QUESTION: College Textbooks - Media Literacy

[Natasha Casey]

I am currently using W. James Potter's Media Literacy textbook and while I agree with the principles, find it to be very jargon heavy and a bit of a turn off for my beginning undergraduates.  Anyone out there either using this text and have some comments or using a different text?

[Frank W. Baker]

This is obviously self-promotion, but I recently wrote "Media Literacy in The K-12 Classroom," (ISTE, 2012) because I wanted to provide educators with a text that was not filled with jargon and I wanted those who read it to have many practical ideas, tips and resources. I hope that you'll consider it. Here is my website for the book.   Frank Baker

[Natasha Casey]

Frank,  I have read your book and loved it.  But I teach at the college level and need something a little more challenging for the undergrads.  Any suggestions?

[Michele Vogt-Schuller]

I'm going to have my library order this book. It looks great.

[Frank W. Baker]

Take a look at Art Silverblatt's books (Approaches to Media Literacy; ML: Keys to Interpreting Media Messages) as well as the new book by Faith Rogow/Cyndy Scheibe.  The latter though is ideally aimed at teacher/education programs.   FB

[Faith Rogow]

The first three chapters of Cyndy's and my book, The Teacher's Guide to Media Literacy, might be worth looking at, but as Frank noted, they are written primarily for teachers and teacher educators.  If you're teaching a mass comm course, I'd go with Frank's recommendation of Art Silverblatt's book.

[Ryan Goble]

Is this for a undergrad communications or English course or is it an Ed school course?

[Natasha Casey]

Thanks Frank, I am familiar with Art's book but not with the other. And Ryan, I teach undergraduate communications courses.

[Enzo Corsetti]

I'm not a teacher, so I can't imagine what students actually find too heavy, but I'm just reading "Media literacy and semiotics" by Elliot Gaines and I find it quite easy, even for my imperfect English. Might it be useful for your courses, Natasha?

[Natasha Casey]

Ok - thanks for the tip, I will take a look.

[Ryan Goble]

What about having students each read (jigsaw) contemporaty books that relate to media lit at the beginning of the term - have them make their own definitions of ML (inquiry) and then do course pack readings with various types of ML articulations. Some books that come to mind:

Give Me Everything You Have by James Lasdun (NPR review HERE)

unSpun: Finding Facts in a World of Disinformation by Brooks Jackson & Kathleen Hall Jamieson
and Trust Me, I'm Lying: Confessions of a Media Manipulator by Ryan Holiday

[Sonjanita moore]

Trust me, I'm Lying looks REALLY good!  

You are so knowledgeable (Did I spell that right?), Ryan!

[Kris James]

Do these same titles apply to an elective course for high school students? I'm a huge fan of Frank's website but I'm looking for other books, web resources,etc that would help me create a manageable, activity-focused one-semester ML course. I'm open to any and all suggestions! Thanks!