+

The history of Media

Education

Charlotte Whitney

“A common view of education is that it

doesn‟t do us any good unless it hurts”

Pete Fraser, Manifesto for Media Education

“Entertainment, journalism, the internet

appear to have no mystery about them

because we use them every day.”

Proffessor John Ellis, Royal Holloway, University of London

+Why should Media Studies have a

place in education?

To teach the importance of the Media‟s influence on people‟s lives

Gives access to new technologies where economics would otherwise

hold some students back

It engages students in the subject through

active involvement

Media Studies gives students other skills of analysis in the context of the

media

+Media educators Vivienne Clark and

Richard Harvey say:

“The media have offered us other ways of

recording human experience and creativity and in

Media Studies we look at how these methods of

communication work and why they have such a

prominent place in our daily experience”

+Where did it begin?

F. R. Leavis and Denys Thompson

Culture and Environment: The Training of

Critical Awareness (1933)

In their book, Leavis and Thompson argued

that „high culture‟ was to be protected and

the study of English needed to remain

traditional. Many have argued that his views

helped to add seriousness to English

education, while the emerging mass media

was seen as a corrupting influence

1930s

+1920s onwards

The Frankfurt School theorised the

possible effects of then-modern

media in response to German

fascism‟s use of radio and film for

propaganda purposes

The Media Students Book

+1950s

He argued that his education came from both his upbringing and

his formal education, and neither one was more superior than the

other

“This expansive notion of education, in which Williams saw great

democratic potential, ran counter to education as traditionally

conceived from the nineteenth-century forward; that is, as either

the perpetuation of elite culture, or as a means of vocational

training” Josh Cole

Raymond Williams

+1960s

…writes about mass media theory and becomes a

best seller with Understanding Media: The Extensions

of Man (1964)

Marshall McLuhan…

He coins the phrase:

“The medium is the message”

+

Len Masterman

Teaching about Television

A rationale for media education

Masterman saw media education as a constant challenge:

“Simply keeping abreast of media developments in the nineties, and

ensuring the relevance of what we teach to the life experiences of our

students, will continue to provide a serious challenge to dominant notions

of what constitutes effective teaching and learning in most European

educational systems.”

1980s and 1990s

+

And then it changed…

+1991

Sir Tim John Berners-Lee invents the World Wide Web and changes the world (including media and education) for good

+

The Media and new technologies have only

grown in the last 20 years and it seems that

now, more than ever, we need to

understand what people are consuming

and why

+But what has Media education been

up against?

“50% drop in students

taking French or German

A's

500% increase in students

taking Media Studies

A level pass rate

increases from 84.2% to

97%”

Private Eye, 2005

+

Negative reports and

opinion pieces

Manipulation of figures to make a negative point

about Media education

Research into how Media Studies alone is

responsible for the decline in take up of the sciences

and maths….

+

In 2012 the Higher Education Policy

Institute looked at what courses universities

and colleges are offering…

…And found that while media studies

has tripled in the last decade, the

number of institutions that teach physics

has slumped by almost a third

+This story was picked

up by many of the

major national

newspapers as

another way to

debate the relevance

of the subject

No one questioned

whether teaching

elsewhere needs to

be made more

engaging for modern

students

+

“On the one hand, Media Studies is

condemned for its lack of vocational relevance

(in terms that are rarely extended to other

academic subjects); while on the other, it is

slated for its absence of academic rigour.”

David Buckingham

+

“Media courses, often seen as essentially

leftist, have displeased many of those who

would prefer to keep their own practices free

from critical scrutiny.”

Stuart Price

THE FUTURE

+What are the challenges that might stop

the necessary growth of Media

education?

Financial pressures brought

about by budget cuts which

allow growth of other subjects

More scapegoating by the

Media

Suggested changes to GCSEs

by Michael Gove

Students loosing faith in a

highly beneficial subject

+

The Media is always

changing…

80‟s power of prime

time

90‟s tabloid

influences

and

scandals

10‟s social

media and

digitalization

have taken

over

00‟s internet

obsession

+And so should Media education

In 2007, Media theorist David Gauntlett wrote an article about „Media

Studies 2.0.‟ Here he replaces traditional ideas of Media Studies with

suggestions that it should include (among other things):

“An attempt to embrace the truly international dimensions of Media

Studies – including a recognition not only of the processes of

globalization, but also of the diverse perspectives on media and society

being worked on around the world;

Recognition that the internet and new digital media have fundamentally

changed the ways in which we engage with all media;

The notion of super-powerful media industries invading the minds of a

relatively passive population is compelled to recognise and address the

context of more widespread creation and participation.”

For the full article, see http://www.theory.org.uk/mediastudies2.htm

+David Gauntlett on Media 2.0

“Media Studies should not

simply sing in praise of

particular kinds of technology,

any more than it should always

be critical of everything it sees.

That's why we need an

intelligent and sophisticated

Media Studies which helps us to

properly and critically

understand the media of today.”

+Where should we be going?

Does Media education have

any place in the curriculum?

+Even if people want to argue that

Media education is not an academic

subject, it‟s influence should be felt

throughout the other subjects…

“The idea of booking an „IT room‟ for a special session

should be outdated, we should be brininging handheld

devices into classrooms rountinely and using online

learning contexts as „everyday‟”

Julian McDougall and Nick Potamitis, The Media Teachers Book

+

“[Media] Literacy is critical: it is about taste

and pleasure, and the kinds of judgements

these involve”

Andrew Burn and James Durran, Media Literacy in Schools:

Practice, Production and Progression

+What do I think?

Students need an understanding of

where the Media started, how it

has developed and therefore where

it might go. The Media has a

massive influence on our lives

and, as this continues to

grow, Media Studies is as

important as ever in education

+

“We believe that the objectives of media education

should be ambitious, challenging, open ended and

liberating. But they must be precise. For we wish,

above all, to promote rigourous teaching and

learning about the media.”

Len Masterman

Final thought…