« We Media conference Opens | Main | We Media Community Forum »
February 8, 2007
Media Literacy as a Family Value
Last night I attended a blogger dinner at the We Media conference and sat at a table featuring Tish Grier, Jay Rosen and Robin Miller, among others. Tish and I talked about our childhoods and what we remembered about learning how to read, recounting our earliest experiences with newspapers. Both of us were taught to read news with a critical eye, something that has impacted us for the rest of our lives. This got us wondering about other bloggers, and whether media literacy was a "family value" during their formative years.
Tish blogged about our chat and offered some thoughts on the matter:
Andy and I thought that perhaps the best media literacy education actually begins in the home. Media habits, like many other habits, might come from our parents. It's the way both Andy and I were taught as children to consume media with the intention to understand, not re-enforce a preconceived notion-that has made us savvy media participants, not passive media consumers. Inquisitive minds, a passion for perspective and and a desire to participate in what we had been engaged with since childhood is what motivated us to become a part of media culture-writing and communicating with others through our blogs-not stand apart from it.
What about you? What are your earliest memories of becoming media literate? Is it something that was encouraged by your family? Was it a "family value" for you as it was for us? -andy
Posted by acarvin at February 8, 2007 9:43 AM
Listen to a computer-generated podcast of this article
