Media Literacy History & Hollywood

What does it mean to be literate? A literate person is someone who knows what they do not know. Eve gave Adam an apple in the Garden of Eden. King John of England signed the Magna Carta. The Catholic Church taught that the earth was flat at the time of Christopher Columbus (1492 AD). When Europeans discovered the New World they encountered a virtually peopleless wilderness.

Understanding the media Literate people are aware of what the media does for us and what it does to us. When we watch the news, documentaries, movies or television shows we tend to be a passive and uncritical audience. Psychologically speaking, human beings tend to be more emotional than logical creatures; thus, when the images, information and music washes over us they (and not the necessarily the truth) shape our understanding of an issue. Consider the following example of music shaping our perception… Consider the following example of information shaping our thinking… Consider the following example of images shaping our understanding…

How Music changes film Back

Climate change consensus study Back

Last settlers leave houses Back

Suspending judgement The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn. The astrophysicist Carl Sagan developed the “Baloney Detection Kit” to help people detect problems with the information they are presented with. The following is a video made by the historian of science Michael Shermer discussing what goes into the Baloney Detection Kit. At the end of this unit, students will watch the movie Braveheart and then conduct some research on how different William Wallace and his world actually was compared to the film.

Baloney detection kit Back