Connecting the Mainstream Media and Political Literacy and Seeking to Understand the Influence of Hegemonic Education on Democracy

• In Event: 33.054 - Promoting Democratic Citizenship Through a Critical Analysis of the Media's Relationship to the Privatization of Education

Abstract

Media industries are much more than isolated islands of knowledge, ideas and propaganda dissemination, and many media advocates and insiders suggest that the mainstream media reflect and represent the society, to varying degrees, to which it broadcasts. Thus, it is incumbent on a democratic society and the individuals within it to demand more meaningful representation of its citizenry and their perspectives in mainstream media, to source and rely on local and alternative media wherever possible, and to ensure that their own media literacy is cultivated in a way that reflects their commitment to a just, equitable and democratic society.
Research Focus
The central aim of our study is to elicit and examine the viewpoints, perspectives and experiences of teacher-education candidates on education for democracy. For this particular component of the research, we are particularly interested in how participants understand, relate to, and engage with media literacy, especially in relation to democracy. Further, we sought to better comprehend how these pre-service educators might incorporate media literacy and controversial issues in their teaching. We have extended our models of thin-thick democracy and epistemological democracy for this analysis.
Methodology
We recruited participants from a teacher-education program in Ontario, Canada. The data from teacher candidates were collected through an on-line survey that included a detailed demographic section as well as a substantive section of twenty qualitative and quantitative questions on education for democracy. The demographic section enabled a depiction of our research sample. The majority of the participants were young (under 23 years of age), white, female, English-speaking, and undertaking the pre-service (as opposed to a teaching certification or graduate degree) program. This study includes 118 participants at the North Campus, and 168 at the South Campus.
Findings

The central findings that concern the responses of teacher-education candidates to the question of whether media literacy is an important component of education for democracy, the propensity of these candidates to engage in controversial issues, and their position on whether teaching for democracy is considered important in the first place. When asked whether media literacy is an important part of education for democracy, most teacher candidates concurred.
Nevertheless, if teacher-education candidates—and by extension, educators, in general—view so positively the importance of media literacy as a central component of education for democracy, why is it that our society is so willing to blindly support mass media that portrays an unnecessary narrow vision for society, including the image of education as an exclusive and increasingly private good?
There are several explanations for this mismatch between rhetoric and reality. First, there is little attention to media alternatives. Second, despite rhetorical support for media literacy, teacher-education candidates in our study uncritically cite mainstream media to support their perspectives on democracy around the world. Third, while teacher candidates favoured the inclusion of media literacy as part of education for democracy, they held much less support for teaching controversial issues, and the importance of teaching for democracy altogether

Authors

• Paul R. Carr, Université du Québec en Outaouais

• Gina Thesee, University of Quebec - Montreal