Review: New Media Education Resources

This collection of articles on media education around the world will fulfill an important need: informing us of the struggle to critically understand the global implications of media education.

Working for a Living (part two)

This is the second part of a two-part blog. The first part looked at some of the more straightforward ways of making money online such as sales, fee-for-service, subscription and brokerage.

Tweets from Birmingham jail

Malcolm Gladwell's recent New Yorker article “Small Change” has set the blogosphere buzzing with its strongly stated argument that social networks such as Facebook and Twitter will not usher in a new age of social activism, as some digital evangelists have proposed, but that they and the relationships they foster are actually detrimental to real social change. As Gladwell puts it, "The instruments of social media are well suited to making the existing social order more efficient. They are not a natural enemy of the status quo."

Working for a living

One of the most unusual things about Internet-based businesses is that few of them try very hard to make money. Of course, with a very few exceptions (such as Wikipedia) making money is certainly in the business plan, or there wouldn't be all that venture capital floating around, but in general the approach has been to come up with a good product or service first, and only look for ways to make it profitable after it's acquired a steady clientele. Hugely important and successful ventures like Google, YouTube and Facebook all started out operating at a significant loss. This pattern continues today: it's already hard to imagine the Internet without Twitter, but so far that service isn't earning its makers much money (though you can be sure they're looking for ways to do that.)

Defining Digital Media Literacy

Digital media literacy is the ability to critically, effectively and responsibly access, use, understand and engage with media of all kinds.

Screen time and well-being - Fact Sheet

“Digital technology can have both positive and negative effects on child well-being, depending on the activity and how much time is spent.”^[1]

• Very high levels of screen time are connected to poor mental well-being
• Very low levels are as well
• There’s a large middle ground with no direct connection to well-being ^[2]

“Screen time” is important…but not as important as what kids do with their screens:

Crime news

Crime news is a highly developed sub-genre that reflects organizational priorities, audience preferences and systemic biases. This is because “the news media does not cover systematically all forms and expressions of crime and victimizations. It emphasizes some crimes and ignores other crimes. It sympathizes with some victims while blaming other victims.”

Talking to kids about media violence

Talking to kids about violence in the media they consume – television, movies, video games, music and the Internet – can help them put media violence into perspective and perhaps diffuse some of its power.