Title: The Children Are Watching How The Media Teach About Diversity by Carlos E. Cortes
1The Children Are WatchingHow The Media Teach
AboutDiversityby Carlos E. Cortes
- Group 1
- Shannon Rae Sollars
- Lisa Hakenjos-Jones
- Chad Lindeen
- Kendra Nelson
- Shaad Ahmed
2The Children Are WatchingHow The Media Teach
About Diversity
- The initial slides will briefly show how the
author dealt with the issues of the clarification
and the enriched understanding of history, the
development of a personal multicultural
perspective and curricular or policy issues in
education. - The subsequent slides will go into more detail
and will further describe how the book deals with
various multicultural issues and will concentrate
on specific aspects of how the media operate
within the above topics and different contexts.
3The Clarification and the Enriched Understanding
of History
- The author through out the book mentioned that
the media strongly determines how one views
events in history concerning multiculturalism.
The author stated the media has the ability
enhance ones beliefs or to even alter ones
beliefs about diversity. - Movies like Malcolm X describing recent
historical events have even showed to influence
members of a jury in a trial involving a White
police officer and an African American man. - This issue will be further dealt with in the
ensuing slides.
4The Development of a Personal Multicultural
Perspective and Curricular or Policy Issues in
Education
- Whether educators like it or not, students with
school systems are affected by what the various
media transmit. Therefore students are educated
through what they see, read, and hear through the
media. An effective school system will
acknowledge the presence of the media and design
their curriculum with this mind. - This issue is dealt with through out the book and
will be mentioned in many of the upcoming slides.
5Holly and Melissas (Authors Grandchildren)
Multicultural Curriculum
- The author made observations of his grandchildren
and their responses to different forms of media,
especially television shows and videos. The
observations made were not shaped by questioning
by the observer, but was kept pure and authentic
to gather realistic data. - The point is made that viewers are learning
regardless of whether they know it or if it was
the intention of the creators of the program. - Many groups have criticized programs on the
grounds of being racist, homophobic, and sexist.
In addition, the programs often times paint a
picture of gender roles for society and classify
groups based on physical characteristics such as
gender, skin color, ethnic dimensions, and the
adult language of racial labeling. - The encompassing idea is that children are
learning although it is not always when, where,
and what we want them to learn. Children learn
outside the school through media.
6What are children learning?
- Children learn about good and evil, right and
wrong, life and death, villainy and heroism.
They learn about family values from The Lion
King, physical disabilities from Dumbo,
interpersonal, intergroup, and intercultural
relations from Pocahontas, and gender relations
from just about every other show. - Cortes observed that his granddaughter was
practicing crying, like Shirley Temple because
when she cries in the movie, people will come to
her help. - The Lion King had sparked questions regarding
moral dilemmas such as the issue of volition.
Why did the wildebeests want to kill Mufassa?
Why did Scar want to kill his own brother? - One of the theme songs, The Circle of Life
dealing with death. On the lighter side as
stated by the author, the song, Hakuna Matata,
song by Simba was uplifting and made one of his
granddaughters feel better after a negative
experience.
- The movie Pocahontas elicited the question of
why are Pocahontas boobs so bigger than others
and even compared them to Barbie. Pocahontas
also brought about the question skin color while
comparing the characters of John Smith and
Pocahontas. - A news report regarding O.J. Simpson elevated a
question about the N word. - Observations of romance and interracial
relationships were made within the context of
Pocahontas, the remake of Cinderella with
Whitney Houston and the death of Princess Diana.
This lead Cortes granddaughters to want to be
princesses when they grew up. In addition, one
of Cortes granddaughters seemed to feel
uncomfortable with having her grandparents in the
room during John Smith and Pocahontass first
affection toward one another in the movie.
7Criticisms of the Media
- The Lion King, was considered by some to be
racist due to the portrayal of villains and
hyenas as possessing a nearly ebonic language.
These groups considered this language spoken by
these characters to be negative. Basically
saying that black is bad. - The Lion King was also criticized as being
sexist due to the role of Simba being the lead
with just a small support role for Nala. Simbas
role is one of dominance, leadership, and power.
The portrayal seemed to be one of male dominance. - The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation
criticized The Lion King as being homophobic
because a main character, Scar, was played as
gay regarding his speech being feminine in tone.
8Children Are Learning from the Media
- Media has any criticisms from a variety of groups
for their portrayal of race, gender, and sexual
orientation. Observations by Cortes and other
related studies show that media has an impact on
childrens feelings about race, gender, sexual
orientation, family, society and the groups it
represents, violence, death, and countless other
factors. We do not have complete control of
when, where and what children learn through the
varieties of media, but we know that they are
learning from it.
9The Societal Curriculum
- A mass media curriculum exists, and young people
will learn from it. Due to this dilemma, schools
face the choice of whether to participate
effectively and constructively multicultural
education or not to participate and leave up to
the mass media and societal curriculum. - Education happens whether we want it to or not
and in places that we do not always expect.
Often times, we do not even realize that it is
happening. - More public education is taking place through the
media and societal curriculum than through
teachers, professors, or any one else. - Mass media functions much like school curriculum
in that it is chaotic, inconsistent and often
times laden with conflicting messages, however,
not all perspectives enjoy equal exposure or
equitable access to dissemination. - One problem with curriculum regardless of its
source is when it is hidden or sometimes even
unconscious.
- Mass media sometimes highlight intergroup
misunderstandings through repeated presentation
of derogatory stereotypes or overemphasize
demeaning themes about select groups. - Misunderstanding of multicultural material comes
in the form of fiction and non-fiction. The
non-fiction can be very difficult for children to
understand the differences. - Many television programs and Hollywood films
create unsettled feelings among ethnic groups
when they portray groups of people with certain
generalizations or stereotypes. These portrayals
have made the concern global in scope. - There are many gatekeepers in regards to mass
media, stemming from parents, peers, teachers,
and in some cases local and state government. - There are also many individuals acting as spin
doctors within the realm of mass media. These
are often times the same people as the
gatekeepers, however, it adds news anchors
columnists, and talk show hosts
10Effects of Mass Media and Societal Curriculum
- At times Societal curriculum and teaching work
parallel to one another, however, often times
they work with conflicting interest. - The societal curriculum includes four broad
categories. The immediate, institutional,
serendipitous, and the media curriculum. The
immediate, includes family, peers, and the
neighborhood. Institutional are made up of the
organizations and institutions in which people
interact with including religion and voluntary
associations. The serendipitous forms around
random personal experiences and lastly the media
curriculum composed of the many forms of mass
media. - Mass media has a huge effect because of the
massive exposure due to its ability to
disseminate material to an audience. - Mass media sometimes offer insightful images and
examinations of multicultural groups, but many
times it will be just the opposite. - Children and adults construct knowledge based on
the many forms of mass media regardless of
whether it offered intentionally or
unintentionally from the providers. - Images of a variety of groups are often times
generalized thus fitting a stereotype of a
particular group. These images can be very
damaging in the construction of labeling by its
viewers.
11Effects of Gatekeepers
- Parents offer the possibility of controlling to
some degree the forms of mass media that enter
their home. - Religious groups also offer guidance of what they
deem to be appropriate media for their members. - At times state and local government will control
some forms of mass media in their area. - These gatekeepers, can have a positive or
negative effect on the media that is present in
some situations, however, societal and media
curriculum is abundant and often finds its way
to the learner. The addition of spin doctors may
be equally or more effective than the gatekeepers
on the holistic impact these curriculums have on
children and others.
12Effect of Spin Doctors
- Parents influence not only what media is present,
but perhaps more importantly they may impact the
processing, interpretation, and internalization
of information brought on by societal and mass
media curriculum. The attitudes that parents
bring to the media curriculum can have a huge
effect in shaping the views of their children. - Mass media spin doctors offer what they feel or
interpret from what they have seen, heard, or
read. The problem with this is that many viewers
have not seen, heard, or read that same material
and so take the spin doctors opinion to be the
correct one. These spin doctors are in a
position of power and can have a great impression
on others who are not familiar with the issues at
hand. - Teachers may take the position of spin doctors as
well to place their view on the topics that reach
many children through the mass media curriculum.
13Controlling of Curriculum
- Mass media and societal curriculum is present and
children construct knowledge from this
information whether it is fiction or non-fiction.
The content of this curriculum can be controlled
to a point by gatekeepers such as, parents,
teachers, religious groups and at times, local
government. Spin doctors have an impact on the
processing and interpretation of information.
These spin doctors include parents, teachers,
community leaders, and the ever present and vast
mass media. The way, in which the information is
spun, highly effects the processing of
information and can leave lasting impressions on
children whether it is for good or bad. Schools
have a choice to make in regards to societal and
mass media curriculum. Should we participate
actively in multicultural education or leave it
up to societal and mass media to do it alone?
14Mediamakers as Multicultural Curriculum Developers
- Media Creation Mediamakers are intentional or
unintentional multicultural teachers, textbook
writers and curriculum developers. - Each individual has culturally influenced
perceptions of a particular media product and how
it will affect the audience. Every person should
be careful not to make assumptions that others
must mirror their views on a specific media
product. - Media teaching has two dimensions, Input and
Output. - Input -
- Publishers and school boards media producers and
educational bureaucrats work with finances, and
make broad decisions about content and delivery
systems. - Media directors and school superintendents, media
editors and school principals attempt to
coordinate respective systems. - Operating within industry, governmental pressure
groups and other types of constraints,
screenwriters and textbook writers, journalists
and curriculum developers create texts to be
delivered. - Newscasters and teachers, actors and professors
involved in actual delivery of content. - Output -
- The content itself. Once created and delivered,
content exists in various forms.
15Content Creators
- Content Creators The Media Writ at Large
- Dissemination of multicultural media content
Some media makers intentionally try to teach
about race, ethnicity and other aspects of
diversity, e.g. Schindlers List, Guess Whos
Coming to Dinner, etc. Others teach incidentally,
such as publishing news stories that happen to
have multicultural dimensions or by including
ethnic characters in movie or TV narratives
without any particular goal of ethnic image
making or message sending. - Media may be greatly impacted by the societal
context within which it is operating. Individuals
varying beliefs about diversity related matters
come up with a set of reigning ideology. - Content Creator Media Industries
- Industry wide content codes serve as revealing
sources of evidence. Yet even here it is
difficult to separate the degree to which these
codes reflect true industry beliefs from the
degree to which they reflect defensive responses
to external political or economic pressuresor
fears of pressures. In this respect, such codes
can be likened to textbook guidelines or
curriculum frameworks adopted by educational
agencies, often under pressure from different
publics or interest groups. - Content Creator Individual Media makers
- Over the years, individual media makers have
consciously tried to influence societal attitudes
about diversity or toward specific ethnic groups
through their media textbooks. For example, some
makers of films and TV shows have tried to
combine entertainment with an effort to reduce
bigotry by challenging ethnic prejudice. - Some media makers have emphasized movie
exploration of their own ethnic groups. Spike
Lee, Woody Allen, Edward James Olmos, Wayne Wang,
Martin Scorsese, Paul Mazursky, etc. - Some media makers have used their products to try
to deliver broader multicultural messages, such
as celebrating ethnic diversity as an element of
American society or presenting cultural diversity
as an integral part of American national
character, culture and values. In contrast, other
media makers have consciously traded on
anti-ethnic bigotry.
16Limits on Mediamakers
- Internal Constraints Neither media makers nor
school textbook writers operate with full
autonomy within their respective industries.
Textbook authors often find that their original
concepts become severely modified, undermined or
drastically distorted in the development and
production process. As a result, images,
depictions, and messages including those
dealing with diversity that ultimately appear
in media or school textbooks may or may not
represent the best expression of a creators
intent. - Audiences Media makers sometimes base their
product on multi-cultural assumptions about
audiences. In doing so they draw upon presumed
audience dispositions in order to elicit
media-conditioned emotional responses. I.e.,
manipulating viewer or reader fears by providing
an ethnic menace based on existent societal
stereotypes, including media-ingrained icons of
ethnic threats. While trading on and manipulating
presumed audience predispositions, media makers
simultaneously teach multiculturally by
reinforcing such audience beliefs (such as
stereotypes.) - Pressure Groups The media function in a world
of external pressure groups, including both
government and private entities. The latter
watchdog groups, ratings groups, protest groups,
ethnic, religious, womens, and sexual
orientation organizations, and multi-group
coalitions have often tried and sometimes
succeeded in influencing media treatment of
diversity. - Ideological Conflicts Both the media industry
and the individual media makers have embodied
reigning or at least competing societal beliefs
and ideologies concerning diversity. Some media
makers support affirmative action some oppose
it. Some champion immigration and others want to
raise barriers. Media makers have taken varying
positions on such multicultural subjects as
homosexuality, sexual harassment, interracial
marriage, the intersection of church and state,
and making English the official language. These
divisions reflect, refract, reframe and influence
larger societal clashes and inter-group tensions.
Contrary to the idea of media as a pedagogical
monolith, the U.S. media is so diverse that
virtually any critic can find myriad examples to
support a personal interpretive position.
17Commercialism, Tradition, and Convention
- Commercialism
- Most media makers are in the business of selling
a product and will repeat themes or approaches
that they believe audiences want or at least will
accept. Conversely, they tend to avoid themes
that they believe audiences will not accept and,
therefore, will not pay money to read, listen to
or view. Media makers will alter and create
products that are appealing to the greatest
number audience members. Diversity makes it into
the media curriculum primarily when media makers
decide that diversity sells. In these respects,
media makers closely resemble textbook creators. - Tradition
- If media makers believe that certain traditions
or formulae attract audiences, they will continue
to follow them, usually disregarding their social
or pedagogical ramifications. (I.e. the Prince
Charming tradition juxtaposed with feminism.)
Revisionism and innovation within the constraints
of tradition are considered acceptable. - Convention
- Convention could be described as tradition at
large, or tradition internalized to the point of
mental laziness. This can be exemplified by
instances where American linguistic comfort zone
categorizes people as a single race, when they
are, in fact, multiracial. Simultaneously, those
media makers reinforced the traditional American
construction of racial categories. Also
destructive to the multicultural being is the
both sides default convention used by media
makers and often by schoolteachers.
18Media Products as Multicultural Textbooks
- What has the mass media curriculum taught about
diversity? Responses are varied but most have
displayed three general characteristics single
group focus, absence of comparative context, and
limited temporal coverage. - Single Group Analysis Most content analyses
deal with treatment of individual groups,
including women, gays, persons with disabilities,
racial, religious, etc. Tight single group
studies serve a purpose. We need to know how the
media depict specific groups. We need to know how
the media depict specific groups. Moreover, such
knowledge provides the building blocks for larger
generalizations about the media multicultural
curriculum. - Absence of Comparative Context Because most
studies focus on particular subject groups or
areas, only sporadically are efforts made to
place such uni-group content analysis in
comparative context. Comparative multicultural
analysis may reveal that such treatment was not
group-specific and that, during a particular era,
the media were giving similar treatment to some
or many other ethnic groups or cultures or, for
that matter, to Americans in general. But the
reverse can also occur. A comparative analysis
may reveal unique patterns of single group
treatment that might not obtrude in a uni-group
analysis. - Short-term Analysis Most media content analyses
provide highly selective, temporally limited
snapshots of media treatment. Most studies avoid
the extended, sometimes tedious work that goes
into such a longitudinal analysis. They have
value in providing provocative and revealing if
time-constrained insights. They may also
provide building blocks for developing and
testing hypotheses about long-range media
treatment. However, there is a tendency toward
overgeneralization on the basis of one or several
snapshots.
19Over Time, the mass media have provided five
distinct but interrelated types of multicultural
content
- Information The mass media deluge readers,
viewers, and listeners with information,
including multicultural information. Most people
are inundated with more data than they can even
digest. Mediated information may be inaccurate or
accurate. It may be presented within a context
that facilitates comprehensibility or misleads
the audience. It may be multifaceted or
simplistic, nuanced or stereotypical. It may be
packaged as news or presented in the form of
entertainment. Audiences tend to consider
newspapers, magazines, nonfiction books, radio
and television news and documentary films as
information providers. That information of
course, has been edited and filtered in ways that
contribute to its varying degree of accuracy and
quality. The factor of repetition is also
something to be factored in. In news, even if
each and every story about a group and its
members were accurate in and of itself, the
constant reiteration of certain themes might
contribute to a group public image. So it can
become an issue of frequency instead of accuracy. - Organization of ideas the mass media also help
organize and disseminate ideas about information
it sends out. Through this process, they
influence audiences cognitive structures the
ways that media consumers process and organize
media-disseminated multicultural information and
ideas. Diverse subjects are explored and the
media try to organize these topics for the
audience. - Values Media also disseminate values about
diversity and diverse groups. In that respect,
media share a pedagogical space with school
textbooks. These values accompany societal value
systems and simultaneously push the envelope of
norm acceptance in the public. - Expectations Repeated exposure to media images
serves to alter our perceptions of the society in
which we live and to gradually shape what we
accept and expect from our fellow citizens. - Models for behavior Mass media provide models
for behavior. They influence vernacular (Go
ahead. Make my day. Hasta la vista, baby.)
They also have an affect on personal behavior,
aggression or love toward others, expectations of
our own behavior as well as those around us.
20Mass Media Curriculum as a Message System
- The mass media multicultural curriculum involves
far more than simply the creation and
dissemination of group images. It involves the
transmission of information (correct or
incorrect, balanced or distorted, contextualized
or stereotypical). It involves the organization
of information and ideas. It involves the shaping
and reinforcing of expectation. And it involves
the providing of models for action and the
disinhibiting of other actions. In short, through
multicultural content, the mass media have
contributed significantly to the corpus of
American thinking, feeling and acting in the
realm of diversity. - The mass media is not the cause or single
culprit for many of societys ills, but it makes
contributions.
21Mass Media and Multicultural Learning
- What have peopleparticularly students and young
students to belearned from this media
curriculum?
22News vs. Entertainment
- Consumers are more likely to be aware that they
are learning (or supposed to be learning) from
news media - Encountering a lot of information
- Consumers use entertainment media to be diverted,
not informed (like news media) - Consumers are less aware that learning may be
taking place when consuming entertainment media - According to some scholars, media consumers learn
more from background information and images then
from those details that attract their conscious
attention. - Entertainment media serves as a multicultural
textbook (intentionally or unintentionally) - The Author states that we may never know the
broad-scale impact of the mass media on
multicultural or any other type of learning - However, research does show that media does
contribute to stereotypes and other types of
multicultural learning
23The Media Impact Debate Polarization and
Pomposity
- Analyses of the societal impact have become
polarized - Media determinism
- Media is all-powerful and directly affects
audiences with its values - Also referred to as hypodermic needle and
magic bullet effect - Limited Impact
- Downplay media influence on audiences
- Media reflects social consensus, it does not
forge it - Media satisfies audiences desires
- Consists of 2 groups
- Mediamakers
- Proponents of certain varieties of reception
theory - Media consumers control the teaching-learning
equation - Audiences consciously select and modify what they
consume
24Media-based Learning An Empirical Perspective
- There has been sporadic empirical scholarship on
the multicultural impact of media - Conclusions
- Media do influence intergroup, intragroup, and
self-perceptions - Consumers also learn about diversity from the
media - The nature of that influence varies
- Some people are influenced by some media, at
some point - Its hard for research studies to have exact,
concrete findings - Types of research done about the media
- Uses and Gratificationsemphasizes the conscious
volition of media consumers, who select specific
media because they serve useful functions for
them or provide certain personal gratifications - Agenda-settingmedia may not be able to tell
audiences what to think, but it can tell
audiences what to think about - Reception Analysisexamine the variability of
learner responses to the media - How different audiences have or may have
interpreted and drawn meaning from varieties of
media - Examples of the TV show, All in the Family, and
TV miniseries, Roots. - Reception Analysis studies address the role of
the media in multicultural learning by analyzing
media interaction by consumers from specific
groups (2 categories) - Studies of the ramifications of media for
different cultural groups - The medias role in fostering interracial,
interethnic, and intercultural learning
25Media-based Learning A Projective Perspective
- Projective Studiesassess/suggest how different
audiences may or are likely to draw ideas and
construct personal knowledge by drawing upon
specific media - The Cosby Showshows an affluent African American
family but fail to address racism and/or the fact
that most African American families face social
and economic problems - The Godfather DisclaimerWhen the Godfather saga
first aired on TV, a short disclaimer was issued
prior to its start stating, The Godfather is a
fictional account of the activities of a small
group of ruthless criminals. It would be
erroneous and unfair to suggest that they are
representative for any ethnic group. - The author feels that such disclaimers do nothing
to mitigate the teaching potential of such movie
textbook that portrays certain ethnic groups.
26Media-based learning A Theoretical Perspective
- Theories of audience reception to address the
process of media-based learning - Schema Theory
- Each learner develops operational mental and
emotional schemasometimes referred to as
ideational scaffolding, cognitive maps, or
anticipatory schemes. These schema are based on
each individuals personal learning experiences
and then become the basis for making sense of the
world. - Gestalt Psychology
- Viewers and readers encounter a piece of
communication and alter it by selectively
remembering and omitting information and ideas,
while supplementing or contextualizing that
content based on their own beliefs and biases,
thereby altering its meaning for them. - Cognitive Dissonance
- Once an individuals cognitive structure takes
firm shape, it tends to repel those ideas that
seem too dissonant. - Drench Hypothesis
- Learning will more likely occur when audiences
watch programs that drench consumers with ideas
and portrayals that are out of the ordinary - Sleeper Effect
- Ideas, often clothed as entertainment, can
subconsciously enter and become part of a
viewers unrecognized cognitive or affective
storehouse. The ideas can then be provoked by
some external stimuli. - Examples of the sleeper effect the movie
Airplane and the television game show, The
25,000 Pyramid.
27A Personal Multicultural Media Journal
- There is too much media to identify and describe
the entire curricular context. - The goal is to help gain insight by examining our
own personal media multicultural curricular which
we each create through choice, accident, and
habit.
28Journal Model to Monitor Media
- The author provides a multicultural media journal
model, which can be used by anyone to develop a
greater self-awareness of personal media
multicultural curricular exposure. - Journal model
- Keep journal to record reactions to the
multicultural teaching encountered during normal
media consumption - To begin write a brief description of your
general media consumption habits
(self-assessment) - Next keep an annotated record of the
multicultural dimensions of one months (or one
weeks) media consumption - The author then gives his own day-by-day journal
of multicultural media consumption for the month
of October - Includes examples from various types of media
newspapers, TV, movies, documentaries, talk
radio, etc.
29The Contemporary Media Curriculum as School
Context
- The media teaches preschool 12th grade
students, students, teachers, administrators, and
even parents about multiculturalism whether they
know it or not. - They do so in many different ways which are
outlined in the following slides.
30How Diversity is Presented in the Media
- Pervasiveness How the media exposes us to
diversity even when we are not expecting it to do
so. This is applicable to the radio, magazine,
TV, and even movies. - Themes Themes about diversity often fall into
the following four categories - Ongoing Diversity related themes which appear
with regularity. - Recurring Diversity related themes which appear
often but not on an ongoing basis. Examples
include when Louis Farrakhan organizes an event
or when people protest the use of Native American
mascots. - Transitory A diversity related theme which
appears heavily for a period of time then fades
away. Examples of this are the Confederate Flag
issue and Paula Jones. - Single-shot A diversity related theme which
only gets one day of attention. - Patterns Spins that the media put on diversity
topics. They do this by choosing what or what
does not make it to the public.
- Perspectives This is broken down into four
different categories - Internal Multiple Perspectives Getting more
than one perspective on a diversity issue within
one show or media outlet. Examples of this are
shows like CNNs Crossfire and ABCs former show
Politically Incorrect. - External Dueling Perspectives Getting
conflicting arguments about the same diversity
issue from different sources. An example of this
is when Newsweek ran three perspectives on one
single issue. - Mainstream versus Niche Media The mainstream
usually offers general interest diversity topics
to the audience while the niche media usually
offers one single perspective on diversity
issues. An example of this might be of Time
compared to Ebony magazine. - Intertextuality This when different media
sources (TV, radio, magazines, newspapers, etc.)
draw their information on diversity issues from
one another. For example, a TV show might
comment on an editorial in the newspaper.
31Ideology
- This describes the particular media outlets
viewpoint (i.e. Conservative or Liberal). This
is further broken down into three categories - Multiculturalist This where the media at least
recognize multiculturalism. - Desegregationist The media usually promotes
noncontroversial positions promoting unity such
as Rodney Kings famous Cant we all get along?
This is also true for TV shows such as ER and
movies such as Lethal Weapon. - Americanist Most media in the United States
claim they are pro-American but offer a different
spin on what that means.
32Media and Learning, Limits of Content Analysis,
The Children Now Report, and a Potential Impact
Paradigm
- Media and Learning By knowing what the media is
presenting to the best of our abilities, schools
can try to respond to that by what education they
offer to students. - Limits of Content Analysis Different minority
groups are viewed in a different way by people.
For example, people may not always differentiate
Cuban Americans for other Hispanic Americans.
The same is true for people born in America who
come from non-European backgrounds such as the
Japanese Americans or other Asian Americans. - The Children Now Report This report of 300
Blacks, 300 Anglos, 300 Latinos, and 300 Asian
Americans aged 10-17 showed how children viewed
the treatment of different racial groups on
television. The answers varied from Whites being
the most represented to often showing minorities
as less well to do. - A Potential Impact Paradigm This is an
interpretive framework for hypothesizing the
potential multicultural learning impact of the
mass media. - Coincidence This when the treatment of a social
group coincides with ones own views. - Conflict This is when ones views are in
conflict with that of the media. This will
either cause rejection, modification, or to
totally mute it out. - Marginalism This is when the medias portrayal
is marginally outside ones views, but not in
direct conflict of ones beliefs. This could
mean that one adds that portrayal to their
knowledge pool and might influence their personal
organizational schema. - Novelty This is when the media portrays
something that one has little or no knowledge of.
This could be received as unchallenged
information and be accepted by the receiver of
that information.
33Mass Media, Multiculturalism, and Schools
- With the mass media the way it is, multicultural
learning will occur, and schools do not have the
power to decide whether or not it will occur.
This means the schools need to decide if they
will participate within this context of
multicultural education and if they do how they
will participate. - Scholarly Relationships Media and Education
scholars tend to work separately and not jointly.
Sometimes the media and education scholars
works compliment one another, sometimes they
contradict one another, and others times they
promote the others work. - Premises These are the premises needed for the
author to establish his new educational paradigm. - Exposure Virtually everybody is exposed to the
media in some sense. - Influence People do learn about diversity from
the media and are influenced by that. - Interaction The mass media leads to educators
interacting with students about the knowledge
learned from it.
34School Educator Reponses
- There are four basic patterns of school educator
responses - Level One Recognition Recognizing that media
based multicultural education is taking place,
and students will bring some of this knowledge to
school. For example, the oil crisis led to
people unfairly depicting Arabs as greedy
sheikhs. Once the Senior Weekly Reporter
depicted an American Indian on a camel with gas,
oil, and coal. Such images lead to unfair images
of both Arabs and American Indians and schools
have to combat these images. - Level Two Attention The schools need to pay
attention to what the mass media is teaching
about multiculturalism. Students may learn about
twentieth century race relations from movies such
as Mississippi Burning, etc. - Level Three Exploration The schools need to
try to read about what the media is saying about
multicultural issues, and how they think students
are learning from the media. - Level Four Investigation Educators could
investigate the medias claims about how the
media itself depicts certain minorities. For
example, Karen Grigsby Bates of the Los Angeles
Times on September 19, 1997 argued that some
shows like Frasier, Friends, and Seinfeld did not
have much if any racial representation. This
would be something for educators to further
investigate.
35Areas of School Engagement
- There are eight areas where schools could be
involved in integrating the mass media into
policies and practices - Assessing ones own media multicultural learning
Schools should assess how the media deals with
topics such as race, ethnicity, and religion.
Educators need to consider how the media may be
influencing their perceptions and interactions.
For example, educators should know how an Arab
American might feel if they get joked about the
violence in their native region. - Dealing with student multicultural learning
Educators should know what the students know
about multicultural learning and teach them on
that basis. - Using the mass media as a curricular resource
Educators can use made for school media videos,
etc. and also incorporate current events
portrayed in the media in their curriculum. - Developing student analytical thinking about
media Students should be pushed to critically
think about issues portrayed in the media. - Professional development concerning the media
Educators should continue to develop their media
literacy and try to better understand the
multicultural dimensions of the media. - Working with parents as multicultural co-teachers
with the mass media curriculum Educators should
incorporate the parents of students to assist
with how they deal with the mass media. This can
be done through conferences and workshops. - Working directly with the media Educators
should work with the media, whether that be
through positive public relations or pointing out
mistakes in the medias coverage. This can also
involve students. - Combating stereotypes and stereotyping.
36Struggling with Stereotypes Uses and Abuses of
a Critical Concept
- Everyone uses generalities to make clarity of
various concepts. For example you learn to drive
one car and then you can transfer that knowledge
to driving another car. - Generalities develop from personal observation
and experience. The media can use generalities
when discussing how a particular disease can
affect women differently from men. - Stereotyping differs from generalities due to the
frequency and selectivity that the media use such
as stating only crime statistics for perpetrators
who are African American. - Schools need to instruct children on using
generalities and the difference between a
generality and a stereotype. - Generalities are flexible, intragroup
heterogeneity, and subtle while Stereotypes are
inflexible, homogeneity, and unsubtle. - Labels can be used as nouns but if not used
appropriately can become slurs and lead to
stereotypes when they offend others. The media
needs to use labels carefully. - Depictions become stereotypes when they are use
the same type of portrayals frequently and
consistently to bombard the public.
37Clarification of History/Development of Personal
Multicultural Perspective
- Acknowledge that consumers learn multiculturally
from the media. Media treatments of societal
groups and their members have some basis in
reality even though that reality is not true for
every member of the group. Some Native Americans
work at casinos (not all). - Acknowledge that some media-based multicultural
learning does take the form of internalizing
stereotypes. The media can establish a pattern or
a model such as some Italians are in organized
crime and then have the movies with Godfather and
television with The Sopranos leading the public
to believe that everyone who is Italian is in
organized crime. - The media does occasionally use stereotypes to
meet consumer expectations (especially in
advertising) and manipulate those stereotypes to
provoke desired reactions from the public. Using
stereotypes for parody and humor such as the film
Prizzis Honor.
38Curricular or Policy Issues for Education
- Schools cannot avoid the issue of stereotyping.
- Schools should not solve the issue by having
students merely look for examples of stereotyping
in the media. - Schools should carefully and systematically teach
students the differences between generalizations
and stereotypes through simple exercises. - Have students select one radio talk show to
listen to two weeks and determine if there is a
pattern of treatment when discussing a particular
ethnic group. - Collect all articles about women from one
newspaper for two week to see if there is a
pattern of topic selection. - Watch TV network national news shows for a
pattern of treatment in regards to religion. - Read and collect movie reviews in regards to one
ethnic group. - Look at magazines to see if there is a pattern of
adjectives to describe one ethnic group.
39Multicultural Education in the Cyberspace Era
- Cyberspace is more democratic since it allows
students more of an opportunity to decide what
and when to learn in regards to multicultural
content. - Cyberspace can be more effective than other media
in fostering both intergroup and intragroup
discussions of ideas. - Cyberspace can be used to communicate across
national, ethnic, cultural, and religious line to
learn about people who are different from us.
40Clarification of History/Development of Personal
Multicultural Perspective
- Cyberspace has greatly expanded the number and
variety of people who can participate in the
media and add to its content. - Cyberspace is not equitably distributed through
all ethnic groups, so information can be biased
in favor of those who are access. - Cyberspace can be more selective by creating
niche-oriented sites through Web pages and
on-line magazines. - More difficult to specify the group identities of
the authors of sites than television, radio, and
the print media. - Difficult to assess and analyze the cyberspace
multicultural media content.
41Curricular or Policy Issues for Education
- Using the Internet to promote intercultural
conversations and building a global common
ground. - Using the Internet to explore intragroup
differences, clarify issues, and mobilize group
action. - Concerns for promoting polarization and foster
bigotry through hate-based Web pages. - Providing access for all students to use the
Internet equally. - Deciding how to use gatekeepers on the Internet
in regards to inappropriate sites for students. - Evaluating and analyzing if information on a site
is authentic. - How to deal with underground student newspapers
that may promote bigotry. - How does the Internet influence students in terms
of advertising, and bias?
42Conclusion
- The author used relevant sources from the media
to cite how all people and especially children
are influenced by it, and how they are either
consciously or subconsciously learning about
diversity from it. - The media portrays the information in various
ways, and often times put their own 'spin' on
their takes. Sometimes they show multiple views
and other times they choose only one. - It is up to educators to determine how they will
take what students learn about multiculturalism
from the media and incorporate it into their
teachings. - End of Presentation
- Thank You!