Time to Bring Public Policy and Social Media Together for Progress

I've had a great summer, much of it spent off the grid unplugged from email, tapping into social media for fun. It's been great connecting on a more personal level with family and friends in real time talking, laughing, crying, sharing, hugging.

Thinking back to when Facebook arrived on the scene in February 2004: I was slow to adopt. I signed up eventually and connected to family and local friends. When Twitter followed in March 2006, I decided I was not going to try to keep up with yet another platform. Not so for businesses, corporations, institutions, and the like. Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook opened up a whole new world of marketing strategy for them.

"We don't have a choice on whether we DO social media, the question is how well we DO it." ~ Erik Qualman

After being accepted in 2011 into a 6-month program for women interested in pursuing political office, I was introduced to Twitter and quickly grew to enjoy it. I set myself up on LinkedIn later that same year and leaned into the idea of using Facebook as a way to connect with folks on a range of issues, too. This video gives a snapshot of social media at the time:



Gone are the questions asking if social media is here to stay. Clearly they are, though how kids and adults are using social media today has changed dramatically.

Consider a PEW study published earlier this year that provides an overview on American teens and their use of technology and social media. One finding showed that 92% of teens were online everyday, with 24% online "almost constantly".

So much has changed - and is changing - across our media-saturated landscape. Schools and individual teachers are working to bring media literacy to students, but media literacy is not broadly implemented in our public schools and media literacy is rarely part of the public debate on education. Still, more and more politicians and policymakers are getting on twitter and facebook to connect to their stakeholders and constituents.

I'm a member of the national advisory council for Media Literacy Now. We want our elected representatives and policymakers to engage with us on social media. As more and more elected people are engaging stakeholders and constituents through Twitter and Facebook, we can connect with them in meaningful ways to impact awareness of the urgent need for media literacy education and other key public policy issues of our time.

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Posts, Podcasts, tweets

• Educational Software Gets Attention from State Politicians
• ISTE: Standardized curriculum for teaching tech skills
• 9 things we learned about phones from a teenager
• Growing up Digital: 3 truths for the adults
• A Parent's Guide to All that "EdTech" in Your Kid's Classroom

Should apps be part of a library’s story time? Ask @mediatrician: http://t.co/qpvRT2r27a #BackToSchool

— CtrMediaChildHealth (@cmch_boston) September 2, 2015

Tips for an online age: What not to share http://t.co/JYnTEtDlso @MBrodeur via @BostonGlobe

— MediaLiteracyNow.org (@MediaLitNow) September 1, 2015

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Addendum: cross-posted September 9 on Media Literacy Now blog

Perceptions in Leadership

At about the time the U.S. Women’s National Team won the 2015 FIFA World Cup, Misty Copeland was promoted to principal ballerina at the American Ballet Theater, the first African-American woman to do so in its 75-year history.  A few weeks later, NFL’s Arizona Cardinals named Dr. Jen Welter as their first female coach. It’s wonderful to see these “firsts” for women - - but in 2015 we have a long way to go in supporting young women and girls today so they become confident and effective leaders tomorrow.

A recent study by the Harvard Graduate School of Education reinforced this.

The study focused on perceptions of middle and high school boys and girls about gender and leadership and revealed that the gender gap persists. We already knew this, but it’s good to have the data.

Nearly 20,000 diverse middle and high school students from public and private schools in the US, Canada, and international schools, and 1,200 parents took part. Most of them didn’t see women as leaders in most fields, or only in fields stereotypically female, as shown in the graphic below, taken from the study:

Gender stereotyping is pervasive in media and culture, surrounding boys and girls with pernicious images that hinder ability and limit choices and opportunities. For girls, this can erode confidence in their leadership and also cultivate and reinforce biases in boys. Ultimately, we all pay the price of such limiting behaviors. Indeed, we are paying the price now.

Adults and parents must confront and challenge their own gender biases, then empower boys and girls to identify and actively combat them, too. Media literacy for all can help. Media literacy provides a framework to challenge and empower children, youth, and adults from negative stereotyping and build essential skills of inquiry and self-expression necessary for citizens of a democracy. Until, and unless we do, we will continue to be surprised every time a woman becomes a "first".

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Addendum: Cross-posted on Media Literacy Now, Monday, August 10, 2015 

Media Literacy Education

Advocates in support of the Media Literacy Bill (S.213) were in good company in Room A-1 of the State House on the morning of October 31st. Below is the testimony of Christina Brown on behalf of the Massachusetts PTA, followed by my testimony on behalf of the MASC Legislative Committee.

My name is Christina Brown; I am a parent, educator, and a proud member of the Massachusetts Parent TeacherAssociation, an affiliate of National PTA, the oldest and largest volunteer child advocacy association in the country, here to speak on behalf of the needs of families, parents, and children.  

Thank you for the opportunity to testify before you today on the critical issue facing children in the 21^st Century, media literacy. Right now there are children all over the Commonwealth who have in their hands, in their lockers, and in their backpacks devices that connect them to the greatest collection of marketing, images, information, videos, social media, and personal data collection tools in the history of our species. This portable collection of media grows exponentially every day and our digital natives naively assume that knowing how to manipulate the functions of these devices means they understand and can make wise decisions about the content that pours out in torrents. 

As a parent of a second-grader, I know my days of having control over the media that my child has access to are limited.  My ban on his using electronic devices that connect him to this collection of media could end any moment as there is no place a child can go where there are not smart phones and tablets. I know full well that this media is as valuable as it is his dangerous to his development and socialization. I also know there are marketers doing brain research at this moment to understand how to keep him engaged and on their screen. I know that he hears my voice in his head asking him to think critically, ask himself what is being sold to him, is this true, what is the evidence for the veracity of the claim that comes with deceptively attractive graphics and colors? But I know parents can't do this alone.

This bill asks that in addition to their families' voices, children in the Commonwealth also hear the voices of their well-trained and skilled teachers who are provided with resources to support the development of media literacy in our children. Teachers can join parents on the frontline and add to the knowledge and volume of critical questions children ask themselves as they use new technology and navigate our 21^st Century world. In the same way MA teachers will for thirteen years support children's development as literate individual who are prepared for college and career as readers, writers, speakers, and listeners as detailed in the MA Frameworks, there is a desperate need for this comprehensive literacy instruction to fully include media literacy to support students in navigating a and increasingly complex media landscape.

The Mass PTA Position on Consumerism dedicates us to:

I. support efforts to protect children from exploitive marketing through advocacy, education, and collaboration; and

II. To support, expand, and improve efforts to inform parents on media and technology safety issues.

The Mass PTA Position on Technology in Schools dedicates us to:

I. Support, expand, and improve efforts that increase knowledge and skills for students to access, analyze, evaluate, navigate, and communicate a variety of media messages from the internet and other media sources.

The Mass PTA Position on Education of the Whole Child dedicates us to:

I. Support, expand and improve resources to ensure schools give every child access to a rich array of subjects and address children's basic emotional and physical needs.

II. Support, expand, and improve resources to ensure children are healthy, engaged, supported, challenged, and safe.

Media education is about making sure that students are prepared to think critically and ask the right questions throughout the 21^st Century and into the 22^nd Century. And it is essential, now more than ever that we give them skills they need for the lifetime that extends well-beyond their K-12 years. Thank you.

Christina Brown,

Massachusetts PTA

405 Waltham Street, #147

Lexington MA 02421

617/861-7910

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Honorable Co-Chairs, members of the Committee, thank you for the opportunity to testify on the importance of Media Literacy in Education. I speak as a school committee member and member of the Massachusetts Association of School Committee’s Legislative Committee.

Members of locally elected school committees are very sensitive to public policy overload, education legislation, or any legislation that would mandate course curriculum content. At a meeting of the MASC Legislative Committee last Thursday night, members thoughtfully considered, then voted unanimously to support S.213 for the following reasons:

• The Bill is not written as a mandate. Media literacy is pedagogy, a method of teaching, not a subject area. One can incorporate media literacy into any subject. So, it’s not an add-on, but rather a powerful way to teach a subject that is relevant and engaging to kids who live in a powerful 24/7 media environment.
• The MTA endorses S.213 and has been on board as long as the Massachusetts PTA.
• It’s a matter of equity. Some districts already recognize that media literacy is written into the Common Core State Standards and those districts are moving forward to integrate media analysis; students risk falling behind schools and districts that are doing a better job preparing their students for work and life.
• This Bill calls upon the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education to assist districts with implementing comprehensive media literacy education for the purpose of developing stronger critical analysis skills and independent thinking skills; these skills are in tune with curriculum frameworks aligned to Common Core State Standards and necessary for navigating our media-saturated world.

Today, literacy means media literacy. When you consider that nearly 6 trillion ads are displayed online each year[1], 400 million tweets are sent daily[2], and 4.75 billion pieces of content are shared on Facebook every day[3], it’s vital that students question and understand media’s commercial and political messages –– and to create their own messages and responses to 24/7 media. Thank you.

Mary Ann Stewart

Lexington MA 02420

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[1] U.S. Digital Future in Focus 2013, www.comScore.com

[2] http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2013-03-21/business/37889387_1_tweets-jack-dorsey-twitter, by Hayley Tsukayama, March 21, 2013

[3]https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151908376716729&set=a.10151908376636729.1073741825.20531316728&type=3&theater

Literacy Today = Media Literacy

Lexington's community forum about the positive and negative impact of media on societal behavior and the development of children got me thinking about our current media landscape and what individuals, families, and communities can do to improve positive outcomes. The forum was held on October 10th at Lexington High School and was co-sponsored by the School Committee, League of Women Voters, and numerous Town and School Department groups, and individuals.

The impact of media on children is always a topic of concern and today's media landscape has dramatically changed over the last decade; all of us are now living in a world of 24/7 media saturation. One startling finding of a Kaiser Family Foundation survey (2010) showed that young people are devoting more than 7.5 hours each day with entertainment media - an increase of 1 hour and 17 minutes since 2004. The survey also found that:

"...because they spend so much of that time 'media multi-tasking' (using more than one device/medium at a time), they actually manage to pack a total of 10 hours and 45 minutes worth of media content into those 7..."

Schools and individual teachers are working to bring media literacy to students, but media literacy is not broadly implemented in our public schools and media literacy is rarely part of the public debate on education. A bill in the Massachusetts State Legislature (S.213) proposes to change that.

S.213/H.472 (language is identical in both bills) would bring media literacy education to all Massachusetts K-12 public school classrooms. Media literacy education teaches students to apply critical thinking to messaging and to use media to create their own messages. It's a methodology, a pedagogy, a strategy and key skill that's vital to the health and well-being of all children, as well as to their participation in the civic and economic life of our democracy.

The irony is that, used well, media can entertain and inform our children in positive ways. However, since most children are not taught to use media thoughtfully, they are not able to think critically about it's content. Research shows that media literacy education has been effective in reducing risky behaviors among children and youth of all ages and for all topics of focus, such as tobacco use, violence, and sex.

Media Literacy Now, a 501(c)4 non-profit organization focusing on grassroots and legislative media literacy activity for K-12 schools in each state, has formed a coalition in support of S.213. Public testimony is being planned to present to the Joint Committee on Education's public hearing on Thursday, October 31, 2013. If you are interested in being in touch with parents, teachers, and others working for media literacy education in our schools, visit their website, where you can learn more about media literacy and sign up to join their mailing list. Watch on this site, too, for updates to this issue.

Panel members, Anthony Brooks, moderator

Tom Fiedler, Dean, College of Communication, Boston University

Nancy Carlsson-Paige, Ed.D. Professor Emerita, Lesley University

Michael Rich, MD, MPH, Director and Founder of the Center on Media and 

Child Health at Boston Children's Hospital

Word.

Whereas Arts education comprises an array of disciplines including dance, music, theater, media arts, literature, design and visual arts; and

Whereas Arts education can help students develop a variety of skills such as

Media Literacy

Media is powerful.

Today's media landscape has dramatically changed over the last decade and our children are now living in a world of 24/7 media.

Results of a national survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation showed (2010) that