Media Education

When I first picked up David Buckingham’s Media Education, I thought “Great. Here’s another waste of my time I have to spend reading an assigned book I’m not even interested in. And SIX chapters??? Even worse.” But once I read the first page, I was hooked. This book is so interesting in the way that it describes the shift the media and technology has taken, specifically when it comes to the topic of children. The book refers to the gap between generations involving technology and I can completely understand what Buckingham is talking about because I am the “child” and my parents are the “older generation.”

I was surprised and glad the book touched on not only the fact that people are becoming less and less personable with each other (we can create aliases through the use of sites like Facebook, etc.), but also the implication media plays in our lives as it affects our perceptions of “race,” morality, body image, and what is “cool” and “un-cool.” So many messages in the media are not explicit, as the Western culture and media drives us towards what is perceived as the “correct” way to be: blonde, straight-haired, blue-eyed, thin, pretty, heterosexual, and white.

It is important for us as future educators to allow our students to be aware of these messages being portrayed by the media and society around us. Recently I came upon an article on Yahoo about African-American girls feeling like there is something wrong with their hair because they don’t have the long, flowing hair portrayed in endless numbers of ads, magazines, and on TV. Toys, such as Barbie, do not help this situation either. However, Sesame Street has created a Black puppet with hair like these little girls who think there is something wrong with them. Unfortunately many little girls like them don’t know that they are perfectly fine and the problem lies in the media’s portrayal of what it means to have hair as a woman. The puppet on Sesame Street sings about how much she loves her hair is brags about the fact that she doesn’t need to worry about wasting time and money in the beauty salon because she can take her cute hair and tie it up.

The media has the power to portray positive and negative images of what they believe it means to be of a certain group. I hope that we as prospective teachers can have open discussions with our students about the mixed messages in this world and that it is people who decide what is “right” and “wrong” for the whole, not that there are laws that say your hair has to be a certain way in order for you to be accepted.