Review of Scanning
Television
Author: Kathleen Tyner
Telemedium, the Journal of Media Literacy,
Volume 42, Number 2, Summer1996
Published by the National Telemedia Council
120 Wilson Street
Madison, WI 53703
Scanning Television: Videos
for Media Literacy in Class by John Pungente,SJ, and Gary Marcuse produced
by the Jesuit Communication Project and Face to Face Media with teacher's
guide by Neil Andersen and John Pungente, SJ
Scanning Television is
one of those classroom resources that forces me to re-examine my bias
against educational "kits". With a few exceptions, I look at kits as
a gross violation of resource-based education principles. While it is
nice for beginning teachers to have some materials to "work" in the
classroom, most kits, put together by those far away from the classroom,
are quickly outdated and, worst of all, violate constructivist principles
that beg for more local context, authentic approaches, and inquiry-based
strategies. In fact, most of the kits I review are not much different
in concept from the textbooks they purport to replace.
Scanning Television is
a big exception. Whether you are an experienced media educator, or just
beginning to teach about media in your subject area, Scanning Television
contains a wealth of classroom activity suggestions, that stimulate
students to become active media users in a world awash in information.
It works for me because it is a freewheeling database of images that
allows teachers optimum flexibility for use and re-use with a wide variety
of activities. Better yet, the components of the kit take on broad concepts
without preaching to students. The video segments are fresh and look
like they have a long shelf-life.
Produced by John Pungente
and Gary Marcuse, Scanning Television comes packaged with four one-hour
videotapes and a teacher's guide. The tapes offer a rich video database
of 40 student-centered video clips of about 2-12 minutes each, for a
total of 4 hours, end-to-end. The Scanning Television Teacher's Guide
(72 pages) written by Neil Andersen and John Pungente, provides busy
teachers with valuable "tricks of the trade" for teacher tested activities
that fit easily across the regular curriculum. There is no guesswork
about how the Scanning Television video and guide work together. The
book and tapes are designed with clear co-ordinates, including the use
of a "video bug", an unobtrusive number in the bottom of the video frame.
The Guide introduces each
clip and provides context and content for activities around broad themes:
"Before Viewing", "Focus for viewing", and "After Viewing." All of the
activities are valuable for teachers who want to use students' pre-existing
knowledge, practice inquiry-based interventions, design collaborative
and group work, and practice authentic assessment strategies. Activities
especially designed for ESL students are included.
It gets even better for
Canadian teachers. The material on the tapes is organized around the
topic headings used in the second edition of Popular Culture by Barry
Duncan, et. al. (Harcourt Brace, 1996). Scanning Television also follows
the Ontario Ministry of Education provincial standards document for
media education.
Produced in Canada, the
resource uses footage form TVOntario, Warner Brothers, the National
Film Board, YTV, and others. Although I feared that the clips would
be too Canada-centric, I was relieved to find them to be of general
North American interest. In fact, it took a Canadian video clip from
Scanning Television "Multimedia Gulch," to tell me things I didn't know
about San Francisco's epicentre for multimedia production, a place that
is only two blocks from my workplace! Another clip took me to Chicago
to view Niketown, a shopping mall and a theme park. Although Canadian-produced,
the resource is completely appropriate to US classrooms.
Because most of the clips
originated on broadcast TV that both elementary and secondary students
already see and understand, they are useful for a range of developmental
ages. But not all. As with any classroom resource, teacher preview and
discretion is advised for a few of the more provocative clips. For example,
"SuperModel's Super Envy" looks at the way models are used to sell cars
in a British commercial. It also gets into issues of gender, representation
and exploitation of the female body. "Watching TV" an excellent cartoon
from the National Film Board of Canada is hilarious to me, but may be
too scary for young children.
The bank of videos are
organized into four thematic groups - Seeing Ourselves: Media and Representation
questions the media's role and responsibilities in affecting social
change. It includes clips about consumerism, media advocacy, and the
role of filmmakers like Ridley Scott in creating advertisements. Each
tape includes elements that point out how media are constructed.
- Selling Images and Values
examines issues of persuasion in the media such as consumerism, advertising,
media ethics, and censorship.
- Our Constructed Worlds:
Media Environments looks at how the media tend to create separate
worlds in the pursuit and marketing of products and services. Issues
of audiences, and the ubiquitous nature of media in the environment
prevail.
- The Global Citizen focuses
on how our political responsibilities are shaped by media influences,
and how we respond to these messages.
- New and Emerging Technologies
looks into the future at likely developments in the age of information.