Archive for November, 2008

Announcing November’s Freelight Winner!

Tuesday, November 25th, 2008

Congratulations to Jacqueline Berry, the winner of November’s Freelight giveaway item: Women Empowered by Phil Borges!  Read below for her inspiring story about empowerment.

And remember, if you want the chance to win great free stuff every month, you have to sign up for our newsletter!  You’ll also get insider news from the LAMP about workshops and events.  Signing up is free and easy–just use the “Newsletter Signup” box in the left column.

Jackie’s Story
“I was empowered when I went from a stay at home single parent, watching TV, to an elected member of the Community Education Council of School District 7. I was encouraged to run by a parent coordinator, and was surprised when I won. Once a member, I was invited to meetings, and began attending any education meeting that I could find. From every meeting I would take home written material and surf on the Internet for added information.

When I discovered I could access the school budget of my son’s school, I went to a meeting of PTA presidents, and made sure that each president knew how to access their school’s information on the Internet. Many of the presidents did not know they could do this.

My school district is designated by the NY Dept of Ed. as District In Need of Improvement. All the schools are eligible for federal Title 1 Funding because of the poverty level. Many of the principals look upon the parents as poor and uneducated, not considered as partners in student achievement and improvement of schools.

However, what a difference a title makes. When I go to a school and introduce myself as Jacqueline Berry, Community Education Council Member, the principal invites me into their office, makes coffee for me, and tells me what’s going on in their school. This has empowered me, and motivated me, to work for parents and students in my school district.”

Jacqueline Berry, Parent
Community Education Council, District 7

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Yet another wake-up call

Thursday, November 20th, 2008

A study was released by the MacArthur Foundation which reports what most young people already know: Digital media are good for you.  Some of the major findings include the assertion that youth use online media and networks to extend friendships and interests, and that youth engage in self-directed, peer-based learning online.  The report also calls for educational institutions to modernize their systems, and that adults have a responsibility to facilitate the relationship their youth have with new media.

Bingo! This is what we here at the LAMP have said many times before in our workshops and materials: Media needs to be a family affair.  It’s not enough to set up filters; you have to actually talk to your kids about it and learn how to use it yourself.  Too often, I run into adults who look down on new technology as trivial or beyond their ability to understand, and the simple response is that it is not.  I think that we will look back on ourselves years from now, and wonder why we didn’t act sooner.  Schools also have to take the step towards utilizing new media in their lessons, and in tandem with this, administrators and federal funders need to make this possible by allocating money.  Stringent rules (like blocking YouTube from all NYC public school computers) are not the answer–an attempt to standardize something so complex as the Internet does not benefit anyone.

In my view, much of the antagonism adults feel towards new media has been created by sectors of the media itself.  It’s true that online predators exist, and that hateful and inappropriate material floats around in cyberspace.  What’s also true is that these stories are generally reported with more frequency than the positive things that happen with the Internet.  Unfortunately, however, fear of the unknown has prevailed, enabling big media to own the way we view things and turn our heads.  My hope is that the MacArthur report will reach educators and adults who are are paralyzed and overwhelmed by new media, and help them wake up to change and new responsibility.  If you have children, you’re already at an advantage to learn–have them teach you.  You might be surprised.

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Press Release: Financial Crisis May be Tied to Lack of Media Education

Tuesday, November 18th, 2008

For Immediate Release

Contact: Emily Long, Communications Director
The LAMP
718-789-8170

http://www.thelampnyc.org

Financial Crisis May Be Tied To Lack of Media Education

“Deceptive” advertising misled consumers

New York, New York: The collapse of the subprime mortgage market may have been enabled by a media illiterate public, according to D.C. Vito, Executive Director of the LAMP (Learning About Multimedia Project).

“Without a strong presence of media education in our schools and communities, consumers are easily lured by misleading advertisements,” says Mr. Vito. “When people are not thinking about the media around them, they don’t read the fine print and ask questions. The current situation is one example of how media education, consumer education and financial literacy are all linked.”

Michael Calhoun, director of the Center for Responsible Lending, has denounced ads from online mortgage lenders like lowermybills.com as “the classic definition of a deceptive ad.” However, the ads appear to persist; according to reports from Nielsen Online, the Financial Services industry maintained its position in Q2 2008 as the highest spender in online advertising. Online lending services also appear to remain popular, with current web traffic to eloan.com alone stabilized at around 250,000 unique visitors per month.

“We don’t expect companies to stop advertising,” continued Mr. Vito, “but we do believe in a media environment where consumers are making informed choices. Media literacy is crucial in helping people learn not to take everything they see at face value.”

Efforts by the LAMP to provide media education include workshops in which students break down an ad and then create one of their own, and others where they learn how to recognize persuasion techniques. All of the workshops are provided free of charge to participants, and reached over 130 students last year alone.

About The LAMP:
The Learning About Multimedia Project (The LAMP) is a non-profit organization which strives to provide critical media literacy skills to the inter-related groups of youths, their parents and educators throughout New York City. Free media education workshops and events offered by the LAMP demystify the constant flow of media these three groups encounter, bridge the digital divide, and provide workforce development skills for future generations. The LAMP is incubated by the Fund for the City of New York.

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Rethinking E/I

Thursday, November 13th, 2008

Perhaps when watching children’s television shows with your family, you’ve noticed a symbol with an “E/I” in the corner of your screen.  This stands for “Educational/Informative,” and started to show up when the FCC enacted the Children’s Television Act in 1990.  Using research showing that children watch an average of three hours of TV per day, the CTA required programmers to define the type of programs they were airing and to provide a minimum three hours of E/I programming per week between the hours of 7am and 10pm.

Sounds great, right?  But only when it works, which seems not to be the case.  Yesterday in Washington, D.C., a non-profit organization called Children Now released a report of the educational quality in children’s television programming entitled “Educationally/Insufficient? An Analysis of the Availability and Educational Quality of Children’s E/I Programming.” Some of the key findings in the study include:

  • 1 in 8 of children’s television shows meet the criteria for “highly educational”
  • Only 25% of broadcasters deliver any e/i content during weekdays, instead relegating it to weekends–a practice denounced by the FCC as far back as 1974
  • E/I shows aired on commercial (as opposed to public) broadcasts are far more likely to use a high amount of physical aggression as a function of the lesson, regardless of the targeted age group
  • Commercial E/I programs dedicate 3% of their content to art, 3% to health/nutrition, and 1% to math
  • According to the Annenburg Center Reports, E/I programs judged as highly educational made up 29% of total E/I programs in 1997-1998.  That number dropped to 20% in 2000, and has continued to drop to its current low of 13%

The most troubling part of the report is the last bullet.  One would hope or even expect that as time passes and more research is conducted, the educational quality of E/I programs would improve rather than steadily diminish.  Yes, this is another argument for media literacy, but in this case the lesson is perhaps most heavily applied to parents.  We have stressed the importance of making media a family affair–parents must be involved in their children’s media habits, watching their TV shows and talking to them about what they do online.  It is not safe to assume that your child is learning every time they watch a program with an E/I symbol.  If we as a culture demand higher quality programming and loudly refuse to accept what is currently excused as E/I, the landscape of children’s media can and will change.  The FCC has power, yes, but not as much power as you when it comes to determining what shows are good for your family.

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Have you heard about…?

Wednesday, November 12th, 2008

Whether you’ve got too much time on your hands or you have a genuine question, the Wired How-to Wiki is something everyone should have in their bookmarks.  I discovered it recently when a friend posted the “How to Bake a Cake in a Mug” link on Facebook, and voila–just one more reason why I love the web.

The reason I highlight the wiki is because we find many of our students (usually the adults) are so bombared with all the new stuff out there that they don’t know where to start, how to use it or what it does.  This wiki is a great resource because it covers many of the basics, like “Copy a DVD” or “Speed up Your Mac,” but it also goes into topics that are for more advanced users, such as “Optimize BitTorrent To Outwit Traffic Shaping ISPs.” No matter how literate you are, there is something for you.

Another fun thing is that the wiki covers topics extending beyond the digital world and into the physical one.  Suppose you want to be more fit but don’t have much time–see “Lose Weight While You Work.” Not sure what to do for planning your child’s next birthday party? Check out “Throw a fantastic children’s party.” There are many more examples of articles, both useful and just for fun, but one of the best things about the wiki is also one of the best things about Web 2.0–you can talk back to it.  You can join a discussion, add your own article, suggest an article and also reach the folks at Wired with questions and comments.  (Which is good, because I haven’t yet seen any articles here about media literacy.)

And, just to be clear, the LAMP is not supported by Wired or Wired.com in any way.  We just genuinely like their stuff.  But if you want to support us, we accept and need your help!  Please use the link at the bottom of our website to make a tax-deductible donation.

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Who says print is dead?

Thursday, November 6th, 2008

The historic election of Barack Obama to the post of United States President brings to mind the notion that one would like, no matter which candidate one supported, to collect as much memorabilia as possible for posterity’s sake. In fact, it seems that this is what most Americans did. According to Reuters blog, the New York Times printed an extra 50,000 copies of its November 5th issue, and for the first time in a long time, the New York Daily News printed an “afternoon edition” and longer lines than normal were reported at news kiosks in Chicago where people were buying five or more copies of the Tribune and Sun-Times.

I admit that I too wanted to have a piece of history for myself and purchased a NYTimes on my way into work. It just seemed to make sense, that decades from now, it would be nice to have a keepsake, a single relic that indicated the spirit of how people felt the morning after the first African American was elected to this country’s highest office. It got me thinking about a question I pondered earlier, regarding Google’s tool allowing folks to see how some of their favorite sites looked in 2000 as part of their 10 year celebration. How do we record history when our traditional form of memory-keeping is no longer sitting on shelves, behind glass cases or in a scrapbook? There is much discussion about the supposed “demise” of print media. I understand the argument that people read newspapers on their computers and mobile devices, which causes a decrease in demand for the physical printed material. But, that is primarily for the information we seek and then promptly dispose of. What of those editions that capture history or a unified human moment? I find it hard to believe that we’ll someday be capturing our favorite screenshots of web pages to record important, record-breaking, history-making events. That seems cold and not nearly as warm as a tangible, physical archive.

I could be wrong, but I’m nonetheless reluctant to declare the death of print media.

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The Victor: New Media

Tuesday, November 4th, 2008

Unless you live under a rock, you’re aware that today is Election Day here in the United States.  I hope that each and every one of you who are registered voters are going out and performing your civic right and duty to cast a ballot for our next President.

I’m no historian when it comes to presidential campaigns, but I would be willing to bet that, just as in this campaign, media has played a huge role.  From pamphlets distributed in the pre-bellum era to blog postings published moments ago, our votes are impacted in some way by media.  The trick for the candidate is in the strategy for creating his/her own media image, and in the response to media produced by the opponent.  Given that, it is worth noting for a second the power of new media which has reached a new height with this election cycle.

The online presence of both candidates has been much discussed already, but let’s do a quick recap: Barack Obama picked up where Howard Dean left off, and rallied a good many of his troops through online social networks.  A visit to his website will bring you to 16 social networks where he is registered, while videos are posted to BarackTV–which is divided into eight channels, each of which are filled with dozens of videos.  After his win in South Carolina in January, online donations poured in at the rate of $500,000 per hour.  John McCain has also designated a portion of his website to multimedia, but he has not ulitized social networks nearly to the extent that Obama has.  A search on his website for Facebook turns up nothing.  I was unable to locate figures for how much McCain has raised online, but he should get an honorable mention for having raised $2.2 million online during the week he won the New Hampshire primary…back in 2000. For a side-by-side comparison of online activity related to each candidate, be sure to check this out.  It should be clear that more and more, democracy is taking place online.

Politics aside, one must respect the staggering number of people who used new media to learn about or campaign for a candidate.  It reminds us that it is time to rethink the innumerable ways people interact with media, and the ways in which new media in particular is changing how we do…well, everything.  Like how we teach our children, or what skills we need to be competitive in a modern workforce.  Media literacy addresses both of these things and much more, and is imperative to an increasingly digital society.  If you or someone you know ever doubted the power and importance of new media, it’s time to wake up.  As they say, attention must be paid.

Please consider making a small donation to the LAMP today, using the button at the bottom of your screen for NYCharities.  Every little bit helps us in our mission to build a media literate culture in a media saturated world.

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