Jmlvo.64No.1&2 2017 to Download the Issue
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VOLUME 64 i NUMBERS 1 & 2 Agency From the Editors Marieli Rowe and Karen Ambrosh, Neil Andersen and Carol Arcus ........................................ 2 Henry Jenkins interviewed by Neil Andersen By Neil Andersen .................................................................................. 4 Media Teory 101: Agency By David Buckingham ............................................................................ 12 Agentive Realism and Media Literacy By Michael Dezuanni.............................................................................. 16 Media Literacy, Good Agency: If Jez We Could? By Julian McDougall .............................................................................. 20 Media Literacy Tat Excludes a Planet at Risk is Not Agency By Barrie Zwicker................................................................................. 27 A Fresh Look at the Media Literacy Movement: Te Telemedia Council as an Agent for a Better Future By Marieli Rowe ................................................................................. 34 Te Birth, Death and Resurrection of a Subject Association By Robyn Quin and Barrie McMahon................................................................ 40 Towards a Rights-Based Vision of Digital Literacy By Matthew Johnson .............................................................................. 46 Marshall McLuhan on Agency in Education and Technology Use By Alex Kuskis ................................................................................... 50 Maneuvering Entrenched Structures of Arab Education Systems: Te Agency of Arab Media Literacy Educators and Activists By Jad Melki and Lubna Maaliki .................................................................... 56 Fostering Agency Trough Media Literacy By Martin Rayala................................................................................. 61 Newspapers in Education: Acquiring Future Customers, or Serving Future Citizens?: On the Suitability as Agency of Newspapers in Education in Japan for Promoting Media Literacy By Yoshimi Uesugi ................................................................................ 64 Promoting Media Literacy in China: Te Agency Efort By Alice Y. L. Lee ................................................................................. 70 Producing and Building My Citizenship: Media Education and the Human Rights of Young Women By Raquel Ramírez Salgado ........................................................................ 74 Canadian Agents By Neil Andersen ................................................................................. 80 End User License Agreements in Plain Language By Neil Andersen ................................................................................. 86 Barry Duncan: A Radical Agent for Media Literacy Education By Carol Arcus ................................................................................... 90 2017 • VOLUME 64, NUMBER 1 & 2 1 FROM THE EDITORS “Tis time, like all times, is a very good one, if we but know what to do with it.” —Ralph Waldo Emerson ice President Joe Biden quoted Emerson in for this year and potential growth and change in our his recent eulogy for astronaut and former organization, we are purposefully pausing production senator, John Glenn, to illustrate his legacy. of our traditional journal for 2017. Readers can ex- VIt represents a poignant example of John Glenn’s per- pect to receive more communication about this pro- sonal agency in his extraordinary life. Te urgency of cess throughout the year in both print and online. our work in media literacy and the need for knowl- We thank you for your continued support and look edge and action has never been more evident than forward to celebrating with you in our anniversary today; the anxiety level of our society appears to be year. i at an all-time high. Could it be brought on by the un- precedented experience of today’s pervasive media immersion? It is easy in our time for an individual to Marieli Rowe be mired in a sea of media messages, which can be like JML EDITOR trying to navigate an ocean without a rudder. More people, of all ages, are feeling an untraceable sense of anxiety and a loss of control that can only be reme- died through agency. Emerson’s words are from 1844, Karen Ambrosh and yet provide a strong positive spirit across time, NTC PRESIDENT especially today. Knowing what to do in our time is media literacy in action; it is Agency. Leave it to the Canadians to capture the essence of our time and be a true agent of change for a me- dia-wise, literate global society. Te Journal of Media Marieli Rowe Karen Ambrosh Literacy owes a debt of gratitude to Neil Andersen and Carol Arcus for challenging us and our readers to look at what we do in media literacy education through a new lens, from a point of knowledge in action. Te contributions of our authors in this issue give us much hope and direction. Tey are beacons of light in the vast ocean of our media environment. We would especially like to congratulate, and to highlight the visionary work of Dr. Martin Rayala. He and Dr. Cristina Alvarez are the co-founders of the innovative Design Lab School in Delaware, which has become one of 10 schools across the country to be designated an XQ Super School, receiving $10 million to rethink high schools for the 21st century. Te National Telemedia Council is inspired by the work of these pioneers of the future. Next year, we will be celebrating our 65th Anniversary and want to declare 2018 as our Year of Media Literacy. To prepare 2 JOURNAL OF MEDIA LITERACY FROM THE GUEST EDITORS gency is knowledge in action. In media lit- uses of agency according to cultural contexts: media eracy, agency is the exercising of awareness literacy in action; change agents; media education A through critical thinking skills to efect in the service of democracy or human rights and as change personally, locally and/or globally. an agent for awareness in the workplace, school, and Agency is also a central dilemma of our evolving society. Other words are also employed strategically, electronic environment. With power comes responsi- for example: one to refne meaning (see Martin Ray- bility. As governments, corporations and individuals ala’s use of ‘meliorism’ in “Fostering Agency Trough acquire increasing power over their own and others’ Media Literacy”) and one to characterize it (see Julian information, ethical questions continue to raise their McDougall’s purposeful use of ‘fuck’ in “Media Litera- heads. cy, Good Agency: If Jez We Could?”). Governments can collect and share—without We are very grateful to the many thoughtful peo- responsibility or detection—details of our online ac- ple who took the time and trouble to help us wres- tivities. Corporations can collect and sell—without tle with so many critical aspects of agency and to the remuneration or regard—details of our online activi- Journal of Media Literacy for publishing them. We ties. We, ourselves, can create and distribute powerful hope that their thoughts and actions will support and communications, true or false, harmless or damaging. encourage your own refections and, If Jez We Could, What are the responsibilities and agencies in an envi- your agency. i ronment of such surveillance and disclosure? Marshall McLuhan observed that violence is agency—the act of someone seeking to fnd or es- tablish an identity. We must acknowledge—by way of transparency and context—that the articles in this issue were written during a most violent history, spe- Neil Andersen Carol Arcus cifcally: bombings and shootings in northern Europe; mass drownings in the Mediterranean; a failed coup and purge in Turkey; mass shootings in America; weekly deaths of black men and women at the hands of police; the Brexit vote; civil wars in the Middle East; the hottest summer on record; and a US presidential campaign in which Donald Trump gave license to civil disobedience, xenophobia, misogyny and division. It is inevitable that these violent events infuenced some of the tone and substance of the articles. We begin the issue with big ideas. You will fnd some rich and provocative discussions about the po- tential of media literacy education—indeed its very purpose and efcacy—in promoting agency. Funda- mentally, these articles ask us to consider agency’s rai- son d’être and tragic faws. Te rest of the issue ofers case studies of a variety of idiosyncratic meanings and 2017 • VOLUME 64, NUMBER 1 & 2 3 Henry Jenkins interviewed by Neil Andersen [politics] [distributed power] [self-determination] [participatory culture] [Nelly Stromquist] [Anthony Giddens] Henry Jenkins is the Provost’s Pro- Politics occur at all levels where power is de- fessor of Communication, Journal- ployed—from the informal distribution of power at ism, Cinematic Art and Education the level of the family, through the structures in the at the University of Southern Cal- classroom which shape the relative infuence of teach- ifornia and the founder and former ers, students, parents, administrators, etc., over how director of the MIT Comparative learning takes place, to the relations between consum- Media Studies Program. He is the ers and producers or between labor and management, author/editor of more than 17 books on various aspects to the relationships of citizens and various govern- of media and popular culture, including most recently mental agencies, to the relationships between peoples By Any Media Necessary: The New Youth Activism and around the world. Power, resources,