Focused Discussions
NUI Galway
Critical Media Literacy - Reading the Word, Reading the World: An Original Short Documentary Film Screening and Discussion View Digital Media
Focused Discussion Pete Mc Cauley
Critical Media Literacy (CML) is defined as a “theoretical framework and practical pedagogy” that “involves identifying, analyzing, and challenging media that promote representations or narratives involving racism, sexism, classism, homophobia and other forms of discrimination that further marginalize targeted social groups” (Kellner & Share 2019, pp. XI-XIII). In the most basic sense, CML is a pathway that enables instructors from Kindergarten through college to aid in the personal development of a “Critical Consciousness” in individual students and learners. Everyone (both within and outside education) talks about “teaching people to think critically” as a foundational goal of education, even more important than teaching individuals how to add or subtract. But what does “being able to think critically” really even mean? And how can we empower educators to not only be thinking about these philosophical goals but also implementing strategies into their pedagogy and practice to enable students to be engaged on this level as well? For this Focused Discussion, I screen a short documentary film I produced as the Capstone project for a Master's of Education in Learning Technologies, and facilitate a discussion around the themes put forward in the film. The film is 12 minutes long and can be found here: https://youtu.be/5gqT113kGZU
Shame or Glory: British Visual Media Propaganda in WWI View Digital Media
Focused Discussion Eric Williams
World War I saw the deployment of visual media propaganda on an unprecedented scale. British propaganda was far more nuanced and voluminous than the other belligerents during the conflict. Government agencies in Britain utilized the mechanism of visual presentation to bombard the civilian population in cities across the Isles, preying on themes of masculine military duty and feminine national sacrifice to compel the population to enlistment and rationing. The development of various propaganda narratives found life in a torrent of propaganda posters that demanded a masculine national response to both the German enemy and civilian malaise. Propaganda enticed service to the nation through gendered imagery in posters, unflinching painted canvases of shell pitted hellscapes, and staged action in the newly minted technology of film. Through an examination of the psychological language of propaganda, and a thick analysis of government agencies involved in the development of visual media propaganda, the rhetoric of the image will foster examination, analysis, and deconstruction. By blending both art history with historiographical research, psychological analysis and semiotics, a more thorough accounting of the creation, messaging, and audience for visual media propaganda is possible. The tools of artistic deconstruction and examination work in conjunction with notions of visual representation, class dynamics, gendered language, and national identity to provide a multi-disciplinary approach to propaganda studies in the 21st century.
