On April 15, Guilford hosted a media literacy conference entitled Media: Literacy, Education, and Activism to serve as a forum for voicing opinions and learning about the media. The conference centered on an open workshop with Kate Holbein-Rademacher, of Chapel Hill’s Women’s center. This workshop focused on how the media affects behavior and the way we act in different situations, as well as how to teach media literacy, especially as it relates to gender issues.
Organized by junior women’s studies and religious studies major Julie Sloane, the conference was designed to cater to the many people in the Guilford community involved in service and teaching.
“I wanted (Holbein-Rademacher) to come because Guilford does a lot of service with teen moms, kids, and tutoring,” said Sloane. “I thought she would be beneficial … and would give us another perspective of what we’re surrounded by.”
For students like second-year Sarah Levenson, the workshop did just that.
“After viewing films such as Tough Guise and discussing media with (Holbein-Rademacher), I realize how hurtful and narrow some content in the media can be,” she said. “Now, after (the implications of these images) has been pointed out to me, I can recognize the objectification, the stripping of our power as human beings, the hurtful insecurities that they attempt to implant within the viewer’s mind.”
Levenson said that examples of such insecurities would be things like the image of a little girl smiling trying to “appease a tough-acting boy looking down at her threateningly” and the woman who “takes pleasure in the somewhat trivial freedoms offered by these advertisements by choosing to use (a particular) shade of lipstick”
The definition of media literacy was a key topic at the conference. Whereas the “textbook” definition is the ability to read, analyze, evaluate and produce communication in a variety of media forms, the important issue is how we are affected by what we analyze and evaluate.
“From an academic standpoint,” said sociology professor Kathryn Schmidt, “media literacy is a central concern of current feminist thinking, because we’ve realized how pervasive and persuasive media can be in shaping ideas about gender.”
The conference also focused on the importance of alternative and independent media and the role each plays specifically gender activism.
“I have noticed how receptive people are on campus to learning about the media, body, image, and how the two related,” said Levenson.
This participation is vital, suggested Kathryn Schmidt: “Critiquing media and its effects on us can be a powerful tool for improving people’s lives and senses of self-worth.”
“If we are working for social change,” said Sloane, “we need to realize how the media affects our country’s ideology. People need to reclaim the media.