The New Media Diet Pyramid
Faris Yakob has created this "
Media Diet Pyramid" based on the USDA's Food Guide Pyramid.
You would modify the tip of this media diet pyramid for Indians and include these highly
toxic media brands: Zee news, Aaj Tak, Republic TV and Times Now.
In fact, barring a couple of TV news channels and a couple of newspapers, you can include most other Indian news media brands into this '
wasteful media diet' category.
'He said, she said', 'He tweeted, she retweeted' , and 'Now I am all angry and shouting and debating about it', is not journalism. TV anchors have mistaken their drawing rooms as the new newsroom. News reporters sit in the OSD to the minister's office and think they are reporting from ground zero.
You may also want to add 'foreign' brands - the famous '
Whatsapp' university' (Thanks, Ravish) and all those '
Facebook politicians' to this toxic layer.
Labels: media literacy
Media Meltdown and the Value of Media Literacy for All
In my old school, they are teaching computers and programming languages from Class 6 - onwards. It is an elite school. That is expected of an elite school. Sadly, not elite enough to teach
Media Literacy to a generation weaned on a media diet of aspirational, exploitative, and silly notions.
The kids need to catch the message behind the message. The kids need to identify the pervasive web of vested interests of big media companies. The kids need a book such as "
Media Meltdown", a graphic novel about media literacy for kids, written by Liam O'Donnell and illustrated by Mike Deas.
BoingBoing
explains the plot of the comic book,
(the book wants to) teach kids how to question the media they get, and to make their own. It follows the adventures of a group of kids who have discovered that the local monster-home developer is up to no good, and is getting away with it because he's a heavy advertiser with the town's only media company, which owns the newspaper, stadium, and TV station. Working together, they break the story on their own, using the Web, and along the way they learn to analyze the media they receive, to use that analysis in making their own media, and to work with others to get their message across.
Labels: book publishing, education, graphic novel, media ethics, media literacy
