Great work from my friend ArielK!
I made this video essay as a final project for one of my classes this semester, TV & the Development of Youth. It was a fantastic class, even though it brought up more questions than it answered. We watched a lot of TV and we talked about a lot of TV, and from this we tried to figure out TV’s significance to young people. What really is the difference between TV and other mediums, such as reading? Why am I more comfortable with young kids reading about a racy sex scene than seeing it on a screen? Is our media consumption redefining what we consider “literacy”? Can we create a clearer definition of media or technology literacy ? Does creating an “educational” show mean inserting a moral? How can we ever know what TV is teaching youth, even if they watch shows where educational content is carefully planned?
I went to an educational conference this spring in New Orleans, and at a particular session I overheard a group of educators complaining about the worthlessness of reality tv shows. It’s a thought I’ve had before. Unfortunately, the urge is often to pull away and leave television out of curricula, despite its powerful appeal. And “television” doesn’t have clear definitions anymore as we lose the temporality of network schedules and access it online. Moreover, the tools to create media are quickly becoming widespread. If we don’t like what we see on the screen, we can amend or alter it. We can rebut it. We can try again. (Thanks to Claudia and Peter, who blogged about the video responses to the Alexandra Wallace youtube video).
