Teaching the Media
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COMEDIA Series editor: David Morley Len Masterman lectures in Education at Nottingham University. His work has had a considerable influence on the development of media education in Britain, Australia and throughout Europe. He has addressed national media education conferences in nine different countries, and is consultant to UNESCO and The Council of Europe. He was jointly responsible for drafting the UNESCO Declaration on Media Education. To the memories of Tim (‘Tad’) Masterman and John Daniels TEACHING THE MEDIA Len Masterman First published in 1985 by Comedia Publishing Group in association with MK Media Press Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2005. “To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.” © 1985 Len Masterman All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any informa tion storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. ISBN 0-203-35905-4 Master e-book ISBN ISBN 0-203-37161-5 (Adobe eReader Format) ISBN 0-415-03974-6 Pb Acknowledgements This book has grown out of literally hundreds of discussions, dialogues and conversations which I have enjoyed in the recent past with friends, students and colleagues throughout Britain and abroad. Since there is scarcely an idea in the book which is not in some senses collaborative, it is important to begin with an acknowledgement to media educators everywhere, a great many of whom are working indefatigably and often at great personal sacrifice, to establish this important area of the curriculum. If this book has any strengths, they are reflections of the work of an important and growing movement. Its weaknesses and omissions, of which there are many, are my own. Special thanks, however, are due to Dave Morley for his perceptive comments, general support and great tolerance in accepting yet another delay in the receipt of this manuscript. Special thanks also to – Paul and Lindah Kiddey, constant sources of inspiration and help. – David Jackson, Mike Hamlin, David Light, Malcolm Stanton and Roy Goddard—members of the Nottingham Politics and English Groups and talented and committed colleagues from whom I continue to learn. – Dr Herbert Marchl and Dr Breda Pavlic of UNESCO, and Maitland Stobart of The Council of Europe for providing me with the opportunities to work with so many distinguished international colleagues. – Gill Corban and Michael Stearn of Balmain for their generous hospitality and for introducing me to the ATOM network. – To all of my Australian colleagues whose enthusiasm re-kindled my own. Special thanks to Jan Smith, Robert Newton, Liz Jones, John Martin, Barrie McMahon, Robyn Quin and Peter Greenaway. – Neil Campbell and Martyn Youngs. The sections on game shows (Chapter Seven) and Geography (Chapter Eight) owe a great deal to their original work. – Alan Jenkins and Harry Tolley for their updates on developments in Geography. – Philip Simpson, David Lusted and Cary Bazalgette of the British Film Institute Education Department and James Learmonth, HMI. All have vi laboured long and hard in the cause of media education in England and Wales, and current developments in the subject have a general indebtedness to them. – Robbie Robertson, Eddie Dick, Rick Instrell, Julie Watt, Liz Liddell, and many others who have played such an important part in recent developments in Scotland, from which many of us south of the border have learned a great deal. – Terry Eagleton, Terry Hawkes, Colin McCabe, John Good, Tony Davies, Brian Doyle and Francis Mulhern: leaders of a series of seminars held in Nottingham on Ideology and English Teaching, which greatly clarified many of my own ideas. – and Val Cook, Nigel Cook, Graham Murdock, Liz Curtis, Ros Cross, Phil Wardman, Martin McLoone (and all at Donney and Nesbitt’s), Kevin Williams, Jill Vincent, Chris Camp, Audrey Eaton, Suzanne Gillespie, Jane Hawkins, Peter Groves and Val Layton. Some apologies are also due, particularly to Professor Miguel Torres of Valparaiso, and many others to whose generous invitations I was unable to respond whilst engaged on this book. Finally, writing is, at the best of times, an unsocial activity. This book was written in the holidays, at weekends and during the evenings of a heavy working year. It could not have been completed without the assistance, tolerance, love and support of an exceptional woman, whose social life I curtailed and whose routines I disrupted. In return she offered original ideas (many of which are included in this book), perceptive comments on the manuscripts, and unfailing encouragement. Thanks, Paula. The courtesy of the following is also acknowledged for permission to reproduce copyright material: The Observer for reproduction of their property page; Michael Simons and Cary Bazalgette with Simon Clemens and Andrew Bethell for Teachers’ Protest photographs; James Curran, Jean Seaton and Methuen Ltd. for Press Conglomerates table (Appendix B); Lindah Kiddey and Blue Bell Apparel Ltd. for Press Release, photograph and press cuttings; Stuart Hood and Pluto Press for extracts from On Television: Liz Curtis and Pluto Press for extracts from Ireland: the Propaganda War; Ian Baker, Dr Patricia Edgar and Macmillan Ltd., Melbourne, for extracts from The News in Focus; David Jackson and Marisa Horsford for extracts from Poems, and for contact sheet of Marisa’s photographs; The Age for photograph of Malcolm Fraser at the Glendi festival; the Newark Advertiser for photograph of children’s party. Contents Introduction xi 1. Why? 1 Media saturation 2 Media influence 3 The manufacture and management of information 7 Media Education and democracy 10 The increasing importance of visual communication and 12 information Educating for the future 12 The growing privatisation of information 13 2. How? 16 A theoretical framework for media education 18 Core concepts 21 A distinctive mode of enquiry: towards critical autonomy 22 Practical work 23 Media pedagogy 24 3. How not to… 34 The media as agents of cultural decline: the legacy of Leavis & 34 Thompson The media as popular art forms 44 The media as aids to learning and disseminators of knowledge and 55 experience The media as agents of communication 58 4. Determinants 63 viii Introduction 63 Media determinants and pedagogic problems: the case of The 64 Companies You Keep Media determinants: Some general resources 69 General reference works 69 Trade publications 70 Free resource material 71 Media determinants 73 Owners and controlling companies 73 Media institutions 76 The state and the law 78 Media self-regulation and control 85 Economic determinants 91 Advertisers 95 Audiences 102 Media personnel 103 Sources 104 5. Rhetoric 113 Selection 115 The rhetoric of the image 125 Image and text 131 The effect of camera and crew 140 Set-ups 142 Film and sound editing 147 Interpretative frameworks 148 Visual codings 153 Narrative 155 6. Ideology 167 Defining ideology 167 Ideology in the classroom 177 ix 7. Audience 192 Introduction 192 Problematising audiences: Morley, Hobson and Smythe 194 Audience positioning 204 Subjectivity 211 Pleasure 212 8. Futures 215 Introduction 215 Media Education across the curriculum 216 Geography 217 Science 224 English 227 History 228 Holistic approaches to Media Education 232 Interaction between educators and parents 232 Interaction between media teachers and media personnel 234 Interaction in the training of teachers and media personnel 238 Media Centres 238 Notes 240 Select annotated bibliography 260 Appendices A. Resources for Media Education Bibliographical, research and 303 reference resources Simulations 305 Photoplay materials 307 Teaching packs 308 Teacher training resource 310 Regional resource banks 311 Regional networks, groups and contacts 311 x Journals and magazines 316 Organisations with an interest in Media Education 320 B. British press conglomerates 321 C. UNESCO Declaration on Media Education: The Grunwald 325 Declaration Index 327 Introduction This book is organised around a number of simple questions. They are questions to which all teachers, from primary to post-school, will need to have answers if they are to teach about the media effectively. Why teach about the media? (Chapter One). How can we best go about it? What kind of conceptual framework will help us make sense of the field? (Chapter Two). Upon what kind of assumptions has media education been based in the past, and why has it been less than conspicuously successful? (Chapter Three). Chapters Four to Seven are the core of the book and describe in some detail how the conceptual framework outlined in Chapter Two might be developed in the classroom. Chapter Four asks why media texts are as they are and looks at a number of important interacting determinants of media texts. This is a lengthy chapter, much of which is intended to be a handy reference guide. Since it has been necessary to cover a great deal of ground, to provide resumés of a large number of arguments, and to pack in a good deal of information, first-time readers are advised to skim this chapter judiciously wherever they feel it to be necessary. Chapter Five asks how the media achieve their effects, and explores their wide range of rhetorical strategies. Chapter Six tackles the thorny question of how to teach about ideology, whilst Chapter Seven examines an area traditionally neglected by media education, that of the complex interactions which exist between texts and audiences. Finally, Chapter Eight asks how media education might best be developed as a lifelong, school and community-based process. Teachers coming to this book in the expectation that it will primarily offer them a series of lesson plans, ideas on what to do on Monday morning, descriptions of the minutiae of classroom organisation, or even a linear developmental model for media education, may be disappointed.