From Resist To Participation

As is well known,the Media literacy education movement,which began in the United Kingdom,and grew up in Canada,the United States and other Western developed countries,has gone through nearly 80 years of historical development.From the perspective of mass culture,and aiming at revealing some hidden theoretical origins and practical motivations,this study attempts to systematically comb and present some media literacy-related concepts,ideas,principles and values approaches,and other important theoretical issues during the development and evolution of the Western media literacy education.Specifically speaking,what’s the background of the Western media literacy education’s origin? How many developmental periods has it experienced? During every developmental period,how does its value approach present? What are the main factors that influence it? What’s its discipline theoretical basis? And what’s the relationship between its development and the mass media,the mass culture,and social practice? What’s the special historical significance for each kind of media literacy educational value approach? And most importantly,under the background of china’s current mass media and mass culture,which meditation and enlightenment has the Western media literacy’s development brought about to us? And so on.Regarding these research questions,this dissertation consists of 5 chapters in addition to the introduction.And according to its logic structure,these five chapters,which are the main body of this research,have been divided into three parts.Along with a logic thinking of the mass mediaâ†'mass cultureâ†'people’s attitudes to mass media and mass cultureâ†'media literacy education’s value approach,the first part(consists of chapterâ… ,chapterâ…¡and chapterâ…¢)of this thesis has investigated,analyzed and reviewed respectively some traditional and protectionism-based Western media literacy educations such as the "immune-style" media literacy education,the "pop art movement" and the "screen education".The chapterâ… deals mainly with the "immune-style" media literacy education.Since the beginning of the last century,in some western countries such as the UK and the USA,the overall rise of mass media which represented by the popular press,telegraphs,movie,radio and television has contributed significantly to the developments and prosperities of mass culture,which brought about some serious concerns and criticisms by F.R.Leavis and the like.They proposed a concept of "literary culture" education,which insisted on "resisting" to the mass media to protect traditional and elite culture.Based on this kind of educational value approach,the "immune-style" media literacy education has had an undoubtedly positive historical significance,although it seemed extreme and narrow later. The chapterâ…¡deals mainly with the "pop art movement".Because of the civilian positions of the mass-oriented mass culture,the "pop arts movement" insisted on that the relationship between the media-users and the media should no longer be of sharp resistance,but discrimination, dialogue, acceptance and appreciation of the popular arts.With "discrimination" as its value approach,this kind of media education movement has demonstrated its more and more democratic,realistic and comprehensive attitude to pop arts and mass culture,showing its positive historical significances. However,its transcendence over the Leavisism proved to be not complete and was bound to undergo a new breakthrough.The chapterâ…¢deals mainly with the "screen education".Based on text analysis,the semiotics interpretation of mass culture make it be more objective and more neutral,and also make a so called "screen education" which adhered to an educational value approach of "representation" take place timely.By means of this approach,the hidden media text meaning and the ideologies could be interpreted,represented and revealed in a more objective,scientifically and rational way,thus the shackles of the ideology from authoritarian regimes was broken down,and a positive,active,independent and critical thinking ability of the audience was developed,and finally,the important historical significance of this mainstream media literacy has been recognized.The second part (chapterâ…£) deals with the up to date development of the Western media literacy education.The study indicates that,since the 1990s,with the rise of new media and the blossoming of participatory culture,the Western media literacy education has undergone a profound change—the traditional pure "protectionism" based one has diminished,meanwhile,a kind of new "beyond protectionism" based media literacy education,which was labeled as "critical consciousness", " democratic participation","empowerment" and "media pleasure",has been becoming the mainstream media education approach.From the practical perspective,with the support of these Western Governments,schools,community organizations and professional associations,and the strong impetus of their social needs and economic level of development,the development of the western media literacy education is necessarily guaranteed.Moreover,in the current multicultural background of the whole world,due to the influences of the mass media and mass culture,as well as the impact of some related subjects,the Western media literacy education is facing a developmental trend of more and more diversified,socialized,lifelong and globalization-oriented.The third part (Chapterâ…¤) deals mainly with some meditations and enlightenments that the Western media literacy education’s development has brought about to our country in the context of China.This study argues that the undergoing of media literacy education in china has some unique practical significance in our current media and cultural environment.According to some theory guides and practical experiences of the Western media literacy education,as well as the country-specific conditions of our country,this research argues that a value approach of "beyond protectionism" should be strongly recommended and constructed to guide the practice of the media literacy education in mainland china.As a huge system project,the media literacy education in China should be conducted through the whole society’s mobilized efforts,which are supposed to include the conscious participation and responsibility of the school education of all kinds of levels,the family education,the Government support,the media self-discipline,society education,as well as the citizens’ self-learning and self-improvement on media literacy.