Category Archives: Media

Students Call Officials’ Homes When School Isn’t Called Off For Snow – News- msnbc.com

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Students Call Officials’ Homes When School Isn’t Called Off For Snow – News- msnbc.com

So, the MSNBC story and it gives some better detail.  The most important piece, probably, that wasn’t covered in the AP story was that this wasn’t the first phone call:

But recently, this role has resulted in dozens of phone calls to his home, many from students and some in the middle of the night. Other students have sent profane e-mails to the administration.

So, now we get a better view of the situation at least from the administrator’s wife.  Interesting media literacy lessons, here.  Check different stories.  Wait for a day before drawing too many conclusions.

Reading Research

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So, here’s the article from the the Boston Globe reporting findings of a recent study of infants and educational videos. The article seems to suggest a cause/effect relationship between watching videos and a reduction in vocabulary. They interview one of the researchers. “I would rather babies watch ‘American Idol’ than these videos,” Christakis said, explaining that there was at least a chance that the parents would watch with them — giving the babies contact and perhaps interaction that would have developmental benefits.”

Here’s the abstract of the actual article. It indicates an association but concludes with a call for more research to determine the reasons for the association. And, the results come from a telephone survey of parents so the data is mostly self-report. Other less mainstream media do a better job of cautioning readers about the limitations of the study.  For instance, the Machinist blog at Salon says,

The researchers are careful to note that their study doesn’t prove that the DVDs are the cause of reduced infant vocabularies; it could be that parents who are buying such DVDs are doing so because their own verbal skills aren’t strong, and that this weakness is being reflected in the kids’ confusion over words like “cookie.”

And, The New Scientist writes,

But she cautions that the researchers did not eliminate the possibility that parents who show their child baby DVDs interact less with them, and she says it is that lack of interaction that sets back their child’s learning.

No such cautions appear in the newspaper articles, however, and it is much more likely that most people will read it there than at a blog or a more off-the-beaten track publication.   I suppose it is good that the researchers are trying to determine if the videos really do help put children on the fast track, but the way it gets translated in the media is frustrating.

Sick Day(s)

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I managed to contract bronchitis, and the doctor mentioned pre-pneumonia, which was enough to scare me into bed. Actually, I couldn’t really do much else anyway…too wiped out. The meds are starting to help me and I’m on the road to recovery, but my husband reminds me that I don’t want to take a detour, so I’m spending yet another day on the couch. Thought it was a good chance to catch up a bit on this blog. So, media-wise, here are a few things I’ve been thinking about:

Paris Hilton: OK, so I never thought I would blog about Paris Hilton, but I’ve been watching a lot of television for the past few days and got caught up in the story of her impending jail sentence. Actually, this article from YahooNews gives lots of interesting details about her unwillingness to take responsibility for herself along with insight into the parenting skills that have led to this situation. (Her mother called prosecutors “pathetic,” an epithet she might well turn on herself at least in the mothering department, especially considering the fact that the reason her daughter is in the situation in the first place is for a drunk driving violation. She was over the legal limit and never attended the alcohol classes that were required. Where were her parents then??) But the saddest part is where the media commentary comes in. This, according to several sources, will actually help her, not because she will learn that she is accountable just like everyone else but because it will simply add to her mystique as a celebrity. EEK! She is already making the most of it: using her myspace page to appeal to her fan base to petition California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who is, IMHO, wisely staying out of it. We live in a really screwed up time when going to jail can actually be good for your career. Maybe I’ll organize the Paris Hilton boycott.

Speaking of television…we do not have very good cable access, mostly use it to get internet access so choices are very limited for me or, maybe it is just limited in general. My recurring headache makes it tough to read so I’ve been surfing the channels. First, I’m wondering if I can market my own new weight-loss plan: the bronchial pneumonia cure. Just get really sick so all you can imbibe is orange juice. Do that for a week and voila, lose 10 pounds! Then, there was the Jerry Springer show that I only saw for a few minutes…a woman in a bikini painting a half-naked man then rolling with him on the floor. Please tell me why this is allowed at a time when kids are watching TV? It is clearly pornography. We filter the Internet like there is no tomorrow, but this kind of garbage seems to get no comment. Mostly, I end up at Food TV; I can always watch someone cook. Sorry…didn’t mean this to be a rant, actually, but I’ve been through all my Netflix movies.

I’m going to escape it all by taking a nap…

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France bans citizen journalists from reporting violence | InfoWorld | News | 2007-03-06 | By Peter Sayer, IDG News Service

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France bans citizen journalists from reporting violence

From InfoWorld, an article describing the French government’s attempt to reign in citizen journalists by making it an offense for anyone to film and distribute acts of violence unless they are sanctioned journalists. So, they are trying to unblur the very blurry lines between bloggers and journalists. I think along with that law, they should prohibit these sanctioned journalists from blogging. It might be too confusing for their citizens to distinguish between the real and the possibly not-real. That’s assuming, of course, that the journalists are always reporting what’s real.

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Reading, like a brick, forms strong foundation – USATODAY.com

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Reading, like a brick, forms strong foundation – USATODAY.com

I’m posting this because it relates to some research I’ve been reading that says that teachers are either ignored in the media or only presented in negative ways. I was reminded of that as I read this really nice feature about a 50-something teacher who makes learning fun even when it is hard. She incorporates games (OK, not video but vocabulary) and includes an art project as part of the standard research project. Nice article!

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Well, It Turns Out That Lonelygirl Really Wasn’t – New York Times

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Well, It Turns Out That Lonelygirl Really Wasn’t – New York Times
“They were like the new Marshall McLuhan.”

I missed this one…don’t spend enough time at YouTube, I guess. Anyway, it turns out that the teen who has been videocasting from her laptop is actually a 20-something actress who is videocasting from someone else’s laptop.  The interesting piece of this from a media literacy standpoint is that the audience suspected all along that this wasn’t “real” yet were fascinated by the story as well as the mystery of who she really was.  There is a fine line between fiction and reality these days, isn’t there?

Disney Does 911

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<DisneyDoes911>

I haven’t seen any of the 9/11-related movies but this one is already generating controversy and is another perfect text to study in a media literacy class. ABC’s movie is a “fictionalized” account of history before 9/11 and evidently seems biased against the Clinton administration. Where’s the line between news and entertainment? Can you create fiction out of history when the main players are still alive and have any reason to stand up and say, “That’s not how it happened?” So, I wonder if this makes people think twice about all historical fiction, especially who is telling the story? Maybe it should even make them think about historical non-fiction 😉

NB: After I posted this, I read an article on defining documentary films by Dirk Eitzen that addresses the very issues at play here.  My notes on the article can be found at the wiki.