Square eyed kids are not one eyed: media education in Australia

摘要

I lead into this paper with the question, 'what is media education in a democracy?' This paper responds to recent criticisms published in the Australian press, of the 'dumbing down' of English with media studies. Literacy is often implicated as integral to political struggle since it is a gateway to power in a 'developed' culture. To be 'multi literate' requires more than a set of tools or 'skills and drills' applied to print based texts. Media education, which includes media literacy, promotes intellectual engagement, critical analysis and creative application from active users and consumers. If our young students are 'media educated', they are taught about the media by and through it and engage in creating, constructing and even subverting media texts, as well as merely responding to them. Far from becoming singularly square eyed, media educated students can have a more kaleidoscopic view of the world and provide the example of media studies in Queensland as a working example of how this can occur as an educational continuum.