Media Literacy and Your Children

There is extensive evidence of the pervasive and potentially damaging effects of the unregulated consumption of electronic media by children and adolescents.  Research done by organizations like the American Academy of Pediatrics, media advocates like Dr. James Steyer of Stanford University, Common Sense Media, and the New Mexico Media Literacy Project present some compelling statistics pertaining to the impact of the media on young people:

• Studies have linked TV viewing by toddlers [3+ hours per day] to attention problems when they enter school.
• Children ages 8 and over consume nearly 7 hours of electronic media per day outside of school.
• 26% of children under 2 years of age and 65% of children age 2 and over have TV’s in their bedrooms
• 75% of children age 10 and over say most  of what they know about sex comes from watching TV or movies.

The Heads of the 10 PCIS [Pittsburgh Consortium of Independent Schools] schools discussed the impact of the media of school children at one of their monthly meetings in early 2005, and decided to take collective action.  “Teaching kids to think critically about the media messages and receiving and then to make responsible decisions about media consumption based on these judgments, is part of our responsibility as independent schools,” reads one sentence in the minutes of that 2005 meeting.  The group then asked  Robert K. Kirkpatrick, Head of Fox Chapel Country Day School, to convene a group of parents from the schools and to formulate a program that would raise the awareness of parents, faculty, and students in each of the schools.

The parent group suggested a survey to ascertain the views of all parents toward the media’s impact on their children, and the amount of time their children spent watching television, listening to the radio, and playing electronic games.  When the results of the survey came back the steering group proposed a three pronged program that would reach parents, faculty, and most important, students.  The group suggested a week-long program beginning with a public presentation of the topic of media literacy, which parents would attend.  This event would be followed by a series of workshops conducted by media literacy educators at each of the 10 PCIS schools using age-appropriate materials.  Each school visit would also include opportunities for faculty members to learn more about media literacy and to consider incorporating media literacy training into their curricula.

The Heads of the PCIS schools reacted enthusiastically to these recommendations and immediately established a budget.  They contacted the New Mexico Media Literacy Project, [NMMLP] which is the largest independent activist media literacy organization in the US, and made arrangements for a week long media literacy education program to be delivered to the parents, children, and faculty members of Pittsburgh’s independent schools in the fall of 2006.  The NMMLP is a twelve-year old institution funded initially by the television anchorman Hugh Downs and his family.  The NMMLP sees its mission as enhancing  each student’s ability, “to access, analyze, create and challenge media,” which is, “an essential skill in today’s world,”  In the program devised by the PCIS schools the NMMLP team will raise the level of critical thinking about the media messages that crowd the lives of Pittsburgh’s independent school students, and enable them and their families to think more actively and critically as they live and learn in today’s society.

Media literacy, the skill of analyzing what you are seeing and hearing in the media, is a skill both adults and children need to develop. The heads of the Pittsburgh Consortium of Independent Schools have been searching for the best way to Introduce this complex and urgent topic to the parents and children in their schools. The Media Literacy Forum on 25 September 2006, and the four days of school workshops that follow are designed to heighten the awareness and the competence of both groups as they make decisions on how they will live in the 21st century.

The ten schools that make up the Pittsburgh Consortium of Independent Schools are:  The Campus School of Carlow University, Community Day School, The Ellis School, Fox Chapel Country Day School, The Kiski School, St. Edmund’s Academy, Sewickley Academy, Shady Side Academy, The Valley School of Ligonier, and Winchester Thurston School.