Why Media Literacy Education is Preferable to Censorship

Just came across this detailed report, "MEDIA LITERACY: AN ALTERNATIVE TO CENSORSHIP", doing some deep censorship research. Looks rather important for the Big Debate we're now stuck with. The report is hosted in a .gov website. Apparently the White House never got the memo. If only there were some way people in media and government might actually read something besides their own propaganda.

It covers quite a bit. Goes thru the last few decades of mass media and social impacts. All sorts of anti-censorship / pro-education arguments.

Here's a snippet from the section by which I titled the thread:

From the early days of radio and movies to the vast resources of today's World Wide Web, the mass media have been an object of fascination for youth. Yet parents, educators, and youth advocates have long been uneasy about many of the media messages that children and teenagers encounter. Popular culture can glamorize violence, irresponsible sex, junk food, drugs, and alcohol; it can reinforce stereotypes about race, gender, sexual orientation, and class; it can prescribe the lifestyle to which one should aspire, and the products one must buy to attain it.

Thus, it isn't surprising that calls to censor the mass media in the interest of protecting youth have been a mainstay of American politics for many years. Attempts to censor gangster movies in the 1930s, crime comics in the 1950s, and TV violence today have produced an almost unending series of laws, regulations, and proposals for restricting the art, information, and entertainment available to youth. The advent of the Internet a medium in which young people are often better versed than their elders has only intensified these concerns.

There are many reasons why censorship is an unsatisfactory response to concerns about the mass media and its effects on youth. Foremost is the First Amendment, which protects the ability of youngsters as well as adults to read, watch, listen, access ideas, and think about them. This First Amendment protection is not simply a legal technicality to be overcome if possible by laws or policies cleverly crafted to avoid constitutional pitfalls. The right to explore art and ideas is basic to a free society. Without it, children and adolescents cannot grow into the thoughtful, educated citizens who are essential to a functioning democracy. www.ntia.doc.gov...

What are your favorite highlights from it?

I remember watching those Channel One news in grade school. All I really remember was a lot of pro-military and pro-celebrity propaganda, there was no 'media literacy' lesson at the end. I believe a lot of the problems of today can be traced back to the media literacy efforts by government and corporations.

Back then, there was no real competition from alternative media sources. People in general, or at least those who do not trust government or corporations, have a basic understanding that media lies, those who are seeking truth will naturally be drawn to alternative sources, consequently disregarding that the same rules apply.

It's also impossible, in a heavily saturated media environment, to discern truth from propaganda without years of research into a single topic. That is something that can't be overcome, the only real defense (excluding censorship) is through ingraining a sense of trust into the populace at an early age of what media sources are factual.

Let's use one example, this media literacy campaign has been going on for a couple decades now, what are the results? It should be surmised that the younger generations understand that police shootings are over-represented, and no reflective of actual society; yet we have mass movements in response to isolated incidents, yielding chaos and riots. Whatever strategies are currently being employed are either unsuccessful, or the intended purpose is not understood.

a reply to: IgnoranceIsntBlisss

I DONT GET IT

a reply to: GodEmperor

Interesting. I had never heard of them:
www.youtube.com...
What they have up looks pretty balanced.

I haven't read the entire bit in depth yet. It's a side track from something important I'm trying to bang out. Everything I read sounded good to me though.

All about hearing all the views.

Regardless of that outcome, we need viable solutions as well as viable counter-propaganda against the Establishment's "FAKE NEWS" push.

a reply to: ELOHIMANGELOS

Well it is framed around the how to deal with youth situation.

Yet it struck me as having valuable tools in general in resisting this Censored America Agenda (CAA) we're now facing.

If even the idea of censoring youngsters is deeply flawed, then these minions and their masters are off their DINO Media rockers in trying to censor the entire 'populace proper'.