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Ecomedia Literacy: Green Design for Media Literacy Education (NAMLE-19)
The document discusses ecomedia literacy, focusing on integrating ecological awareness into media education to promote sustainability. It critiques traditional media literacy frameworks for being overly anthropocentric and proposes a shift towards ecological metaphors and interdependence within media practices. The goals include fostering awareness of media's impact on the environment and encouraging sustainable cultural practices through various skills and themes.
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Ecomedia Literacy: Green Design for Media Literacy Education (NAMLE-19)
- 1. Ecomedia Literacy: Green Designfor Media Literacy Education Antonio López, PhD Chair & Associate Professor John Cabot University antonio-lopez.com NAMLE 2019 Washington, DC This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution- NonCommercial- ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
- 2. Standard media literacy(in North America) • Critical discourse analysis of 7 North American media lit organizations (teaching/instructional documents and websites) • Practitioner interviews Conclusions • Primarily based on 19th century paradigm • Reinforces mechanism/progress • Reflective practice • Anthropocentric • Visual and mass media • Abundant use of container/conduit metaphors • Media economics as disembedded from environment • Focus on individual autonomy/individualism • Apolitical • Trying to mainstream (fit) into ed. standards
- 3. Excluded Affect Medium Political economy Systems approach Ecology Alternativemedia Point of intervention Spatial metaphors related to navigation enables introduction of ecosystem metaphors Transition to ecological metaphors To encourage systems, interdependence & ecological thinking, change metaphor from mechanism to ecology
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- 5. Why is natureimagery used in our OS?
- 6. “We believe thatyour content should be the focus of your experience. And everything else should disappear. Even the device itself… The most amazing thing about holding it is that you forget you’re holding it.” Apple iPad Air (16GB, Wi-Fi, 3G) 9.7-Inch Retina Display description (apple.com/ipad-air/design)
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- 9. Media Media object (text/gadget) Stereotyping(race, gender, sexual orientation, etc.) Political economy, policy Ideology (anthropocentricism, ecocentricism, etc.)
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- 12. Backwards design: Essential question Whatmental models and practices will lead to a healthy media ecosystem?
- 13. Green cultural citizenship Embodyingsustainable behaviors and cultural practices that shape and promote ecological values within the interconnected realms of society, economy and environment. Ecomedia Literacy Perceiving how everyday ecomedia practice impacts our ability to live sustainably within earth’s ecological parameters for the present and future.
- 14. 1. To developan awareness of how ecomedia are physiologically interconnection with living systems 2. To recognize ecomedia’s phenomenological influence on the perception of time, space, place and cognition 3. To understand ecomedia’s interdependence with the global economy, and how the current model of globalization impacts livings systems and social justice 4. To analyze how ecomedia form symbolic associations and discourses that promote environmental ideologies 5. To be conscious of how ecomedia impacts our ability to engage in sustainable cultural practices and to encourage new uses of media that promote sustainability Ecomedia literacy design goals
- 15. (some) Ecomedia literacythemes (inspired by ecocriticism) Challenge growth and consumerism Critically engage technological sublime Promote cultural commons, connectivity Highlight alternative ecomedia Explore topics like food systems, gadget marketing, anthropocentric vs. ecocentric ideologies Explore discourses around nature, animals, climate change, ecopsychology Fake climate news De-center humans Incorporate material and affective turn
- 16. Ecomedia literacy skills Researchknowledge production (information literacy) Analyze/deconstruct marketing or media texts (content analysis, semiotics, discourse analysis) Explore aesthetic language (visual, audio literacy) Mindfully engage media environments (ecomedia mindfulness, medium literacy) Holistically inventory ecomediasphere (systems literacy)
- 17. Ecomedia Literacy PerformanceIndicators Create narratives of connection with digital storytelling tools (video essays, curated blogs, Prezi, etc.) Translate concepts between media and ecology disciplines using ecological metaphors to describe media phenomena Perform crossovers with ways of knowing through participant observation and social learning (students work in groups) Develop an eco-ethical framework in order act upon these understandings and to make wise choices Based on MC Bateson’s (2007) education for global responsibility model
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- 19. Necker cube Image source:https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/philosophy-of-technology/0/steps/26324 Don Ihde: “multistability”; technology are only what they are in use
- 20. “Resource image” (NadiaBozak) Example: Gulf War, 1991 Image as cultural/political resource: • Human domination/destruction of nature • Ideology of oil dependence and war (oil politics) Image as environmental resource: • Technological infrastructure • Supply chain that made image technology possible • Material containing image (newspapers, TVs, computers, etc.) • Data file (exists on a server, its storage and use produces CO2)
- 21. Political (eco)nomy(Eco)culture Lifeworld (Eco)materialism Ecomediasphere Boundaryobject/ system-to-think- with “Resource media” Scales between Media object and Hyper-objects Media Object Types of media objects
- 22. World (mental model/ideology/world system) Earth (physicalecosystem/Earth system) Political economyEcoculture Selfworld Material systems Media/sphere Ecologies of interconnected networks Mental ecology Political/social ecologyCultural ecology Physical ecology
- 23. Media/sphere Four scapes Ecoculture Media-centric/qualitative (text andmeanings) Text and discourse analysis of media texts; mapping cultural behaviors and attitudes Political Eco/nomy Socio-centric/quantitative (social forces) Ideological structure of the global economics system, political economy of media Material systems Ecology and environmental studies, material infrastructure The material conditions of media, including extraction, production, e- waste, energy and emissions; medium properties Selfworld Phenomenology, media ecology Media’s sensory affect and impact on our perception of time, space and place
- 24. Political Eco/nomy Ecoculture Lifeworld Ecomaterialism Gadget Cognitive dispositions Emotions Mediumproperties Material reality Political and economic forces Social and cultural practices Beliefs Ideology/Cosmology Affordances/constraints Beliefs Platform design Political economy • Carbon-capitalism • “Oilygarchy” • “Deep media” • Advertising • Consumerism • Attention economy (legacy and social media) • Surveillance capitalism • Extractivism, externalization • Platform capitalism • Planned obsolescence • Neocolonialism/globalization • Amazon, Google, Apple, Facebook, Microsoft • “Appconn”/”Chimerica” Ecoculture (beliefs) • Values/eco-ethics • Anthropocentric vs. ecocentric • Consumerism • Racism, sexism • Egalitarianism • Language frames/discourses • Green cultural citizenship Ecomaterialism (affordances/constraints) • Shareability/spreadability • Algorithms • Interacive • E-waste • Emissions • EMFs Lifeworld (cognitive dispositions) • Selective exposure, confirmation bias, reality maintenance, etc. • Addiction, attention • Emotional response, alienation, sense of place • Affect • EMFs impacts Labor practices
- 25. World (mental model/ideology/world system) Earth (physicalecosystem/Earth system) Political economyEcoculture Lifeworld Ecomaterialism Ecomediasphere Boundary work Ecomediatones (ecotone, edge ecology) Cultural productionSymbolic order Materials extraction, manufacture, production Physical ecosystems EmbodiednessAffect/ Sensory exp. Bioculture/languaculture Time/space Affective pop culture Medium properties Ideology Anthrop. vs Eco discourses
- 26. Political eco/nomyEcoculture Selfworld Materialsystems Ecomediasphere: Example analysis Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) Ecofeminist themes Biopolitics Ecoapocolypse Genre (car chase, post-apocalypse) Identities (gender) Affect of spectacle, Violence Firstness Film as a global commodity Industrial characteristics of film production Film as a material object Environmental problems related to production Ideology Response of audience Film language Film critics, Rotten Tomatoes Ideology Sound, image
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Editor's Notes
- #2 Welcome and thanks for your interest in the pedagogical aspects of ecomedia. I’m Antonio Lopez and I’m recording this from my office in Rome, Italy. I’m suffering a bit from current environmental conditions, so please forgive me for sounding a bit stuffed up.
- #3 Subsequently I did a deep dive into the media literacy practices of North American media literacy organizations, which is covered extensively in my last book, Greening Media Education. My conclusions can be summarized as follows (read slide)
- #4 As it relates to teaching ecomedia, my study showed that many important modes of inquiry are excluded, including (read) But I found a point of intervention, which is the use of spatial metaphors, such as navigation, which can support the introduction of ecosystem metaphors to map media Thus, in my re-design efforts to encourage ecological thinking, I’m trying to use ecological metaphors whenever appropriate in order to reframe our thinking about media.
- #5 Which brings us to the ecomediasphere. In Greening Media Education I started to model this as the “media wheel” but I’m revising it to reflect a more holistic perspective that a sphere metaphor implies.
- #9 Public policy is impacted by how environmental issues are framed in the media; and consumerism promoted by marketing drives environmental destruction.
- #10 I’m drawing inspiration for my design from the iceberg model of systems thinking. On a daily basis we react to events without examining the patterns, systemic structures or mental models that create events. Basic media literacy tends to focus on events that are in the form of texts and then perhaps identify patterns, such as gender or racial stereotyping. Sometimes it will go into systemic structures, such as the political economy of meeting, but rarely will it explore the mental model that leads to media problems. From an environmental perspective, if we examine mental models we can see how issues like environmental degradation, patriarchy, racism and colonialism are intersection and connected to a common world view.
- #13 To work on the level of transforming mental models, we can guide curriculum design with an essential question: What mental models and practices will lead to a healthy media ecosystem? Backwards design starts with the essential question and then formulates approaches to answer the question.
- #14 These are working definitions of some key concepts that will help our approach to teaching ecomedia. First is the concept of green cultural citizenship (read) Second is the concept of ecomedia literacy (read)
- #15 Ecomedia literacy currently has five intentions, although this can be revised and expanded. (read)
- #17 This kind of analysis can promote a variety of literacy skills, such as (read)
- #18 Doing a mediasphere analsysis corrolates to MC Bateson’s global responsibility model for education. Here I translate them as they correspond with the ecomediasphere (read)
- #22 Th way it works is we start with the concept of a media object, which is like a boundary object. A boundary object is something that has commonly agreed upon characteristics but its meaning and purpose changes according to context. For example, a smartphone will have different purposes according to designers, manufacturers, users, app developers, experts, workers, and users. This is somewhat similar to the circuit of culture approach developed in cultural studies. A media object can be a media text, gadget or platform as exemplified on the right side of the slide.
- #23 Here I’m mapping how the mediasphere roughly corresponds with the concept of different ecologies as identified by Guattari in his Three Ecologies, although I have taken the liberty to transform them into four ecologies.
- #24 The sphere is divided into four lenses, inspired by Appadurai’s concept of scapes. Here I identify the four main scapes and their focus (read)
- #25 Th way it works is we start with the concept of a media object, which is like a boundary object. A boundary object is something that has commonly agreed upon characteristics but its meaning and purpose changes according to context. For example, a smartphone will have different purposes according to designers, manufacturers, users, app developers, experts, workers, and users. This is somewhat similar to the circuit of culture approach developed in cultural studies. A media object can be a media text, gadget or platform as exemplified on the right side of the slide.
- #26 Finally, I want to introduce the idea of doing boundary work between the different scapes. In landscape ecology, a transition zone between two biomes is an ecotone such as the between a field and a forest. In the mediasphere, an ecomediatone is a transition area between two scapes. So if you look at the space between dotted lines, you will see there are various different transition zones that combine elements of the adjacent scapes (read) As a class discussion you could debate whether or not these boundaries make sense.
- #27 So how does this come together as an analytical project? If we take the media object of Mad Max: Fury Road, we can examine it from the perspective of the different scapes. (read)
- #28 OK, that’s all folks. Please send any comments or ideas to help make the ecomediasphere better. I leave you with some of the inspiration I’m drawing from. Ciao!