Media Literacy in the Heartland

Virginia, where I went to high school, has been covered (twice). So I went to one of the few other states with which I have any familiarity of the education system at all; Indiana. My aunt is a high school guidance counselor* there, and one of the things I distinctly remember from taking the tour of that school is an entire (although miniature) television production studio. Several cameras, room and materials for sets, and editing equipment IN A HIGH SCHOOL. This, of course, blew my mind. There is nothing even approaching this in the high schools in Tidewater, so I spent the day whining about how I missed out on a cool opportunity.

So, I got a taste of media literacy in Indiana through personal experience. But what else is there? In order to start looking, I went to the Indiana Department of Education and found a section labeled "Search." This seemed like a good idea, but searching "media literacy" received no hits and searching "media" received over 300, including a weird one about kindergartners using scissors.
http://dc.doe.in.gov/Standards/AcademicStandards/StandardSearch.aspx

I instead began pouring over the pdf version of the standards for high school and ran across a whole section about "Mass Media and Media Literacy Standards" (why this didn't come up in the search is beyond me; probably a conspiracy against helicopter parents or something). I found the description of the section particularly appropriate. It read,

Students study the importance of mass media as pervasive in modern life at the local, national, and global levels. Students recognize the impact of mass media messages through news, entertainment, and persuasion on contemporary society. Students analyze and evaluate the history, governance, and ethical issues of mass media to gain a perspective of how influential mass communication has become. Students prepare for their roles as informed and engaged citizens in a democracy. They use media literacy and communications skills to become writers, speakers, or media producers who address content issues and the impact of mass communication. They become knowledgeable consumers of mass media information.

So they learn how to recognize, analyze, and produce media messages. Sound familiar? So it looks like the Hoosiers** have the right idea. Students look at the history, nature, and ethics of mass media. There are a dozen standards/goals that relate directly to media literacy, stating that "Students use their comprehension skills, knowledge base, and information from various media sources to develop a broad perspective that enables them to analyze and evaluate the meanings of mass communication messages they encounter." They also learn how to research and write about the media, including a study of media convergence.

http://www.doe.in.gov/opd/languagearts/docs/media_standards.pdf

I'd like to post all of the standards on here, because I think they are really well thought out. But, that would be a big waste of this little media space when I stuck the link to the original source in here already. I highly recommend looking at this, as it is very interesting and laid out in such a way that you can read it in 10 minutes.

What I don't know at this point is whether these standards are all reflected in the tests and curriculum. I will have to ask someone with personal experience to get these questions answered. I also didn't look at the standards for the other grade levels, but due to the attention put into these, I imagine that they are also impressive and ambitious.


*I wanted to interview her and get some thoughts on this, because she probably has some great insights. I have not been able to do that yet, but as soon as I do I will update the post.

**The cool stuff that the school has is a big deal, but everything that you've heard about Indiana high school basketball is true (and thus, a bigger deal). The "basketball hero around here is treated like a god" line from Hoosiers; pretty much the reality of it.