Matt: Yes, I think that if you can further the answer in how this program fits in to the grander scheme of the world. Basically – why does it matter?

Miriam: Why does it matter?

Matt: Well, because it does matter, and I know it matters but – you’ve already told us what is media literacy and why it’s important, but basically -

Miriam: Why does it matter that I’m studying it this way now?

Matt: Maybe just less about what you’re setting, but more about the program at the Atwater Library and why did it – it’s kind of like the question people were asking when you were writing grants: why.

Miriam: And that’s the question that’s hardest to answer, isn’t it?

Matt: And then the Atwater Library wasn’t giving you something tangible to work with. What’s your beef with media and literacy?

Miriam:

Okay, what’s my beef? Maybe have a couple of specific beefs. I have a beef in the way that youth are represented in media, and also in media literacy. I think in both cases, their agency’s kind of compromised. In the media they are presented in this way that makes them mindless consumers, and also to an extent in media literacy, they are portrayed in this way that makes them in need of awakening by media literacy trainers.
I guess what I was interested in is the fact that to me, from watching the workshops at the Atwater Library, that wasn’t what was happening in either case. The students were not mindless consumers, and they also weren’t being awakened by enlightened media trainers. The relationships were not like that. There was always a give and take, and there was always a measure of negotiation, and interest on both parties to learn each other’s ideas and ways of lives, and what was important to them. It was never like, “You need me to make you be critical and to release your voice and let it be heard”. That was never what happened.

I guess what I was interested in exploring and what I think is important is trying to understand the power of media production workshops. The thing is to understand what is the role of the teacher/student relationship – how can that role be understood to be a bit more sophisticated than I think it is now. How does that role contribute to a young person’s sense of themselves in the world, and in a world that is dominated by media representations. How was that?

Matt: That was good. That was what I was looking for – hypodermic needle effect. I like the media teacher enlightenment.