A Cultural Media Literacy Program for High School and Higher Education”
Prime time television created for
and consumed by teenagers continued to project a substantial degree of cultural
bias that echoed, in numerous ways, older, negative patterns of portrayal
and/or omission. Prime time
programming that was popular with teenagers was recorded, sampled and
qualitatively analyzed, observing the cultural parameters of Culture/National
Origin/Race, Gender, Sexual Orientation, Age and Ability. Analysis revealed that the programming
showed persistent, overt and subtle, negative stereotypes of African-American
men, largely omitted African-American women, Asians, Latinas/os and Native
Americans, trivialized women and young people, disrespected homosexuals and nearly
asserted that people with disabilities didn’t exist at all. Teenagers, as formative adults and
aspirational viewers, look to television programming to help them define their
roles and acceptable behavior in and expectations of their social environment. Program sample analysis raised serious
questions about the efficacy of all of the programming with regard to teenage
viewers. Teenagers are constant
and ready viewers, open to these portrayals that are often submerged from
conscious view just below the narrative surface, encoded in dialogue, behavior
and relational patterns. Current
trends in corporate media conglomeration help explain the presence and
character of the general teen media and television environment. Media literacy and cultural media literacy
are important elements in the remediation of the possible negative social
outcomes of heavy and/or regular consumption of culturally biased prime time
television programming. A
comprehensive media literacy presentation was created as a positive, proactive
outgrowth of this study, geared for high school and college students, but
adaptable for adult audiences.
“Spirit, Nature and Media: Contemporary Implications of the
Nature Narrative in Television and Cinema”
(planned
course of research for proposed PhD study)
“Spirit,
Nature and Media” is an exploration of the connection between the character and presentation
of mediated stories of nature and the slow and unemotional popular response to
the challenges
of climate change/global warming and environmental degradation. Fundamental elements
of indigenous spirituality will be applied to gain perspective on the
differences between the
modern view of nature and the indigenous view that has been the dominant human
experience and
practice for the majority of the human experience on earth. The premise of this study is based upon
the observation that the media narrative is deleterious to creating substantive
connection to information
about nature, spiritual and ideological discourse about nature and environmentalism
and
nature itself. Without this
substantive connection to nature, it may continue to be exceedingly difficult
to abrogate the conditions that have created the assumed human contribution to
climate change
and imbalanced environmental exploitation.
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| Production still from "Pumzi" by Wanuri Kahiu |
“Media
and the Nature Narrative” is a presentation developed for the university
community to share
some of the current study on this subject with a particular focus on narratives
presented by the
cable channel, Animal Planet.
“Media and the Nature Narrative” was presented at Franklin Pierce
University.
“Indigeny and Energetics”
This study is an observation of the fundamental
elements of indigenous culture as the primary historical
human cultural orientation, a deeper look into the modern cultural deviation
from that orientation
and an embrace of a new historical perspective on the importance of indigenous
life practice
and spirituality and its relationship to the future of humanity on earth.
Recent
writing about this subject can be found at http://indigeny-energetics.blogspot.com/.
Academic/Research Interests:
Television/Cinema, Cultural Media Literacy, Media Democracy, Media and Social Justice, Sustainable Living, Environmental issues, Wholistic Living, Spirituality, Indigenous culture, Sound Healing, Shamanism, Water Rights, Environmental Justice
