foods and recommends the reduction of advertising for “junk food”.

Lots more to read about in this report. The evolving media environment is creating incredible opportunities for educators – we’re not alone though. Kids are receiving information (including advertising) from all directions. Helping them to possess a literacy of all these mediums and how they work (and who controls and uses them) continues to be a crucial part of our teaching mission.

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