Media Literacy: No longer a Luxury

www.sexysocialmedia.com On the top floor of Thomson Hall, Senior Vice President, Mishka Mourani, carefully goes over the list of skills she wants IC students to acquire. Media literacy is foremost on her agenda. “There is a lot of discussion that has taken place into what the 21st century skills ought to be,” she said. “What we call the 3Rs: reading, writing and arithmetic are very important but there are now other skills which you need to survive and face the challenge in a society which is rapidly changing.”

She, like many educators worldwide, is trying to adapt the curriculum to create not only savvy digital experts but those who can assess and decipher the plethora of messages that specifically target the under-25 users.

In fact, large amounts of capital were allocated to keep IC up-to-date with the latest technological tools. From Activboards to blogs – no digital tool has been spared.

Critical thinking skills – the basis of any media literacy program – have been reinforced in all classrooms. “We are giving our students the ability to understand and assess the tools they are using and why they are using them,” said Mourani. “We teach them how to use these tools, yes, but we also teach them how they themselves can also manipulate them.”

Most important: they are taught how to protect themselves against digital media.

For the danger is there. Very much so. Its victims tend to be the most susceptible in society: our youth.

“Basically it’s like a conversation happening globally on the internet,” said Jad Melki, Director of the Media Studies Program at the American University of Beirut and father of three IC children, “and we are all engaged in it.”

But, to join this “conversation” one needs to have certain skills, competencies and knowledge. For, behind the glamour of Ipods, I-pads, Smartphones and whatnots lurk false messages, and, if not deciphered carefully, these can lead to an austere downfall.

Take the latest fanatical group: ISIS

According to a February 2015 report by CNN, U.S. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki was quoted as “seeing 90,000, I think, tweets a day that we’re combating.” All coming from ISIS. In a special October 2014 report, the UK based Guardian newspaper equally reported that ISIS has proved fluent in YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, internet memes and other social media.

But it doesn’t stop there.

Psychologists are warning about the effect of social media on preteen and teenage girls. Far more intrusive than regular advertising, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and other social platforms are bombarding girls with anorexiclike images of the female body. Moreover, the girls themselves are posting their own pictures and eliciting various criticisms for anybody flaws they might have.

According to a 2014 research study by the American University in Washington D.C., “an elevated Internet ‘appearance exposure’ is positively correlated with increased body image disturbance among adolescent girls, and there is a particularly strong association with Facebook use.”

The non-native digital parents are most likely clueless about their offspring’s social platform activities.

Technology is undoubtedly infiltrating our children’s’ lives. And how can we keep them safe? In the US, the Children Online Privacy Protection Act known as COPPA is a federal law that is applied internationally. It requires websites to explain their privacy policy and get a parental consent before collecting any type of data. So if a website asks for parental approval, take it seriously. • Also, keep your network secure. When possible use passwords and • advise your kids never to share passwords. Teach them how to log out after they finish. • Keep the computer in a central position where you can easily monitor all online activities. • Continuously scan your phone and credit card bills for unfamiliar bills or transaction. • Becoming computer literate yourself to effectively monitor online activities (ex, know how to check history of your child’s web surfing, etc). • Apply safety restrictions on devices: example: Ipads, iphones and Ipod (Apple):

1) Go to general 2) Press on restrictions

3) Turn restrictions on and choose what do you want to allow

you can find parental controls in iTunes preferences on your computer. To get there, follow these steps: 1 Open iTunes and go to iTunes > Preferences (Mac) or Edit > Preferences (PC). 2 Click the Parental tab. On the Parental tab, use the checkboxes to disable and restrict items from the iTunes store. you can also set rating levels for music, movies, TV shows, and apps using the menus to the right of these items. By Bashar Al Ghaziri, IT Technician

The role of mentor ultimately falls on the shoulders of schools.

In her chapter from a 2013 UNESCO report “Media and Information Literacy and Intercultural Dialogue”, Magda Abu Fadil, the Director of Media Unlimited, uses IC as a case study of a private school which incorporated media literacy in all its subjects.

“All Lebanese schools should incorporate media literacy in their curricula,” she said in an email interview. “In the 21st Century it would be disgraceful if they didn’t. The proper blending of knowledge, information and technology is as elementary as ABC. But teachers and administrators should be up to par to the task and parents should also be brought into the process. It’s multi-faceted, ongoing, dynamic and challenging, and well worth the effort. It makes for better students and citizens.”

In an effort to introduce media literacy in the Arab region, the Media Studies Department at AUB is pushing schools to adopt a new curriculum. Thanks to $500,000 grant from the Open Society Foundations and Al-Monitor, the department established the Media and Digital Literacy Academy to bring professors and teachers from all over the Arab world to Beirut and to teach them media literacy as well as offer them free resources in order to include the new program in their curriculums. “Europe, the US and some Asia nations have already adopted this new curriculum,” said Melki, “the Arab world is the final comer in this.”

The very basics of media literacy rely on critical thinking – the ability to decipher, evaluate and assess all messages viewed in the digital media.

It is probably the most challenging goal that IC has had to face yet –a different goal by far than any Mourani faced when she first arrived at IC and when technology was a chalk board, paper posters, and books only.

“Our school plays a very important role in the country and the region,” she said. “Both then and now we still have the same ability: the flexibility, openness and commitment to change and adapt.”