Teach your children well—“literate”ally

Kids can learn to be active, rather than passive, media consumers

By Deborah J. Poteet-Johnson, MD

America is full of illiterate people, when you think about it. Now, I don’t mean to offend anyone, and certainly if you are reading these words right now, you’re not illiterate—or are you?

The truth is, while many people can read or write words on a page, most of us are woefully illiterate when it comes to “reading” messages we receive every day through media. As caring parents and adults, we can do a lot to help our kids and families by first recognizing this fact and then taking necessary steps to become more media-literate.

Of course, there are many forms of media: music, television, films, books, magazines, the Internet, video games and billboards, to name a few. Cell phones, once considered a luxury, are now commonplace and can even serve as conduits for harassment (like “cyber-bullying” text messages).

While it’s impossible as well as impractical to completely shield ourselves from all types of media, we can learn some useful techniques that will make us better informed “consumers” of the messages we receive through media. Helping our children to also learn these techniques is not only fun, but it actually fosters better communication and lets us enjoy each others’ creativity while we become critical thinkers and active (rather than passive) media consumers.

This is an important issue, because media messages can exert such powerful influences on our children and shape their perceptions to a great degree—often not for the better.

I find it quite disturbing, for example, that many of my young patients have been victims of bullying or violence, yet they feel such behavior is the “norm” based on what they and their peers have observed in the media. Similarly, messages involving risky behaviors and unhealthy body images abound in all forms of media that can be easily accessed by anyone.

So, what can we do to combat these negative messages?

The New Mexico Media Literacy Project (NMMLP.org) is a wonderful resource for anyone interested in learning more about this issue. Some of the concepts noted on the website point out the ways media can use techniques such as persuasion, fantasy, partial truths, or even reality to affect the attitudes, actions and thoughts of consumers. These are all valuable concepts to discuss with your child, depending on age-appropriateness.

Better yet, we can also learn—and teach our children—to actively “deconstruct” media messages. By doing so, we can understand not only what the overt and implied messages are, but also who created them, and why.

For example, a television ad may incorporate attractive models, dynamic music, colors, persuasive words, and realistic-appearing animation to capture the viewer’s attention in order to sell a particular food or product. The next time an ad comes on TV, talk about it with your kids and actively “deconstruct” it, asking these questions:

• What message is the media maker wanting to convey?
• Who is the target audience or age group?
• How do the techniques used affect our emotions?
• What are the various ways persuasion is used?
• Is there any misinformation, lies or bias in the message?
• What part of the story is not being told?

The best part is that these deconstruction techniques can apply to any media message—from routine commercials to political ads, and from TV shows and films to cyber-messages. Rather than living our lives based on our emotions regarding what we see or hear, we can instead make better informed, critically-thought-out decisions about the world where we live.

Now, isn’t that a valuable lesson to teach our kids—and one they can carry with them all their lives?

Deborah J. Poteet-Johnson, MD, has been certified by the American Board of Pediatrics in general pediatrics and the subspecialty of adolescent medicine. She is in private practice at Psychotherapy Alternatives, PLLC, and can be reached at 266-2248 or DrPJ@PsychologicalAlternatives.org.