The Children Are Watching How The Media Teach About Diversity by Carlos E. Cortes

1. The Children Are WatchingHow The Media Teach AboutDiversityby Carlos E. Cortes Group 1 Shannon Rae Sollars Lisa Hakenjos-Jones Chad Lindeen Kendra Nelson Shaad Ahmed

2. 2 The Children Are WatchingHow The Media Teach About Diversity The initial slides will briefly show how the author dealt with the issues of the clarification and the enriched understanding of history, the development of a personal multicultural perspective and curricular or policy issues in education. The subsequent slides will go into more detail and will further describe how the book deals with various multicultural issues and will concentrate on specific aspects of how the media operate within the above topics and different contexts.

3. 3 The Clarification and the Enriched Understanding of History The author through out the book mentioned that the media strongly determines how one views events in history concerning multiculturalism. The author stated the media has the ability enhance one�s beliefs or to even alter one�s beliefs about diversity. Movies like Malcolm X describing recent historical events have even showed to influence members of a jury in a trial involving a White police officer and an African American man. This issue will be further dealt with in the ensuing slides.

4. 4 The Development of a Personal Multicultural Perspective and Curricular or Policy Issues in Education Whether educators like it or not, students with school systems are affected by what the various media transmit. Therefore students are educated through what they see, read, and hear through the media. An effective school system will acknowledge the presence of the media and design their curriculum with this mind. This issue is dealt with through out the book and will be mentioned in many of the upcoming slides.

5. 5 Holly and Melissa�s (Author�s Grandchildren) Multicultural Curriculum The author made observations of his grandchildren and their responses to different forms of media, especially television shows and videos. The observations made were not shaped by questioning by the observer, but was kept pure and authentic to gather realistic data. The point is made that viewers are learning regardless of whether they know it or if it was the intention of the creators of the program. Many groups have criticized programs on the grounds of being racist, homophobic, and sexist. In addition, the programs often times paint a picture of gender roles for society and classify groups based on physical characteristics such as; gender, skin color, ethnic dimensions, and the adult language of racial labeling. The encompassing idea is that children are learning although it is not always when, where, and what we want them to learn. Children learn outside the school through media.

6. 6 What are children learning? Children learn about good and evil, right and wrong, life and death, villainy and heroism. They learn about family values from �The Lion King�, physical disabilities from �Dumbo�, interpersonal, intergroup, and intercultural relations from �Pocahontas�, and gender relations from just about every other show. Corte�s observed that his granddaughter was practicing crying, like Shirley Temple because when she cries in the movie, people will come to her help. �The Lion King� had sparked questions regarding moral dilemmas such as the issue of volition. �Why did the wildebeests want to kill Mufassa? Why did Scar want to kill his own brother? One of the theme songs, �The Circle of Life� dealing with death. On the lighter side as stated by the author, the song, �Hakuna Matata�, song by Simba was uplifting and made one of his granddaughters feel better after a negative experience. The movie �Pocahontas� elicited the question of why are Pocahonta�s boobs so bigger than others and even compared them to Barbie. �Pocahontas� also brought about the question skin color while comparing the characters of John Smith and Pocahontas. A news report regarding O.J. Simpson elevated a question about the �N� word. Observations of romance and interracial relationships were made within the context of �Pocahontas�, the remake of �Cinderella� with Whitney Houston and the death of Princess Diana. This lead Corte�s granddaughters to want to be princesses when they grew up. In addition, one of Corte�s granddaughters seemed to feel uncomfortable with having her grandparents in the room during John Smith and Pocahontas�s first affection toward one another in the movie.

7. 7 Criticisms of the Media �The Lion King�, was considered by some to be racist due to the portrayal of villains and hyenas as possessing a nearly ebonic language. These groups considered this language spoken by these characters to be negative. Basically saying that black is bad. �The Lion King was also criticized as being sexist due to the role of Simba being the lead with just a small support role for Nala. Simba�s role is one of dominance, leadership, and power. The portrayal seemed to be one of male dominance. The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation criticized �The Lion King� as being homophobic because a main character, �Scar�, was played as gay regarding his speech being feminine in tone.

8. 8 Children Are Learning from the Media Media has any criticisms from a variety of groups for their portrayal of race, gender, and sexual orientation. Observations by Corte�s and other related studies show that media has an impact on children�s feelings about race, gender, sexual orientation, family, society and the groups it represents, violence, death, and countless other factors. We do not have complete control of when, where and what children learn through the varieties of media, but we know that they are learning from it.

9. 9 The Societal Curriculum A mass media curriculum exists, and young people will learn from it. Due to this dilemma, schools face the choice of whether to participate effectively and constructively multicultural education or not to participate and leave up to the mass media and societal curriculum. Education happens whether we want it to or not and in places that we do not always expect. Often times, we do not even realize that it is happening. More public education is taking place through the media and societal curriculum than through teachers, professors, or any one else. Mass media functions much like school curriculum in that it is chaotic, inconsistent and often times laden with conflicting messages, however, not all perspectives enjoy equal exposure or equitable access to dissemination. One problem with curriculum regardless of its source is when it is �hidden� or sometimes even unconscious. Mass media sometimes highlight intergroup misunderstandings through repeated presentation of derogatory stereotypes or overemphasize demeaning themes about select groups. Misunderstanding of multicultural material comes in the form of fiction and non-fiction. The non-fiction can be very difficult for children to understand the differences. Many television programs and Hollywood films create unsettled feelings among ethnic groups when they portray groups of people with certain generalizations or stereotypes. These portrayals have made the concern global in scope. There are many gatekeepers in regards to mass media, stemming from parents, peers, teachers, and in some cases local and state government. There are also many individuals acting as spin doctors within the realm of mass media. These are often times the same people as the gatekeepers, however, it adds news anchors columnists, and talk show hosts

10. 10 Effects of Mass Media and Societal Curriculum At times Societal curriculum and teaching work parallel to one another, however, often times they work with conflicting interest. The societal curriculum includes four broad categories. The immediate, institutional, serendipitous, and the media curriculum. The immediate, includes family, peers, and the neighborhood. Institutional are made up of the organizations and institutions in which people interact with including religion and voluntary associations. The serendipitous forms around random personal experiences and lastly the media curriculum composed of the many forms of mass media. Mass media has a huge effect because of the massive exposure due to its ability to disseminate material to an audience. Mass media sometimes offer insightful images and examinations of multicultural groups, but many times it will be just the opposite. Children and adults construct knowledge based on the many forms of mass media regardless of whether it offered intentionally or unintentionally from the providers. Images of a variety of groups are often times generalized thus fitting a stereotype of a particular group. These images can be very damaging in the construction of labeling by its viewers.

11. 11 Effects of Gatekeepers Parents offer the possibility of controlling to some degree the forms of mass media that enter their home. Religious groups also offer guidance of what they deem to be appropriate media for their members. At times state and local government will control some forms of mass media in their area. These gatekeepers, can have a positive or negative effect on the media that is present in some situations, however, societal and media curriculum is abundant and often finds it�s way to the learner. The addition of spin doctors may be equally or more effective than the gatekeepers on the holistic impact these curriculums have on children and others.

12. 12 Effect of Spin Doctors Parents influence not only what media is present, but perhaps more importantly they may impact the processing, interpretation, and internalization of information brought on by societal and mass media curriculum. The attitudes that parents bring to the media curriculum can have a huge effect in shaping the views of their children. Mass media spin doctors offer what they feel or interpret from what they have seen, heard, or read. The problem with this is that many viewers have not seen, heard, or read that same material and so take the spin doctors opinion to be the correct one. These spin doctors are in a position of power and can have a great impression on others who are not familiar with the issues at hand. Teachers may take the position of spin doctors as well to place their view on the topics that reach many children through the mass media curriculum.

13. 13 Controlling of Curriculum Mass media and societal curriculum is present and children construct knowledge from this information whether it is fiction or non-fiction. The content of this curriculum can be controlled to a point by gatekeepers such as, parents, teachers, religious groups and at times, local government. Spin doctors have an impact on the processing and interpretation of information. These spin doctors include parents, teachers, community leaders, and the ever present and vast mass media. The way, in which the information is spun, highly effects the processing of information and can leave lasting impressions on children whether it is for good or bad. Schools have a choice to make in regards to societal and mass media curriculum. Should we participate actively in multicultural education or leave it up to societal and mass media to do it alone?

14. 14 Mediamakers as Multicultural Curriculum Developers Media Creation � Mediamakers are intentional or unintentional multicultural teachers, textbook writers and curriculum developers. Each individual has culturally influenced perceptions of a particular media product and how it will affect the audience. Every person should be careful not to make assumptions that others must mirror their views on a specific media product. Media teaching has two dimensions, Input and Output. Input - Publishers and school boards media producers and educational bureaucrats work with finances, and make broad decisions about content and delivery systems. Media directors and school superintendents, media editors and school principals attempt to coordinate respective systems. Operating within industry, governmental pressure groups and other types of constraints, screenwriters and textbook writers, journalists and curriculum developers create texts to be delivered. Newscasters and teachers, actors and professors involved in actual delivery of content. Output - The content itself. Once created and delivered, content exists in various forms.

15. 15 Content Creators Content Creators: The Media Writ at Large Dissemination of multicultural media content � Some media makers intentionally try to teach about race, ethnicity and other aspects of diversity, e.g. Schindler�s List, Guess Who�s Coming to Dinner, etc. Others teach incidentally, such as publishing news stories that happen to have multicultural dimensions or by including ethnic characters in movie or TV narratives without any particular goal of ethnic image making or message sending. Media may be greatly impacted by the societal context within which it is operating. Individuals varying beliefs about diversity related matters come up with a set of reigning ideology. Content Creator: Media Industries Industry wide content codes serve as revealing sources of evidence. Yet even here it is difficult to separate the degree to which these codes reflect true industry beliefs from the degree to which they reflect defensive responses to external political or economic pressures�or fears of pressures. In this respect, such codes can be likened to textbook guidelines or curriculum frameworks adopted by educational agencies, often under pressure from different publics or interest groups. Content Creator: Individual Media makers Over the years, individual media makers have consciously tried to influence societal attitudes about diversity or toward specific ethnic groups through their media textbooks. For example, some makers of films and TV shows have tried to combine entertainment with an effort to reduce bigotry by challenging ethnic prejudice. Some media makers have emphasized movie exploration of their own ethnic groups. Spike Lee, Woody Allen, Edward James Olmos, Wayne Wang, Martin Scorsese, Paul Mazursky, etc. Some media makers have used their products to try to deliver broader multicultural messages, such as celebrating ethnic diversity as an element of American society or presenting cultural diversity as an integral part of American national character, culture and values. In contrast, other media makers have consciously traded on anti-ethnic bigotry.

16. 16 Limits on Mediamakers Internal Constraints � Neither media makers nor school textbook writers operate with full autonomy within their respective industries. Textbook authors often find that their original concepts become severely modified, undermined or drastically distorted in the development and production process. As a result, images, depictions, and messages � including those dealing with diversity � that ultimately appear in media or school textbooks may or may not represent the best expression of a creator�s intent. Audiences � Media makers sometimes base their product on multi-cultural assumptions about audiences. In doing so they draw upon presumed audience dispositions in order to elicit media-conditioned emotional responses. I.e., manipulating viewer or reader fears by providing an ethnic menace based on existent societal stereotypes, including media-ingrained icons of ethnic threats. While trading on and manipulating presumed audience predispositions, media makers simultaneously teach multiculturally by reinforcing such audience beliefs (such as stereotypes.) Pressure Groups � The media function in a world of external pressure groups, including both government and private entities. The latter � watchdog groups, ratings groups, protest groups, ethnic, religious, women�s, and sexual orientation organizations, and multi-group coalitions � have often tried and sometimes succeeded in influencing media treatment of diversity. Ideological Conflicts � Both the media industry and the individual media makers have embodied reigning or at least competing societal beliefs and ideologies concerning diversity. Some media makers support affirmative action; some oppose it. Some champion immigration and others want to raise barriers. Media makers have taken varying positions on such multicultural subjects as homosexuality, sexual harassment, interracial marriage, the intersection of church and state, and making English the official language. These divisions reflect, refract, reframe and influence larger societal clashes and inter-group tensions. Contrary to the idea of media as a pedagogical monolith, the U.S. media is so diverse that virtually any critic can find myriad examples to support a personal interpretive position.

17. 17 Commercialism, Tradition, and Convention Commercialism Most media makers are in the business of selling a product and will repeat themes or approaches that they believe audiences want or at least will accept. Conversely, they tend to avoid themes that they believe audiences will not accept and, therefore, will not pay money to read, listen to or view. Media makers will alter and create products that are appealing to the greatest number audience members. Diversity makes it into the media curriculum primarily when media makers decide that diversity sells. In these respects, media makers closely resemble textbook creators. Tradition If media makers believe that certain traditions or formulae attract audiences, they will continue to follow them, usually disregarding their social or pedagogical ramifications. (I.e. the Prince Charming tradition juxtaposed with feminism.) Revisionism and innovation within the constraints of tradition are considered acceptable. Convention Convention could be described as tradition at large, or tradition internalized to the point of mental laziness. This can be exemplified by instances where American linguistic comfort zone categorizes people as a single race, when they are, in fact, multiracial. Simultaneously, those media makers reinforced the traditional American construction of racial categories. Also destructive to the multicultural being is the �both sides� default convention used by media makers and often by schoolteachers.

18. 18 Media Products as Multicultural Textbooks What has the mass media curriculum taught about diversity? Responses are varied but most have displayed three general characteristics: single group focus, absence of comparative context, and limited temporal coverage. Single Group Analysis � Most content analyses deal with treatment of individual groups, including women, gays, persons with disabilities, racial, religious, etc. Tight single group studies serve a purpose. We need to know how the media depict specific groups. We need to know how the media depict specific groups. Moreover, such knowledge provides the building blocks for larger generalizations about the media multicultural curriculum. Absence of Comparative Context � Because most studies focus on particular subject groups or areas, only sporadically are efforts made to place such uni-group content analysis in comparative context. Comparative multicultural analysis may reveal that such treatment was not group-specific and that, during a particular era, the media were giving similar treatment to some or many other ethnic groups or cultures or, for that matter, to Americans in general. But the reverse can also occur. A comparative analysis may reveal unique patterns of single group treatment that might not �obtrude� in a uni-group analysis. Short-term Analysis � Most media content analyses provide highly selective, temporally limited snapshots of media treatment. Most studies avoid the extended, sometimes tedious work that goes into such a longitudinal analysis. They have value in providing provocative and revealing � if time-constrained � insights. They may also provide building blocks for developing and testing hypotheses about long-range media treatment. However, there is a tendency toward overgeneralization on the basis of one or several snapshots.

19. 19 Over Time, the mass media have provided five distinct but interrelated types of multicultural content� Information � The mass media deluge readers, viewers, and listeners with information, including multicultural information. Most people are inundated with more data than they can even digest. Mediated information may be inaccurate or accurate. It may be presented within a context that facilitates comprehensibility or misleads the audience. It may be multifaceted or simplistic, nuanced or stereotypical. It may be packaged as news or presented in the form of entertainment. Audiences tend to consider newspapers, magazines, nonfiction books, radio and television news and documentary films as information providers. That information of course, has been edited and filtered in ways that contribute to its varying degree of accuracy and quality. The factor of repetition is also something to be factored in. In news, even if each and every story about a group and its members were accurate in and of itself, the constant reiteration of certain themes might contribute to a group public image. So it can become an issue of frequency instead of accuracy. Organization of ideas � the mass media also help organize and disseminate ideas about information it sends out. Through this process, they influence audiences� cognitive structures � the ways that media consumers process and organize media-disseminated multicultural information and ideas. Diverse subjects are explored and the media try to organize these topics for the audience. Values � Media also disseminate values about diversity and diverse groups. In that respect, media share a pedagogical space with school textbooks. These values accompany societal value systems and simultaneously push the envelope of norm acceptance in the public. Expectations � Repeated exposure to media images serves to alter our perceptions of the society in which we live and to gradually shape what we accept � and expect � from our fellow citizens. Models for behavior � Mass media provide models for behavior. They influence vernacular (�Go ahead. Make my day.� �Hasta la vista, baby.�) They also have an affect on personal behavior, aggression or love toward others, expectations of our own behavior as well as those around us.

20. 20 Mass Media Curriculum as a Message System The mass media multicultural curriculum involves far more than simply the creation and dissemination of group images. It involves the transmission of information (correct or incorrect, balanced or distorted, contextualized or stereotypical). It involves the organization of information and ideas. It involves the shaping and reinforcing of expectation. And it involves the providing of models for action and the disinhibiting of other actions. In short, through multicultural content, the mass media have contributed significantly to the corpus of American thinking, feeling and acting in the realm of diversity. The mass media is not the �cause� or single culprit for many of society�s ills, but it makes contributions.

21. 21 Mass Media and Multicultural Learning What have people�particularly students and young students to be�learned from this media curriculum?

22. 22 News vs. Entertainment Consumers are more likely to be aware that they are learning (or supposed to be learning) from news media Encountering a lot of information Consumers use entertainment media to be diverted, not informed (like news media) Consumers are less aware that learning may be taking place when consuming entertainment media According to some scholars, media consumers learn more from background information and images then from those details that attract their conscious attention. Entertainment media serves as a multicultural textbook (intentionally or unintentionally) The Author states that we may never know the broad-scale impact of the mass media on multicultural or any other type of learning However, research does show that media does contribute to stereotypes and other types of multicultural learning

23. 23 The Media Impact Debate: Polarization and Pomposity Analyses of the societal impact have become polarized Media determinism Media is all-powerful and directly affects audiences with its values Also referred to as �hypodermic needle� and �magic bullet� effect Limited Impact Downplay media influence on audiences Media reflects social consensus, it does not forge it Media satisfies audiences� desires Consists of 2 groups: Mediamakers Proponents of certain varieties of reception theory: Media consumers control the teaching-learning equation Audiences consciously select and modify what they consume

24. 24 Media-based Learning: An Empirical Perspective There has been sporadic empirical scholarship on the multicultural impact of media Conclusions: Media do influence intergroup, intragroup, and self-perceptions Consumers also learn about diversity from the media The nature of that influence varies �Some people are influenced by some media, at some point� It�s hard for research studies to have exact, concrete findings Types of research done about the media: Uses and Gratifications�emphasizes the conscious volition of media consumers, who select specific media because they serve useful functions for them or provide certain personal gratifications Agenda-setting�media may not be able to tell audiences what to think, but it can tell audiences what to think about Reception Analysis�examine the variability of learner responses to the media: How different audiences have or may have interpreted and drawn meaning from varieties of media Examples of the TV show, All in the Family, and TV miniseries, Roots. Reception Analysis studies address the role of the media in multicultural learning by analyzing media interaction by consumers from specific groups (2 categories): Studies of the ramifications of media for different cultural groups The media�s role in fostering interracial, interethnic, and intercultural learning

25. 25 Media-based Learning: A Projective Perspective Projective Studies�assess/suggest how different audiences may or are likely to draw ideas and construct personal knowledge by drawing upon specific media The Cosby Show�shows an affluent African American family but fail to address racism and/or the fact that most African American families face social and economic problems The Godfather Disclaimer�When the Godfather saga first aired on TV, a short disclaimer was issued prior to its start stating, �The Godfather is a fictional account of the activities of a small group of ruthless criminals. It would be erroneous and unfair to suggest that they are representative for any ethnic group.� The author feels that such disclaimers do nothing to mitigate the teaching potential of such movie textbook that portrays certain ethnic groups.

26. 26 Media-based learning: A Theoretical Perspective Theories of audience reception to address the process of media-based learning Schema Theory Each learner develops operational mental and emotional schema�sometimes referred to as �ideational scaffolding,� �cognitive maps,� or anticipatory schemes.� These schema are based on each individual�s personal learning experiences and then become the basis for making sense of the world. Gestalt Psychology Viewers and readers encounter a piece of communication and alter it by selectively remembering and omitting information and ideas, while supplementing or contextualizing that content based on their own beliefs and biases, thereby altering its meaning for them. Cognitive Dissonance Once an individual�s cognitive structure takes firm shape, it tends to repel those ideas that seem too dissonant. Drench Hypothesis Learning will more likely occur when audiences watch programs that �drench� consumers with ideas and portrayals that are out of the ordinary Sleeper Effect Ideas, often clothed as entertainment, can subconsciously enter and become part of a viewer�s unrecognized cognitive or affective storehouse. The ideas can then be provoked by some external stimuli. Examples of the sleeper effect: the movie Airplane and the television game show, The $25,000 Pyramid.

27. 27 A Personal Multicultural Media Journal There is too much media to identify and describe the entire curricular context. The goal is to help gain insight by examining our own personal media multicultural curricular which we each create through choice, accident, and habit.

28. 28 Journal Model to Monitor Media The author provides a multicultural media journal model, which can be used by anyone to develop a greater self-awareness of personal media multicultural curricular exposure. Journal model: Keep journal to record reactions to the multicultural teaching encountered during normal media consumption To begin: write a brief description of your general media consumption habits (self-assessment) Next: keep an annotated record of the multicultural dimensions of one month�s (or one week�s) media consumption The author then gives his own day-by-day journal of multicultural media consumption for the month of October Includes examples from various types of media: newspapers, TV, movies, documentaries, talk radio, etc.

29. 29 The Contemporary Media Curriculum as School Context The media teaches preschool � 12th grade students, students, teachers, administrators, and even parents about multiculturalism whether they know it or not. They do so in many different ways which are outlined in the following slides.

30. 30 How Diversity is Presented in the Media Pervasiveness: How the media exposes us to diversity even when we are not expecting it to do so. This is applicable to the radio, magazine, TV, and even movies. Themes: Themes about diversity often fall into the following four categories: Ongoing: Diversity related themes which appear with regularity. Recurring: Diversity related themes which appear often but not on an ongoing basis. Examples include when Louis Farrakhan organizes an event or when people protest the use of Native American mascots. Transitory: A diversity related theme which appears heavily for a period of time then fades away. Examples of this are the Confederate Flag issue and Paula Jones. Single-shot: A diversity related theme which only gets one day of attention. Patterns: Spins that the media put on diversity topics. They do this by choosing what or what does not make it to the public. Perspectives: This is broken down into four different categories: Internal Multiple Perspectives: Getting more than one perspective on a diversity issue within one show or media outlet. Examples of this are shows like CNN�s Crossfire and ABC�s former show Politically Incorrect. External Dueling Perspectives: Getting conflicting arguments about the same diversity issue from different sources. An example of this is when Newsweek ran three perspectives on one single issue. Mainstream versus Niche Media: The mainstream usually offers general interest diversity topics to the audience while the niche media usually offers one single perspective on diversity issues. An example of this might be of Time compared to Ebony magazine. Intertextuality: This when different media sources (TV, radio, magazines, newspapers, etc.) draw their information on diversity issues from one another. For example, a TV show might comment on an editorial in the newspaper.

31. 31 Ideology This describes the particular media outlet�s viewpoint (i.e. Conservative or Liberal). This is further broken down into three categories: Multiculturalist: This where the media at least recognize multiculturalism. Desegregationist: The media usually promotes noncontroversial positions promoting unity such as Rodney King�s famous �Can�t we all get along?� This is also true for TV shows such as ER and movies such as Lethal Weapon. Americanist: Most media in the United States claim they are pro-American but offer a different spin on what that means.

32. 32 Media and Learning, Limits of Content Analysis, The Children Now Report, and a Potential Impact Paradigm Media and Learning: By knowing what the media is presenting to the best of our abilities, schools can try to respond to that by what education they offer to students. Limits of Content Analysis: Different minority groups are viewed in a different way by people. For example, people may not always differentiate Cuban Americans for other Hispanic Americans. The same is true for people born in America who come from non-European backgrounds such as the Japanese Americans or other Asian Americans. The Children Now Report: This report of 300 Blacks, 300 Anglos, 300 Latinos, and 300 Asian Americans aged 10-17 showed how children viewed the treatment of different racial groups on television. The answers varied from Whites being the most represented to often showing minorities as less well to do. A Potential Impact Paradigm: This is an interpretive framework for hypothesizing the potential multicultural learning impact of the mass media. Coincidence: This when the treatment of a social group coincides with one�s own views. Conflict: This is when one�s views are in conflict with that of the media. This will either cause rejection, modification, or to totally mute it out. Marginalism: This is when the media�s portrayal is marginally outside one�s views, but not in direct conflict of one�s beliefs. This could mean that one adds that portrayal to their knowledge pool and might influence their personal organizational schema. Novelty: This is when the media portrays something that one has little or no knowledge of. This could be received as unchallenged information and be accepted by the receiver of that information.

33. 33 Mass Media, Multiculturalism, and Schools With the mass media the way it is, multicultural learning will occur, and schools do not have the power to decide whether or not it will occur. This means the schools need to decide if they will participate within this context of multicultural education and if they do how they will participate. Scholarly Relationships: Media and Education scholars tend to work separately and not jointly. Sometimes the media and education scholar�s works compliment one another, sometimes they contradict one another, and others times they promote the other�s work. Premises: These are the premises needed for the author to establish his new educational paradigm. Exposure: Virtually everybody is exposed to the media in some sense. Influence: People do learn about diversity from the media and are influenced by that. Interaction: The mass media leads to educators interacting with students about the knowledge learned from it.

34. 34 School Educator Reponses There are four basic patterns of school educator responses: Level One � Recognition: Recognizing that media based multicultural education is taking place, and students will bring some of this knowledge to school. For example, the oil crisis led to people unfairly depicting Arabs as greedy sheikhs. Once the Senior Weekly Reporter depicted an American Indian on a camel with gas, oil, and coal. Such images lead to unfair images of both Arabs and American Indians and schools have to combat these images. Level Two � Attention: The schools need to pay attention to what the mass media is teaching about multiculturalism. Students may learn about twentieth century race relations from movies such as Mississippi Burning, etc. Level Three � Exploration: The schools need to try to read about what the media is saying about multicultural issues, and how they think students are learning from the media. Level Four � Investigation: Educators could investigate the media�s claims about how the media itself depicts certain minorities. For example, Karen Grigsby Bates of the Los Angeles Times on September 19, 1997 argued that some shows like Frasier, Friends, and Seinfeld did not have much if any racial representation. This would be something for educators to further investigate.

35. 35 Areas of School Engagement There are eight areas where schools could be involved in integrating the mass media into policies and practices: Assessing one�s own media multicultural learning: Schools should assess how the media deals with topics such as race, ethnicity, and religion. Educators need to consider how the media may be influencing their perceptions and interactions. For example, educators should know how an Arab American might feel if they get joked about the violence in their native region. Dealing with student multicultural learning: Educators should know what the students know about multicultural learning and teach them on that basis. Using the mass media as a curricular resource: Educators can use made for school media videos, etc. and also incorporate current events portrayed in the media in their curriculum. Developing student analytical thinking about media: Students should be pushed to critically think about issues portrayed in the media. Professional development concerning the media: Educators should continue to develop their media literacy and try to better understand the multicultural dimensions of the media. Working with parents as multicultural co-teachers with the mass media curriculum: Educators should incorporate the parents of students to assist with how they deal with the mass media. This can be done through conferences and workshops. Working directly with the media: Educators should work with the media, whether that be through positive public relations or pointing out mistakes in the media�s coverage. This can also involve students. Combating stereotypes and stereotyping.

36. 36 Struggling with Stereotypes: Uses and Abuses of a Critical Concept Everyone uses generalities to make clarity of various concepts. For example you learn to drive one car and then you can transfer that knowledge to driving another car. Generalities develop from personal observation and experience. The media can use generalities when discussing how a particular disease can affect women differently from men. Stereotyping differs from generalities due to the frequency and selectivity that the media use such as stating only crime statistics for perpetrators who are African American. Schools need to instruct children on using generalities and the difference between a generality and a stereotype. Generalities are flexible, intragroup heterogeneity, and subtle while Stereotypes are inflexible, homogeneity, and unsubtle. Labels can be used as nouns but if not used appropriately can become slurs and lead to stereotypes when they offend others. The media needs to use labels carefully. Depictions become stereotypes when they are use the same type of portrayals frequently and consistently to bombard the public.

37. 37 Clarification of History/Development of Personal Multicultural Perspective Acknowledge that consumers learn multiculturally from the media. Media treatments of societal groups and their members have some basis in reality even though that reality is not true for every member of the group. Some Native Americans work at casinos (not all). Acknowledge that some media-based multicultural learning does take the form of internalizing stereotypes. The media can establish a pattern or a model such as some Italians are in organized crime and then have the movies with Godfather and television with The Sopranos leading the public to believe that everyone who is Italian is in organized crime. The media does occasionally use stereotypes to meet consumer expectations (especially in advertising) and manipulate those stereotypes to provoke desired reactions from the public. Using stereotypes for parody and humor such as the film Prizzi�s Honor.

38. 38 Curricular or Policy Issues for Education Schools cannot avoid the issue of stereotyping. Schools should not solve the issue by having students merely look for examples of stereotyping in the media. Schools should carefully and systematically teach students the differences between generalizations and stereotypes through simple exercises. Have students� select one radio talk show to listen to two weeks and determine if there is a pattern of treatment when discussing a particular ethnic group. Collect all articles about women from one newspaper for two week to see if there is a pattern of topic selection. Watch TV network national news shows for a pattern of treatment in regards to religion. Read and collect movie reviews in regards to one ethnic group. Look at magazines to see if there is a pattern of adjectives to describe one ethnic group.

39. 39 Multicultural Education in the Cyberspace Era Cyberspace is more democratic since it allows students more of an opportunity to decide what and when to learn in regards to multicultural content. Cyberspace can be more effective than other media in fostering both intergroup and intragroup discussions of ideas. Cyberspace can be used to communicate across national, ethnic, cultural, and religious line to learn about people who are different from us.

40. 40 Clarification of History/Development of Personal Multicultural Perspective Cyberspace has greatly expanded the number and variety of people who can participate in the media and add to its content. Cyberspace is not equitably distributed through all ethnic groups, so information can be biased in favor of those who are access. Cyberspace can be more selective by creating niche-oriented sites through Web pages and on-line magazines. More difficult to specify the group identities of the authors of sites than television, radio, and the print media. Difficult to assess and analyze the cyberspace multicultural media content.

41. 41 Curricular or Policy Issues for Education Using the Internet to promote intercultural conversations and building a global common ground. Using the Internet to explore intragroup differences, clarify issues, and mobilize group action. Concerns for promoting polarization and foster bigotry through hate-based Web pages. Providing access for all students to use the Internet equally. Deciding how to use gatekeepers on the Internet in regards to inappropriate sites for students. Evaluating and analyzing if information on a site is authentic. How to deal with underground student newspapers that may promote bigotry. How does the Internet influence students in terms of advertising, and bias?

42. 42 Conclusion The author used relevant sources from the media to cite how all people and especially children are influenced by it, and how they are either consciously or subconsciously learning about diversity from it. The media portrays the information in various ways, and often times put their own 'spin' on their takes. Sometimes they show multiple views and other times they choose only one. It is up to educators to determine how they will take what students learn about multiculturalism from the media and incorporate it into their teachings. End of Presentation Thank You!