Home International Documentary Series Comprehensive Distribution and Outreach Plan: Experiences with the Pilot Episode Media Education Demonstration Project Advisory Board Educational Guide Who We Are Media Education Demonstration Project In discussions following the screenings of A WOMAN'S PLACE, we heard many women -- especially younger women -- articulate an internalized schism between who they are and who they think they ought to be. Psychologists and feminists write about this as the "divided self" or the "lost self" in a "girl-destroying culture." That culture has a long history but it has never had such powerful "mediums" for its messages. Children now spend more time learning about life through media than in any other manner -- twice as much time as spent with parents and teachers combined. In 1950, only 10% of Americans had a television set in their homes. Today, 99% of Americans own at least one television and 57% of children have a TV in their own room. The amount of time spent in front of a television or video screen is the single biggest chunk of time in the waking life of an American child. If culture is the stories we tell, which govern our conception of life and our behavior, then those stories are no longer coming from parents, church, or school. It is the media, and television in particular, that is shaping -- with unparalleled reach and intensity -- both how we view the world and how we see ourselves. Mass media tell women it is their appearance that matters, not their intelligence or talent. Selling a subverted notion of the "new woman," media images construct a reality where women will never be good enough. Eating disorders, which have shown a dramatic increase over the last two decades, are often cited as evidence of the war women wage daily-with themselves. But that internal struggle is also revealed in the everyday battles for self-esteem at school, at work: young girls stop raising their hand in class, women hesitate to ask for a job promotion or to stand for public office. What women are missing is a critical framework to channel the self-destroying messages they constantly receive into a coherent understanding of gender identity and social conditioning. It is only through critical consciousness that girls and women can sift through the conflicting messages and meanings and begin to define themselves -- and possibly to re-define the world. Building on a five-year engagement with these concepts, the media education component of A WOMAN'S PLACE is planned as a demonstration project to be conducted in group settings with both young women and adult women, in partnership with community based groups. The goal is to provide women with a space to think critically about the message and the medium. "The objective situation can only be modified by first changing the subjective consciousness." -Madonna Kolbenschlos FRAMEWORK The Media Literacy component is designed to provide a framework for: Analyzing and interpreting messages carried by the mass media Identifying alternative, affirming narratives-created by women of all ages Exposing women to the critiques of popular culture and the construction of female identity that have been written and produced but so rarely trickle down to the grassroots Creating personal narratives and expressing alternative visions through various multi-media formats (music, poetry, diary and narrative, photography, collage, radio and video) Validating members through the power of the group process The theoretical framework for our approach to media education is based on critical theory, particularly feminist theory, as well as media and cultural studies. The process of learning is informed by Freirian pedagogy and the social work methodology of group work. CURRICULUM/ACTIVITIES Unlike many community-based media projects, the focus will not be on a final "product," like a video, but rather on the process and concepts, on the tools for critical thinking. Teens have so internalized the language of mass media that they not only know how to copy media formats with the skill of professionals, but they also know what they should be saying with them. Our emphasis will be on deconstruction first -- only then are truly new constructions possible. In media literacy groups we will provide a safe place where women can discover and share their true selves as they learn to uncover the artificial messages they have internalized, to learn why those messages have been created, and to reclaim their own voice. The curriculum for media literacy will be developed in collaboration with the advisory board, the resource team of media professionals and group workers and modified in response to group needs over this year-long demonstration project. The members of the group will play a key role in creating and evaluating the curriculum. Also, the Group Worker will write process recordings for each group which will be assembled at the end of the project as part of the evolving "content guide." Workshops and activities will be structured around various themes: Issues of self and the body Issues of identity, agency and articulation Issues of sexism, racism, classism, and lookism Issues of love, relationship and self-actualization Issues of subjectivity and objectivity Issues of violence against women in various forms A core activity for all groups will be a media journal -- a record of words and images, a particular episode of a TV show, a movie, a new song-which will be used to begin discussion at each session. The important aspect is the TALKING, the act of processing media, of overcoming the passivity of the media experience to establish a reciprocal relationship -- to TALK BACK. Other activities will expose women to media formats and messages they may have dismissed as not being relevant or may simply never have "discovered" -- for instance, radio documentary and oral history. Groups will be encouraged to use all forms of media -- not only video, but collage, poetry, fiction, song-writing, reversioning popular myths and fairy tales in written or drama form, building a family tree that focuses on the women in their families. Activities will be a mix of group work and individual creative effort, shared with a group. Learning to trust their intelligence and refine their instincts, women will create alternative narratives and messages that are, in effect, victories of voice. The main goal is to provide participants with critical thinking skills they can refine over a lifetime. At the same time, we will be assembling a curriculum for future groups to draw on for inspiration and guidance but that will allow the individual group to define its own experience of media literacy. For this reason, an important outcome will be the development of materials to train future group leaders for media literacy. It is also hoped that media literacy will be "tested" with other female populations and adapted to their special needs. "To exist, humanly, is to name the world, to change it." -Paulo Freire Home International Documentary Series Comprehensive Distribution and Outreach Plan: Experiences with the Pilot Episode Media Education Demonstration Project Advisory Board Educational Guide Who We Are