Confessions from the Media Classroom

1. Confessions from the Media Classroom Structure vs. Chaos A Closer Look at My Field Experience and the Key Points Found in the following texts: A Public Voice for Youth: The Audience Problem in Digital Mediaand Civic Education By Peter Levine Imagining the Audience: language,creativity and communication inyouth media production By David Buckingham & Issy Harvey By Lisa Wilk

2. My Field Sites: Two Public Schools

3. Teaching Video Journalism

4. Civic Education Meets Citizen Journalism • “It seems likely that active citizens check corruption and mismanagement.” – Levine • Journalists are the “watchdogs” of society. • “Service learning means a combination of community service and academic work or classroom discussion; it is now present in half of American high schools.” –Levine • Students exposed to service learning gained more knowledge of civics and government and felt more confident about their own civic skills. • HOWEVER, “[a]ctive learning can be counterproductive unless projects are well conceived and executed.” – Levine • This is a reoccurring problem in the Video Journalism course. Students are unsure what they really want to write about and even after sitting down with us, they resort back to their uncertainty. • Community vs. School Stories • “School newspaper benefits those who produce it but has no effects on the student body as a whole, because students are not sufficiently connected to the school community to care about its news.” - Levine

5. Public and Private Voice • “All of these purposes of civic engagement are best served when people deliberate before they act, expressing opinions to some body of peers in an appropriate voice.” – Levine • “Public voice as any style or tone that has a chance of persuading any other people (outside of one’s intimate circle) about shared matters, issues, or problems.” – Levine • We have introduced the Op. Ed. writing style to the students to promote their own passionate opinions in over generalized topics. • We have also gone over the issue of non-biased journalism, which confused them when we introduced Op. Ed.’s. • Journalist vs. the Citizen Journalist (a.k.a. the Blogger) • Newsgathering and being able to understand the difference between a reliable and unreliable source is also a feature of effective citizens. • PRIVATE Voice in Video Journalism = NO FACEBOOK • Thanks to the School District of Philadelphia there is no distraction of Facebook in the classroom. • However, we do not have access to YouTube or Vimeo which is really frustrating for me. • Teaching how to write an email for an interview request (PBS Newshour Student Reporting Labs).

6. Who is the Audience? • “Student production in media classrooms often takes the form of simulation, in which students are required to produce small-scale artifacts for a specified (albeit generally imaginary) audience.” – Buckingham & Harvey • Audience for Video Journalism @ Rush • School Community • Student’s Local Community • Parents • Temple Students and Faculty • NEastPhilly.com (Personal Outreach) • However, there will most likely be a lack of a large audience. (TUHSPress, SEO and PhiladelphiaNeighborhoods.com) • “Students often perceive as a necessary duty imposed by the teacher, or even as a kind of pay-off for the more pleasurable experience of production.” • – Buckingham & Harvey • Working for the grade • “People must also want to create—and specifically to make products with public purposes—rather than use the Internet to get access to mass-produced culture.” • – Levine

7. The Production Context • How do we evaluate these productions? • Did they learn anything from the media lesson or project? • WAC Performing Arts and Media College in North London: Opposites Attract vs. Equilibrium • “They had developed an ability to use the conventions of continuity editing in order to tell a simple story, which had been one of the aims of the exercise; and while Bea had not set out to do this, it is certainly debatable whether she learned anything that she did not already know.” – Buckingham & Harvey • Measuring student work @Rush • Louis Mazza has not given me a grading criteria or “rubric” that he follows. • Freedom over structure. • Here lies our problem. • Oh and did I mention it’s an elective course? • Rebecca: the Experienced Student • This senior worked with the PBS Newshours Student Reporting Labs and so she is a veteran with this work. • Here previous assignment was about dance at the school and now she is reporting on diversity at the school. • Is she another Bea?