Television worth
talking about
Scanning Television, 51 short videos for media literacy studies, Neil Andersen,
Kathleen Tyner and John J. Pungente, Face to Face Media/Harcourt Canada,
2003 (2nd ed)
US$249 plus $40(VHS) or $25(DVD) handling charge, 4 VHS cassettes or 2
DVDs plus Teacher Guide (96pp), ISBN 077471560X
Scanning Television is a major achievement in putting together a video
compilation of a wide range of material from the Lumière Brothers’
‘actualities’ in 1895 to the internet and digital television today. The
material will undoubtedly be of interest to UK media teachers, not least
because of the supporting documentation and teaching ideas.
But before I discuss the contents of the pack, it’s worth considering what
kind of questions it raises about media education in the UK. We haven’t
seen material like this in the UK since the early 1990s and the BFI/OU Introduction
to Media Education. Before that, the nearest equivalent might have been
the various strands of Thames Television’s The English Programme
in the 1970s and 1980s. The English and Media Centre’s excellent range of
detailed media packs (Advertising, News etc.) are comparable in terms of
the quality of the resources, but they are much more tightly focused.
In short, what Scanning Television represents is something we have
tended to forget about: a broad approach to media education for the 14+
school and college population, as distinct from a tightly defined media
studies curriculum. We are to some extent in danger of basking in our success
in introducing media studies at GCSE and A Level to a percentage of the annual
cohort, but it is still only a relatively small percentage. So far, the attempt
to introduce media education into the ‘English’ part of National Curriculum
in England and Wales has also been limited in the kinds of work students
are asked to do.
They do things differently in North America where the emphasis appears
to be on a more concerted attempt to introduce ‘media literacy’ across the
school and college population and reading through this pack is like being
taken back to a time when there were ‘open spaces’ in school and college
timetables where media education could flourish under headings such as ‘social
studies’, ‘general studies’ and ‘liberal studies’. Are we better off now?
There are other differences in North America. I hope it isn’t too stereotypical
a view to take, but sometimes it feels like both Canadian and American media
educators are more likely to succumb to what would be seen in the UK as
an ‘inoculation’ attitude to aspects of media education. It’s noticeable,
for instance, that quite a number of the extracts in the pack refer to propaganda
or persuasion, to PSAs (public service announcements) dealing with children
and advertising etc. or to genuine attempts to subvert media power. Along
with the ‘health warnings’ against ‘controversial material’ (e.g. on teenage
suicides, date rape, the Kennedy assassination) there might be the possibility
that the collection of materials could be seen as downplaying the visual
literacy skills of sophisticated young viewers and not paying sufficient
attention to the genuine pleasures of media texts.
But, perhaps we stress visual literacy not media literacy and what is certainly
refreshing about the pack is the inclusion of historical and ‘political’
material without apology, but with a real attempt to engage student viewers.
In the light of recent events in Iraq and the support for Bush and Blair,
the pack is timely in reminding us that North American culture is not as
politically supine as some commentators in the UK pretend. Before I get too
carried away, I should also mention that the pack is co-produced by the Jesuit
Communication Project. This is standard practice in North America, but in
UK terms an unlikely partnership for a media education project. The first
edition of the pack also received praise from the New York Daily News: “More
analytical than critical there’s not a dud in the bunch”. Read into this
what you will, I’m certainly prepared to think again about the importance
of media literacy.
‘North American’ is the crucial term here, because this is a Canadian pack,
even if quite a lot of the material is American in origin or in focus. Canadian
culture is arguably the least visible, or least ‘discernible’ of any of
the national cultures of the G8 countries. Here is a country, most of whose
inhabitants live in a narrow strip within broadcasting distance of the United
States, which makes strenuous attempts to preserve a sense of difference
in the face of US cultural hegemony. Even so, its culture is deemed ‘boring’
by ignorant commentators in both the US and UK and many of its successful
cultural figures are generally taken to be Americans. (Hollywood would almost
grind to a stop if all the Canadian connections were removed.)
Perhaps that’s why Canada has always been an important focus for media
studies. Marshall McLuhan and the National Film Board of Canada, community
video and, more recently, Naomi Klein and Adbusters, have all been essential
exports.
What characterises Canadian media work is often the low budget, guerrilla-style
(but technically accomplished) representations of the ‘whole picture’ of
life in North America. So, many of the extracts in the pack come from CityTV
in Toronto, one of the stations owned by an independent media company that
broadcasts media education programmes as part of a public service and community
role. (Check out the interesting websites of Chum TV, starting at www.chumlimited.com).
The pack is divided into five sections based on a different, but recognisable,
set of key concepts; Media and Representation; Selling Images and Values;
‘Constructed Worlds’; The Global Citizen; New and Converging Technologies.
Each section comprises video extracts (most around 5-7 minutes the
ideal extract length) with corresponding entries in the Teacher’s Guide listing
possible discussion questions before and after screening and advice on what
to look out for. At the end of each section is a useful chart with suggestions
for further work. Since the prime activity is Critical Viewing, the follow-up
activities cover Writing, Speaking/Listening, Research, Critical Thinking
and Media Production.
There isn’t space here to list all of the hours of video material. Some
of it has already been mentioned. Other categories include mini debates, student
exercises, the epk (electronic press kit) for The Matrix, some hilarious
short films from the 1950s on dating behaviour, popularity in class etc.
and the famous Kennedy v. Nixon television debate from the 1960 presidential
election. There is only one UK clip - the 1950s spoof Panorama programme
in which Richard Dimbleby introduces the spaghetti harvest in Switzerland.
This is probably the least interesting clip but seems to have caught the
imagination of North American commentators - surprised at the flippancy of
the BBC?
Will UK students find the material interesting? I think that the Canadian
election coverage might be a struggle, but almost everything else should
provoke a response, including footage of Osama Bin Laden on Al-Jazeera and
the battle for the radio airwaves over Cuba. The quality of the material
looked OK on my television sourced from the DVD player, but not so good full
screen on the Mac. Apart from the Matrix material (sadly, pan and
scan) most of the material comes from North American (NTSC) video sources,
but is provided on PAL tapes and DVDs for the UK.
At around £175 the pack is an expensive purchase, but given the wealth
of material it represents good value for money. I hope that sets are bought
by large colleges, teacher training departments, university libraries and
other resource centres. It would be good to see local schools being able
to borrow the material from a local library as required.
I wonder if anything like this could be produced in the UK? I daren’t think
about the copyright wrangles some of the stuff might provoke, but my main
concern is about the disappearance of the community video sector, the workshops,
the single issue campaigns, all of which produced provocative and informative
video material in the 1980s and performed something like the function of
CityTV. Are there still agencies who are interested - or perhaps we are all
happier working on action films and sitcoms? Buy this pack and prove me wrong.
You can find out more about Face to Face Media on www.facetofacemedia.ca
Tom Barrance adds:
Even without taking into account the contextualising book, the videos are
extremely useful in themselves, providing access to a wide variety of short
resources with a huge range of possible uses. I’ve been using the PSAs (public
service advertisements) to teach non-media specialists about film language.
It’s particularly useful to have bite-size chunks of English-language material
with high production values that children won’t already be familiar with.
The quality is fine even on the VHS version.
© in the picture 2003
Back to
top
www.MediaEd.org.uk the
UK media and moving image education site
Free
resources, diary, links and discussion forum for anyone who’s interested
in media and moving image education in schools, FE, adult and informal education