Comment: Media Literacy Through Experience (by Wojciech Gryc)

While it is cliché to say that experience is the best teacher, few actually practice this pedagogical advice. Schools often explore the theoretical aspects of mathematics, business, and even computers, at elementary, secondary, and post-secondary levels, but have little focus on their applied aspects. While such education is beneficial, it is rarely enough to lead a person to success. Application of knowledge and creative thinking are what lead to innovative, worth-while ideas, and this cannot be taught theoretically.

Organizations and not-for-profit groups present opportunities that allow students to apply their knowledge. While learning mathematics and philosophy is extremely useful, the same can be said for carpentry and film-making. Five Minutes to Midnight is among one of thousands of groups that stress the importance of learning through experience. Such experience-oriented learning is important within the media: to truly understand where a source is coming from, and to be able to spot bias, one must experience it first-hand. Luckily, there are media organizations who take this approach, and this is at the heart of the Gulf Islands Film & Television School (GIFTS) in British Columbia, Canada.

Nestled in the exquisite natural environment of Galiano Island, the school allows students of all ages and backgrounds to register for media-related courses and learn by doing. Courses may be as short as one week, but with intense twelve to eighteen hour days, there is more than enough time to film a short documentary or make an animated piece. Indeed, doing so in such a short amount of time not only teaches about the arts, but also focuses students on practical life skills like goal setting and time management.

Most importantly, however, is the focus on media literacy. George Harris, the founder of GIFTs, states "We invented GIFTS because we believe that the media does impact our relationships with human rights, international and environmental issues. The more issue based stories that youth are exposed to and create themselves, the greater the understanding, and hopefully the greater the difference, they will make."

While it is easy to sit down and watch the latest edition of a corporate news conglomerate's broadcast, making your own documentary allows you to learn about the media techniques and reporting skills that may be used, consciously or accidentally, to mislead audiences. Harrison continues, "If people start making, watching, 'home-made media', we may see a fundamental shift in the brainwashing that goes on today."

People experience media everywhere they look, be it in advertising, on television, or online. There is no shortage of sources for experiential learning. To fully understand the media, however, one must study it and do so both theoretically and practically. It is once a person becomes a creator that one can see others' creations for what they really are.

Sources

Harris, George. "Interview with GIFTS." E-mail. 30 May 2005.

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