Zoom Reading As a Multi-Dimensional Media Literacy: a Qualitative Media Study with Youth in Rural Ontario
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ZOOM READING AS A MULTI-DIMENSIONAL MEDIA LITERACY: A QUALITATIVE MEDIA STUDY WITH YOUTH IN RURAL ONTARIO TAUNYA TREMBLAY A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY GRADUATE PROGRAM IN EDUCATION YORK UNIVERSITY TORONTO, ONTARIO APRIL 2015 © TAUNYA TREMBLAY, 2015 ABSTRACT In this dissertation, I develop and study an original approach to media education I call “Zoom Reading”. This approach offers a critique of, and supplement to, the current Ontario media literacy curriculum by suggesting that media should be given the same rich attention as literature. Drawing on my background in communications and cultural studies, I argue for an approach to media education that includes an attention to form and content, personal experience and social life. After conducting a qualitative study with students in rural Ontario to experiment with Zoom Reading, this project explores the ways that the (rural) location and age of the participating students informs their engagement with popular media. I also consider the unexpected relationships that emerge as Zoom Reading brings to life the pedagogical complexities of working with youth and media. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This dissertation would not have been possible without the care and support of so many people in so many ways. To my supervisor, Chloe Brushwood Rose, whose enduring support, insights, and provocations helped my project grow from an idea to a study. It has been a privilege to work and think with you. I am thankful for my committee members, Celia Haig Brown and David Skinner, for their encouragement and suggestions throughout the development of this work. And, thank you to Bronwen Low, Janine Marchessault, and Heather Lotherington for offering challenging and generous ideas at the dissertation defense. While I was fortunate to have many engaging conversations with the faculty and students in the Graduate Program in Education, a special thank you goes to Melanie Bourke, Mary Harrison, Karen Kugelmass, and Anne Stebbins. Our biweekly meetings over caffeine and charcuterie boards were invaluable in thinking through my writing and writer’s blocks. Thank you to my parents, Rose and Brian, who cultivated and encouraged my love for reading and learning. From Charlotte’s Web to King Kong, playing in trees to playing Wolfenstein 3D, thank you for your care in developing my critical and creative education. Finally I am endlessly grateful for my partner and confidant, Matt. You believed in my journey even when I thought it unattainable, and your patient support over the last twelve years has given me the courage and conditions to chase my wildest dream. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT………………………………………………………………………………………………ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS…………………………………………………………………………...…iii TABLE OF CONTENTS .............................................................................................................. iv LIST OF TABLES ........................................................................................................................ vi LIST OF FIGURES .................................................................................................................... vii CHAPTER ONE ZOOM READING: A MULTI-DIMENSIONAL APPROACH FOR MULTI-MEDIA ....................... 1 Reading and Media Literacy ............................................................................................................. 3 The Philosophical Framework of Zoom Reading .............................................................................. 8 Zoom Reading as a Flexible Framework for Media Literacy ........................................................... 19 Research Methodology ................................................................................................................... 22 Chapter Outlines ............................................................................................................................. 24 CHAPTER TWO A HISTORY OF THINKING ABOUT MEDIA IN EDUCATION: EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGIES, MEDIA LITERACY, MULTILITERACIES .................................................... 27 Movie-Made Students: Early Perspectives on Film as an Educational Technology ....................... 28 The Revolution Will Be Televised: The Mid-Century Media in Literacy Education ......................... 33 The Digital Contemporary: Media Literacy in a Spectrum of Literacies .......................................... 39 CHAPTER THREE METHODOLOGY: HOW I IMPLEMENTED ZOOM READING ................................................. 50 Philosophy of Method: Inspired by Cultural Studies and Ethnography ........................................... 50 Ethical Issues .................................................................................................................................. 53 Research context and participants .................................................................................................. 69 Data Analysis .................................................................................................................................. 87 CHAPTER FOUR PLACING MEDIA: BETWEEN COUNTRY FIELD AND GLOBAL VILLAGE ............................ 89 Place as a Heterotopia .................................................................................................................... 92 Country Field: The Country as “Nowhere,” as Place of Memory, as Safe ...................................... 95 “We Do It Different ‘Round Here”: Country and Rednecks as Divergent ...................................... 102 Global Village, Rural Field: (The) Country as Connected, Disconnected ..................................... 115 Zoom Reading and Questions of Place ........................................................................................ 121 CHAPTER FIVE THE DESIRE FOR AND FEAR OF NEWNESS: ADOLESCENTS AND MEDIA .................... 124 Creating “Youth”: The Problem of Adolescence/Adolescents as a Problem ................................. 126 In/Appropriate Media: Choosing & Using Media in Education ...................................................... 132 New Media as Cool: Working with What Youth Want ................................................................... 142 Social Age and Uncomfortable Conversations ............................................................................. 146 CHAPTER SIX iv ZOOM READING AND THE QUESTION (OF) PEDAGOGY ................................................. 156 Media Pedagogue as Researcher: Asking Questions .................................................................. 157 Questioning in Media Club ............................................................................................................ 160 The Ignorant Media Educator ....................................................................................................... 163 CHAPTER SEVEN ZOOM READING AND THE FUTURE OF MEDIA LITERACY .............................................. 167 Works Cited ............................................................................................................................ 175 Appendix A..............................................................................................................................187 v LIST OF TABLES Table 1. An example of question prompts using Zoom Reading…………………..……..Page 47 Table 2. Students’ attendance in Media Club according to text and group…………..….Page 59 vi LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1. Diagram of Hall’s “Encoding/Decoding”. Retrieved from: http://www.factoryschool.com/backlight/diagrammatica/1990s/images/hall.jpg………...Page 13 Figure 2. Shannon-Weaver Model of Communication. Retrieved from: http://communicationtheory.org/wp- content/uploads/2011/06/shannon_weaver_model.jpg…………………………………....Page 32 Figure 3. Schramm model of communication. Retrieved from: http://communicationtheory.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/Osgood-Schramm-model-of- communication1.jpg …….…………………………………………………………………….Page 38 Figure 4. Image of Husky in +Anima: Volume 1. Retrieved from: Mukai, N. (2002). +Anima: Volume 1, p. 189.…………………………………………………………………………….. Page 62 Figure 5. Larry the Cable Guy’s website. Retrieved from: larrycableguy.ras.bustores.com.……………………………………………………………..Page 107 Figure 6. Youth laughing and drinking in Aldean’s (2011) “Dirt Road Anthem”. Retrieved from: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lb9q1ScC4cg ………...……………………………………..Page 149 vii CHAPTER ONE ZOOM READING: A MULTI-DIMENSIONAL APPROACH FOR MULTI-MEDIA The research problem for my study begins with an exciting twenty-first century development for education in Ontario: multiple media are now required in schooling as resources for teaching and learning. Specifically in 2006, in all grades between kindergarten and grade twelve, “Media Literacy” has become a mandatory component of the English and Language Arts curricula. As an avid gamer, cinephile, television binge-watcher, amateur photographer and voracious reader throughout my life, I look to media to digest and make sense of myself and my world, my memories and my many potential futures. Ontario’s new multi-media curriculum gave me hope that students’ personal investments in media would now be embraced and validated. In this research project I set out to study Ontario’s Media Literacy curriculum and consider ways to implement this educational development. I understand the term media to mean anything mediating communication from one person to another. The Oxford English Dictionary defines a medium – the singular