Today, media education is in a transitional period. However, most information is being looked at through television. Since television is not going to disappear, educators are realizing that they need to teach children about the media and show them how to watch television and view other sources with a different perspective. Ignoring the media will only affect the problem even more. That is why it is so important for educators to realize the impact media literacy programs have on their students and begin to apply the tools necessary to help students learn to look at it with a more in depth thought. In doing this, the students will not only become more observant of the media they are watching but they will also become students who do not take thi

ngs at face value. They will become analytical thinkers.

I called my cousin, a senior, at the University of Gonzaga who is majoring in education. She is currently student teaching for a second grade class. She talked to the head teacher for her class and asked her how she got into the career and what she had to do to get there. She majored in education with a masters in education. She then told her that majoring in communications is very key. Speaking about media illiteracy is the key to teaching educators about the problems and how to educate children on how to interpret the different types of media. A normal elementary teacher starts out at $30,000 a year and then works up from there. She also stated the advantages to teaching children how to interpret media was that she gets to help them and see them grow into great thinkers and she always likes to see her kids succeed in the long run. The one disadvantage would be educators that believe that media is all bad and should be banned from children. That is not realistic because there would be no way to get rid of since it is such a money maker in today’s society. So the only thing you can do is teach the children how to watch each particular show and how to critique it.

Much of our day is surrounded by constant input of not only sights, but also sounds. Music can be heard in the car, at home, from the computer, on television, and even in the movies. Children listening to the radio are always hearing sounds and words all tied into a catchy beat through most teen radio stations. These songs or commercials often glorify rape, sex and violence in there lyrics. If the child listening to this type of media and is not media literate about the topics, then they not only taking in what they shouldn’t, but they are also acting upon what they hear or see.

It has taken over American society and even the world. Everywhere you look there just seems to be another ad of some sort. Kids these days just don’t understand the detrimental impact they are getting because they do not understand what the media message is. It is a simple solution to solve if we could get the children to understand the different types of subliminal messages and how to differentiate good types of media

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Media Messages, , University Gonzaga, Education Website, media literacy, types media, media literate, media messages, understand media, view media, teach children, media education, help children, children interpret, critically view media,