Final Paper: :The influence of media on society and the role of education to develop critical thinking citizens.

Contemporary technology has unloaded countless tools for developing and accessing media. There is the frequent materialization of new social media platforms and avenues of engagement to which people become drawn and actively participate in hours of information exchange. According to Statista Research Department as of 2022, the average daily social media usage of internet users worldwide amounted to 147 minutes per day, up from 145 minutes in the previous year. During a global online user survey in February 2019, a significant share of respondents stated that social media had increased their access to information, ease of communication, and freedom of expression. On the flip side, respondents also felt that social media had worsened their personal privacy, increased polarization in politics, and heightened everyday distractions. (2021) This research spans users ages 16 to 64. Of those 147 minutes on social media a day, people are doing one of the following: finding content, seeing what's being talked about, and finding inspiration for things to do and buy. (Westcott et al. 2022) Within this social media usage time frame and with more access to tech and various exposure to media, are young people able to critically decipher the prepackaged content saturating their feed? 

 Professor Sam Wineburg, lead author and founder of Stanford History Education Group (SHEG) states "Many people assume that because young people are fluent in social media they are equally perceptive about what they find there. Our work shows the opposite to be true." SHEG researchers evaluate information that flows across multiple social channels and evaluate youth perception of news literacy, as well as students' ability to judge Facebook and Twitter feeds. This focus group studies comments left in readers' forums on news sites, blog posts, photographs, and other digital messages that shape public opinion. "In every case and at every level, we were taken aback by students' lack of preparation," the authors wrote. (Brooke, 2016)  The initial wave of the COVID pandemic and its quarantine lockdowns forced a global uptick in 

media use. During a March 2020 survey of social media users in the United States, 43.1 percent of respondents stated that if confined to their homes during the coronavirus, they would use Instagram more during that period. YouTube and Facebook were also popular social platforms that users were estimated to increase their usage during physical distancing at home. (Guttman, 2021) A myriad of media access became necessary for information, contact, and entertainment.  With the required use of media pushed into the spotlight, states across the U.S. are only now attempting to develop policies for media literacy education. Between the years 2021 and 2022, 14 states are just now on their way to including a media literacy curriculum in their K-12 schools; only two have highlighted media literacy in their laws as an essential skill. (MediaLiteracyNow.org & McNeil, 2022)  It’s been four decades since the introduction of the home computer and during that same amount of time we’ve been functioning as a country without initial exposure to media management, and etiquette, nor have we had logistical conversations about information sourcing. 

In their abstract, Bulger and Davidson mention “Media literacy is traditionally conceived as a process or set of skills based on critical thinking. It has a long history of development aligned along the dialectic between protection and participation.” (2018) These skills must be introduced, taught, and practiced as part of curricula beginning at the elementary school level. Toddlers as young as two and three years of age are manning tablets while sitting in their stroller. This, for many, is the method of media introduction to the very young. In addition to an elementary introduction to media literacy education, a component of family/caregiver involvement must be considered so that critical thinking lessons carry-over into student’s homes.  In his research study, Confronting The Challenges of Participatory Culture, Jenkins reminds us of the three obstacles which, in addition to lack of exposure to media literacy, are obstacles which we must acknowledge. The Participation Gap (lack of access of adequate wifi and tech devices at home), the Transparency Problem — The challenges young people face in learning to see clearly the ways that media shape perceptions of the world, and the Ethics Challenge — The breakdown of traditional forms of professional training and socialization that might prepare young people for their increasingly public roles as media makers and community participants. In this same study Jenkins and his team highlight research regarding affinity spaces where there are social connections and being able to contribute ideas, however best one can and still feel a “sense of value” (2007). During this evolving introduction of media literacy educators will have to understand how to approach students who are craving the rush of easy and immediate information in addition to that addictive “sense of value” which they derive from immersed social media moments. One resolution may be found in the use of Inoculation Science.

 Baratunde Thurston, cultural critic, and podcaster produces “How to Citizen with Baratunde”. This podcast’s 3rd season theme is on Tech and “how to use it to bring us together instead of it tearing us apart.”  In an interview, episode 8: Defending Our Collective Psyche, we are introduced to Social Psychologist Sander Van Der Linden. In partnership with game developers, Van Der Linden and his fellow team of researchers have created Inoculation Science. The website, by the same name (inoculation.science), has been designed to help people proactively protect themselves from misinformation by participating in multiple games of intervention in which the participant may experience the perspective of a person who is deliberately enacting three social media online misinformation triggers: rage baiting, flame wars, and trolling. Inoculation Science is an approach that borrows from biomedical science. Inoculation protects people against disinformation by teaching them to spot and refute a misleading claim. Inoculation messages can build up people’s resistance or “mental antibodies” to encountering misinformation in the future, the way vaccines create antibodies that fight against future infection (Goldberg, 2021). This is done via simulation kin to the website Troll Factory where examples of authentic social media content are used to create fake news, create internet memes, and create polarization of public discourse to foster an understanding of the systematic and organized act of “trolling”.  Found on this website are brief videos explaining manipulative techniques used in disinformation such as the use of emotional language (which evokes negative emotions such as fear or outrage which increases the viral potential of social media content), incoherence (which occurs when someone uses two or more arguments to make a point that cannot logically all be true at once), false dichotomy (which is a logical fallacy in which a limited number of choices or sides are presented as mutually inclusive when in reality more options are available), scapegoating (when a person or group is singled out or takes unwarranted blame for a particular problem), and ad hominem attack (when someone attacks the person making an argument, instead of addressing the argument itself). The three games that have been developed for this simulation are Breaking Harmony Square, Bad News, and Go Viral.  Each of these games is designed to encourage the participant to actively destroy the peace of a small town and develop a viral spread of fake news. This simulated social media feed exposes people to weakened doses of key techniques used to deceive us online and then, over time, people can build up immunity similar to pilot flight simulators and first-person shooter simulators for infantry. The game helps to fight off trolls by getting inside their heads like a fake news vaccine. (Thurston, 2022) People need motivation and incentive to be accurate and to have constructive conversations that fundamentally change their engagement with media. People share content to reinforce the narrative of their affinity group(s). Educators can use the important media literacy skills of Play and Simulation in order to help students synthesize the various modalities used in manipulating media and to critically think about their membership in their affinity group(s). Playing games can help students practice democracy and real-world interventions. It is the responsibility of educators to drive student motivation to be a supportive community member, to be a source of safety and dependability for others both inside and out of the classroom. These simulations align with Jenkins’ concept of participatory culture. Students become critically active in their investigations of media use instead of passively accepting the information scrolling by. After the past two COVID-filled years, we all need a mental break; some bubble gum for the brain. Instead of judging the 147 minutes a student spends each day on social media, educators can help support students to make better decisions on the kinds of information in which to luxuriate and trust. One can’t always influence what people think, but you can certainly help decide what they think about. Van Der Linden and his team hope that each Intervention game activates the “antibody production” which makes it less likely that people are going to share misinformation or disinformation content on social media. This psychological vaccine will eventually need a booster shot because of various media interference. The hope is to eventually boost people to “Technological Herd Immunity”. The more people use the tools of Inoculation Science the more they can expand upon it and share their findings with their friends.

Once a person is aware of the reasoning and manipulation methods of misdirection and illusion in media, that power is reduced. (Thurston, 2022)

The responsibility of education is to encourage, support, and nurture the growth of the students in its care. Ironically, wealthy corporations in charge of most large media outlets are responsible for a student’s lack of access to adequate wifi and tech devices causing the participation gap. The cost of ownership and access to both is inequitable. Educators were taken aback by having to pivot and learn how to teach online within a week of the start of the pandemic. Educational institutions must prepare now for the possibility of the near-future-mandated inclusion of Media Literacy within the NYS Department of Education curriculum. Local administration cannot continue to wait on the decisions of the state on whether or not to include Media Literacy in curricula. This wait time is perpetuating the lag that both the teachers and students will feel in the implementation of this vital subject once it finally becomes “important enough” to the state to do so. Technology is developing at rates at which school systems in the U.S. will not have time to play catch up. It is time for educators to find their affinity groups, regroup with a community cohort and learn the ins and outs of Media Literacy and include this curriculum into their lesson and unit plans from the start. 

References

Brooke, D. (2016, November 22). Stanford researchers find students have trouble judging the credibility of information online. Retrieved May 5, 2022, from https://ed.stanford.edu/news/stanford-researchers-find-students-have-trouble-judging-credibility-information-online

Bulger, M., & Davison, P. (2018). The Promises, Challenges, and Futures of Media Literacy. The National Association for Media Literacy Education’s Journal of Media Literacy Education, 10(1), 1–21. Retrieved from https://digitalcommons.uri.edu/jmle/vol10/iss1/1/

Goldberg, B. (2021). Inoculation theory, a beginner's guide. Retrieved from https://inoculation.science

Guttman, A. (2021, November 15). Coronavirus impact on media consumption worldwide - statistics & facts. Retrieved May 4, 2022, from www.statista.com

Jenkins, H. (2007). Confronting the challenges of participatory culture: Media education for the 21st century (Part One). Nordic Journal of Digital Literacy, 2(1), 1–27. https://doi.org/10.18261/issn1891-943x-2007-01-03

Media Literacy Now.org, & McNeil, E. (2022, January). U.S. Media Literacy Policy Report 2021. A state-by-state survey of the status of media literacy education laws for K-12 schools. Retrieved from https://medialiteracynow.org/policyreport/Statista Research Department. (2021, March). Daily time spent on social networking by internet users worldwide from 2012 to 2022. Retrieved May 1, 2022, from https://www.statista.com/

Thurston,B. (Host). (2022).  Defending Our Collective Psyche (with Sander van der Linden) (No.8) [Audio podcast episode]. In How To Citizen With Baratunde. iHeartRadio Podcasts and Dustlight Productions. www.howtocitizen.com

Westcott, K., Arbanas, J., Arkenberg, C., Auxier, B., Loucks, J., & Downs, K. (2022, March 28). 2022 Digital media trends, 16th edition: Toward the metaverse. Retrieved May 4, 2022, from https://www2.deloitte.com/

end note:

“It is the reflection of a profound reality;

it masks and denatures a profound reality;

it masks the absence of a profound reality;

it has no relation to any reality whatsoever: it is its own pure simulacrum. “

(Baudrillard, 1994, p. 6)

The United States Government did not act fast enough to create the security and appropriate aid for the Puerto Rican people affected by the devastation caused by Hurricane Maria. Genocide is an easy route to further colonizing land when there are fewer people alive to fight. The 45th president of the United States at the time (whom we shall never name) allowed for many in-land and coastal homes to dissolve, while he flung useless rolls of paper towels into the crowd of gathered traumatized island natives. Most of the tourist locations, buildings developed with contemporary materials, protected by money by wealthy stakeholders, remained unscathed. These hotels & homes were in operation after a few weeks for those who could afford a nightly rate of hundreds of dollars.

Puerto Rico needs your tourism dollars and your support now more than ever

• There is no passport required for US Citizens

• Skip the currency conversions — USD is used here!

• There are tons of affordable and short flights from many US cities

• English is widely spoken

• As tourism is still rebuilding, crowds are fewer

Six years later countless blog posts created by white North American tour guides and tourist groups and individuals rave about their “contributions to Puerto Rico’s tourism to help sustain the island and its people.” One family (shown above standing in the water stated: “Most people thought we were going to volunteer on the island. Nope. We need a vacation and we can help support the tourism industry the island so desperately needs.”

It is rare for people to mention the systematic erasure of the original island inhabitants to make way for widely spoken English and easily shared currency.

The COVID mask mandates and vaccine proof requirements were all dropped in March of 2022, leaving those on the island to manuver through an additional hurdle through safety and health. Puerto Rico has not had a Health Department building on the island, instead, there’s an active website with bare-bones information and a P.O. box for snail-mail correspondence. And just as in most parts of the globe, the Afro-Boricua and Black families on the island are hardly covered in the news - tucked away amidst the remnant homes of concrete and metal rubble, destroyed walk ways and roads.

The image above is what is sensationalized and preferred. The happy white American family basking in health and in island sun, a feeling, I’m sure each native islander wants as well.

Embodied Awareness: Performance Art for K-12 students!

Pembleton & Lajevic’s article, Living Sculptures: Performance Art in the Classroom, reminded me of technical arts-based schools and their training to scrutinize and exact anatomy of artists' models posed in the middle of a classroom. This formal voyeuristic training, based on the typical European gaze and “historical Western art canon” view of bodies continues to be used as a means of formal training as a way of seeing. This article made me reflect on the many k-12 classrooms to which I’ve had access and realizing not one of those classrooms has encouraged performance art and yet encourages viewing of other’s bodies as a means of arts training. 

Being able to use one’s body within an art piece is an essential way for students to place their bodies in relation to the world and to others. It is a means of developing empathetic relationships with other peers who are using their bodies as a means of artistic expression. This makes me think of performance artist William Pope L and CRAWL. Watching his performance brings about the idiom “walking a mile in someone’s shoes”. The heavy drag of his body and his physical labor felt within each crawl forward is just as physically tangible as Wurm’s pieces where students may easily “understand” the feeling/ sensations of placement of body and object. Introducing performance art to k-12 aged students can encourage bodily autonomy, and can encourage conversation regarding awareness of physical abilities and of those who use their bodies with assistive walking and mobile devices. Performance art can lead to conversations of ableism, design justice, and structural inequalities within schools and other institutional spaces.

“Encouraging students to experiment with performance art can further their understandings of art and help them make meaning between art and their everyday life through their body—allowing them to dwell within a living curriculum.” (Pembleton & Lajevic, p4)

Performance art can be a community engagement methodology, enabling students to start figuring out how to answer questions about whom to work with and how to collaborate with others and various environments. In addition, performance art is ecologically sustainable and does not add to the already overloaded waste-filled land creating hazards to our pained environment “applicable to our greater economic reality–to (not) create more things in a world already groaning under the strain of material production.” (Some Thoughts on Performance and Materiality /by Nina Horisaki-Christens)

These are the topics and questioning that are imperative to continue to lead students into a kinder and more just society- one physical performance at a time.

Reel Works Doc 2022: Fuzhou, NYC

The short documentary films created by the young filmmakers at Reel Works 2021 Doc Lab continue to prove that when educators make space for student experiences to be shared the more ways we can start approaching students' needs with a tailored set of curricular and school planning.  I now have 12 new ways of seeing the world. Imagine the effect a wider spread of productions like these could have on entire student populations, fellow educators, administrators, and parents/caregivers.

The first film of the series, Fuzhou, NYC, told a brief story of the filmmaker Zhi Hui (Michael) Chen’s first-person perspective of his obstacles while integrating American and NYC culture as a young Chinese immigrant. It also spoke of his pride in being Fuzhounese.  The film highlights his craving to find Fuzhou connection while in a new country and while trying to live through Anti-Asian hate and bullying in school.

Michael mentions that Fuzhou in Fuzhonese means “Blessed State” and through one of his two interviews in his film, the viewer finds out that Fuzhounese is one of the oldest Chinese dialects. His colleague Joey is one of the interviewees. As a fellow Fuzhonese, she is able to connect with Michael about being bullied while in school, connecting to culture through food, and her attempts to connect with her original family's Fuzhou culture while living as an American. Michael connects his present life with that of Joey’s contemporary immigrant experience and with his grandfather’s past, combing through and threading together conversations of food, education, and family. Images of lucky/ New Year’s red colors and Chinese food storefronts and streets in the more Chinese neighborhood in Brooklyn are all attempts to fill in the yearning of hope to reconnect with memories of his grandparents and memories of China.

 Michael’s overall statement is that he misses his birth home. This film shows him looking for familiar cultural connections until he can return to China and reconnect with his grandparents. Michael is able to feel comfortable saying that he feels proud to identify with both Fuzhou and NYC cultures but his masked portrait in the very last frame of the film shows a set of eyes that may possibly relay otherwise and made the ending of this film feel as if he is still questioning his NYC experience.  

Pew Pew Game on!

In the 1999 Columbine High School school massacre, an argument made regarding the teenaged shooters was that in addition to being bullied by other students while in school, the two were influenced by violent video games. I watched politicians and parents stand at multiple podiums requesting censorship and regulations on video games as they have in the past with music, movies and comic books. All of this is done in the guise of helping parents shield their children from “objectionable” content. Those images of scared parents and policy makers are stamped into memory and resurface each time my child inquires about access to a new video game. I’m sure this is how many caregivers/parents feel when the news combines a story of school violence and gaming. I’m lucky to share parenting with a partner who is an avid gamer. Between the two, I’ve figured out how to incorporate my parenting with video game decision making and exploration. Up until three years ago, I remained ignorant of how to negotiate the language of gaming into our lives now with a child who is of a generation of a fast tech.

The question I asked myself was no longer “is this gaming “bad” for my child” instead it was “How can gaming help connect her with other parts of her world?” and “How can I become a part of it?”

Learning new tech access requires learning its language. Language learning requires proactive immersion within culture and community. In order to understand a the language of Minecraft, Roblox, and Animal Crossing (a few games my 8-year-old plays) I needed to immerse myself within the culture. I began watching YouTube channels of specific gamers whom my child finds most interesting. Watching with her I am able to question and infer information while observing gamers play in simulated worlds on private servers. As with all languages, this kind of immersion helps with language nuance comprehension. It’s exciting to learn about WWW.EDUCATIONARCADE.ORG as I know I’d need more training in this new tech. I need a tech language coach and to truly commit to being with these worlds as I develop my understanding of these new tools. I didn’t even think to consider that “media” included this Blog by which my thought processes are shared.

My favorite thought from The Education Arcade Article (Klopfer, Osterweil, Groff, and Haas) is:

“Ross sees these habits of mind, or conceptual knowledge, as the greatest outcome of the learning experience.  “The conceptual knowledge is critical because if you can grasp that, then you can transfer skills and morph into  using the technology of today , in the classroom today other domains, roles, and work more easily. With digital games, students get to experience the concepts versus  passively watching a video on it.

My challenge now will be becoming an immersive multi media tech learner so that I can utilize these tools in ways that are enjoyable for both myself and the students with whom I engage. It seems I’ll be the student in class while I learn from those in class who speak this language best.

Week 7:

I Didn’t Meme to…..

“Not all interdisciplinary courses share the same goals or learning outcomes.” p17—Holley

WEEK 5: The Notion of Neutrality / What do we do with information?

Michel Foucault’s “What is an Author” and Frank Rose’s “The Dyslexic Storyteller” from The Art of Immersion speak of accountability and manipulating information and, how, as an author of the written word or a concept, there are modes of power at work. In his interview, Henry Giroux mentions that “power makes itself invisible” and all three writers speak of distortion of messages in order to educate, inform, and entertain which orchestrate modes of thinking.  McCluhan’s “Medium is the Message,” says that it is the methods in which we send and receive information that is “more important than the information itself.”  The way an item is used determines its value and without an audience messages & information would not have meaning to it at all.  Giroux overlaps with the notion that media/technologies, just as education, must be challenged.  Giroux’s interview aligns with Paulo Freire’s “Banking System”, and the idea that education is force-fed to students without acknowledging their individuality, cultural experiences, and agency. The gathered summaries of this week’s readings affect the way I view the development of lesson plans. 

While in the role of teacher I become an author of this plan - of which I’m to develop and utilize various types of other media as examples. I tap into YouTube for video excerpts and how-to instructions, scroll through a collection of Google images, and from a variety of websites, read articles written by other educators. My planning has been designed in multiple ways even before it’s implemented. The act of creating a lesson is the engineering of prepackaged and altered output.  Understanding this makes me a million times more sensitive to ensuring student agency and the kinds of narratives, ideology, culture, and knowledge used within the lesson in order to ironically encourage free and critical thinking and analysis of the topic of which I’ve chosen.

The most resonant idea for me this week is taken from Giroux when he mentions “Democracy represents an ideal in which the concept is unfinished- it's never fully completed.  You always have to work at it.” 

Democracy is something one must always actively work towards. When we stop that work, we can get swept up in the easier status-quo and prefabricated neo-liberal design.

Week 4: Teachers MUST allow time and space in classrooms for students to question everything.

As a reformed catholic school student I’ve made it a regular practice of mine to A) always speak my mind and B) Ask many questions - even if they sound ridiculous. This has been a somewhat awkward practice as it is still a relatively new one for me. From kindergarten to 9th grade I was under a constant reminder of the rule: “Do not interfere with the teacher’s lesson.” This rule included a very real undertone of “Do not question the teacher’s lesson. Do not question the teacher. Do not question.”. My parents were from a similar mentality: “To question is to disrespect an elder’s intelligence and authority.” I became well accustomed to not questioning. My critical thinking skills were atrophied and my point of view, I felt was not valid.

What most struck me from Stuart Hall’s transcript of his lecture Represetntion & The Media, was when he makes the following statement: “You can engage in a way which begins to open the stereotypes up in such a way that they become uninhabitable for very long.” (p21) Hall’s lecture took place in 2005. This conversation, methodology, and process of un-doing have been spoken about for a while. It’s only in my adult life has this concept seems more practical and attainable. 

By maintaining a consistent exercise of questioning, thinking of new ways to engage k-12 students sustaining dialog regarding media literacy and critical analysis, and routinely making time within each class for students’ questions will my own practice strengthen. I cannot teach something with which I’m still unfamiliar. 

The Schema of Mass Culture / Media Arts: Arts Education for a Digital Age /Persuaders

How do we create without regurgitating subconsciously processed information influenced by media?

Week 2-

After reading Chomsky’s introduction to Manufacturing Consent and with the majority of the United States gearing up for the next Super Bowl this month, I am more (painfully) aware of the sought-after mega advertisements throughout the commercial breaks and those that couch before and after halftime. 

Teachers have been going on strike throughout the US, another young, Black man has been murdered by the Police while sleeping in his own home, people who’ve been imprisoned (at Rikers Island correctional facility alone) have had to go through the pandemic with horrific confinement and conditions with infection rates for Covid-19 that has been nearly six times higher than the rate citywide. There are more un-housed families and individuals this year and there are all the children still held captive in detention centers without their families. These are just a few of the real-world events taking place in the States. And yet, millions of dollars worth of advertising has been in production attempting to sell safety and fantasy during a widely popularized & televised sport. And who doesn’t want safety and fantasy especially after these past two years living through these, dare I indulge in repetition, “unprecedented times”?  All this, occurring in the States while thousands of other governmental propaganda and decision-making directly affect people globally just as Chomsky’s numerously noted accounts of the United States and its decisions in Kosovo, East Timor, Turkey, Iraq, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Yugoslavia, etc... 

 Unnervingly, the realization that those people with public relations positions within government and major corporations have more power and say than journalists reporting on these events. “Journalism doesn't sell things” states Chomsky. Instead, it reveals the details of truths, and since “newsrooms have been more thoroughly incorporated into transnational corporate-empires” the budget cuts and a further reduction of the importance for investigative journalism “that would challenge the structures of power.” - the role of a journalist seems a radical act.  

I’d never considered the role of a person who’s in a Public Relations role. In researching the job description, I came across the fact that there are 17 types of public relations positions. All of which is responsible for inverting information in order to maintain the facade and created a storyline of its: government/corporation/institution. It seems as if policymakers are similar to those in public relations. 

  There are reasons why the  United  States does not have a national policy for media literacy education. If you keep people clueless in reading into media, you maintain control over the people.  Bulger and Davidson speak of the importance of media literacy programs. These programs should include and involve families and caregivers along with their young people learning how to critically think about the media being consumed. Too many times programs are developed around money, savings, spending, and technology where only young students are being taught. “Media  literacy  curricula  are often targeted toward children and youth, but media literacy for adults is equally important as impacts of the “diminishing degrees of institutional support” become evident across demographics.”  It is with the support of caregivers that information as such can be shared and discussed. People of all demographics are exposed to and grapple with fake news, manipulation, and disinformation and many use social media to source news and other information such as, for example, Facebook. There is a disparity with Facebook and their own public relations group working overtime, this organization has a “Journalism  Project”  aimed, among other things, at improving the media literacy of its users. How can one take this Facebook project seriously when Facebook consistently blocks those who post Black Lives Matter conversations and talk about racism considering it “hate speech”.  The problem becomes cyclical as it takes a person to think critically of Facebook as an institution with its own need to spin information to maintain operation.

 Facebook created its very first 60-minute advertisement for last year’s Super Bowl. I’m curious to see what their “spin” is for this year’s game. I’m sure I’ll see the recap on several media outlets thereafter.

For Class Feb, 1, 2022: Berger, Mirzoeff & Jenkins

 As a gen X’er parenting 8-year-old Madeline in a time where media technology is infused within most of our daily lives has been difficult to find the most appropriate ways and balance of media intake for her.  We made an important decision to introduce Maddie to the iPad and gaming at the start of the pandemic as a means to help her find community when she was abruptly cut off from her peers in the middle of 1st grade. Until these past couple of years, we feared exposure to media such as YouTube and gaming (Minecraft, Roblox, and various X-Box games).  What I appreciated most about the article “Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture”, is Jenkins and his team highlight research regarding affinity spaces where there are social connections and being able to contribute ideas however best one can and still feel a “sense of value”.  I have the privilege of having the time to learn about and play with Maddie, joining her on the gaming servers she’s learned how to create.  In the worlds she develops, I’ve witnessed the peer-to-peer learning moments, turn-taking, establishing community rules/guidelines, and “respecting the intellectual property of other gamers” (pg12) while playing with her classmates and friends.

In Berger’s “Ways of Seeing” I enjoyed (at 18:51) when Berger gave examples of pairing moving images while playing an unexpected paired sound at a differentiated time. Where the most obvious ways of manipulating the still images are by movement, added words, and sound where the stillness of the image is “no longer a constant”.  In explaining it in these terms- it became clear to me that in the slightest manipulation of media - one can make a big impact, and it’s not only by the use of complicated forums of technology. This is concept is repeated in the example Quijada offers in her Ted X talk where students take common still-life advertisements from magazines and allow them to reclaim the message by rearranging, adding new words, and slightly changing the imagery to expose a deeper meaning. 

My favorite takeaway from Mirzoeff’s interview “VISUAL CULTURE, EVERYDAY LIFE, DIFFERENCE, AND VISUAL LITERACY” was his experience “watching the Iraq war with a Western viewpoint as a European based in the U.S. &watchng by way of U.S. television and wanting to disidentify with the viewpoint.” It made me realize how I’ve never peeled apart my experience absorbing the news I listen to (NPR) or the news stories I may catch on all of the “ambient media” played in airports, bars, waiting rooms…” This will be a new way for me to start reevaluating my media consumed moments and a new way in which to discuss this with Maddie.