Navigating the information highway is becoming more challenging every day. More people are relying on internet sites, blogs and social media for news and information, but studies reveal that people are less likely to get the facts right about politics and science. The study also noted that those browsers are more likely to believe a false narrative.
In this episode of “Generation Rising,” host Anaridis Rodriguez speaks with Dr. Sara Sweetman, associate professor in the College of Education and Professional Studies at the University of Rhode Island. She is also a consultant for PBS Kids shows like “Sesame Street,” “Molly of Denali” and “Eleanor Wonders Why.”
Sweetman, who according to her biography is leading URI’s new Environmental Education degree program this fall at URI, works collaboratively with producers, writers, station educators and researchers. They partner to ensure that content being delivered through television shows, digital games and other media sources are designed to provide meaningful learning opportunities for children and their families.
The full interview can be found here.
What is media literacy?
Rodriguez and Sweetman are diving into the intersection of education and media literacy. Sweetman spoke during the run-up to the 10th annual Media Literacy Week, which was celebrated in Rhode Island and nationwide from Oct. 21 through Oct. 25. The initiative was spearheaded by the National Association of Media Literacy Education.
Sweetman said the main goal of Media Literacy Week was to get the public talking about media literacy and what it meant.
“It’s a fairly new concept, and so it’s really important that we’re talking about it and hearing voices from our community about what media literacy means to everybody so that we can incorporate that into education,” she said.
Sweetman said that this year’s media literacy was broken down into different parts. Each day during the week, a new piece of it was introduced to discuss.
The first day targeted access to media as a whole, where “we can think about who has access to media,” and what allows people to have access to media.
The second day, meanwhile, focused on analysis.
“That’s really looking at who’s creating media, what is the message, who is that message for?” Sweetman said.
On Day No. 3, the focus was on evaluation.
“And that’s really where we put our own ideas into media,” she said. “(Like) How does that make us feel? What are we taking away from it? How does that affect me personally?”
For the next day, Sweetman said creating was the focus.
“We’re not just consumers, but creators,” she said. “And there are so many tools out there now that make it easy for us to create media, which goes back to the concern over if so many people are creating media, how do we know, how do we consume it with critical thinking?
The final day is dedicated to acting.
“Media is intended to give messages,” she said. “And with those messages we can do a lot of things.
“We can show the knowledge that we’ve gained from the messages, but we can also advocate for populations that might need advocating for. So the week is really divided out into helping us understand more about the expansiveness or broadness of media literacy as a whole.”
Educators facing new challenges
Sweetman said educators are facing “quite a few challenges” when it comes to children’s access to technology because it is continuously evolving.
“I think teachers feel like they just get good at a piece of tech, using a piece of technology, of engaging kids with that piece of technology. And then it’s either outdated or they have upgraded to another form of technology,” she said. “And so it’s three steps forward and two steps back.
“And it can sometimes feel a little frustrating.”
Sweetman added that another big challenge is the messages teachers receive from the media.
“It’s really quite confusing. We get a lot of messages from public health in media that says screens are harmful and we should limit the amount of screen time that we’re giving to our children,” she said. “And then on the other hand, businesses are saying, we need children who are ready with 21st-century skills, and they need to be able to navigate this increasingly technical society.
“And so those two messages don’t match. They can be very confusing.”
Sweetman said the biggest challenge for teachers has been the media “redefining what it means to be literate.”
Since the printing press was invented in 1440 until the 1960s, literacy meant a person’s ability to read and write, she said.
“And that’s really just not the case anymore. And I would say in 600 years that we have been working really hard in education about finding the best way is to teach kids to read and write,” she said. “I’m still not sure we all agree on the very best ways for doing that and that we’ve had a lot of time to work with it.
“So the idea that media that we have information in our pockets that we can find out, we have personal devices is really changing the definition of what it means to be literate.”
Sweetman said that children today are receiving plenty of negative information about the world, but added that they should also be receiving good news as part of their information diet.
“I think we need to teach kids how to engage with media. Things like limiting media isn’t really an educational perspective on media,” she said. “We need to teach children how to regulate their own media consumption and how to navigate through that immense media world when they are looking up something about, you know, if they’re writing a report on a certain time period or how to navigate through not getting lost in the world of media.”
Sweetman cited her experience working with television shows on PBS Kids, noting that for every minute a child consumes media, thousands of hours of work helped develop it.
She added that digital games offer a really safe place for children to test their ideas and thinking.
“Games that I’ve worked on have really capitalized on this,” Sweetman said. “They can ask things like what if, and they can try things that are a little bit safer in a game online than if you’re in real life.
“They can try out their ideas and ask those ‘What if’ questions.”
That plays into a child’s natural joy in learning something new, she said.
“Sometimes we get bogged down in the requirements that are on us in education and forget that children want to learn, especially when we start with a joyful experience,” Sweetman said. “No matter what grade I taught, kids loved science, right? They loved observing and manipulating materials and working hard for finding out and discovering something new.
“And then the media draws kids in. It gets them excited. And I think starting really from that joyful place is really important. And we need to not forget that.”
