How including media literacy in school curricula can help students learn to ‘read the world

I am a class teacher with more than two decades of experience and an intrinsic interest in media literacy. While having a recent class discussion of the movie Jai Bhim with some teachers, I mooted that it be taken up in class under media education. The reaction was muted.

Jai Bhim is a true story of a 1990s incident in which three members of a Scheduled Tribe (Irular community) were arrested and tortured in the police lock-up. One of them died in custody and his wife, with the assistance of a high court lawyer, fought for justice. The hero’s character is drawn from Judge Chandru who, as an attorney, waged a war with law against the ruling elite and made sure that the downtrodden received justice.

Briefly, the film is a saga of caste bias, dehumanisation, social inequality, police terror, custodial torture, violation of human rights, legal struggle for justice, constitutional duties and rights, etc. Ethically, various issues have been shown by the movie.

Reading the world

This political-social movie is perhaps questioned how it would be linked to education and why students would study or talk about it in school? What is the purpose or role of education? It is to inform the students of what’s happening in their own neighborhood, and in the outside world, in an attempt to give them an environment which would make them think, and compel them to make a positive contribution to society. Critical evaluation of this film and study of various facets of the movie can allow the students to “read the world.”

 Why are dominant castes keeping certain castes under suppression? Is the movie biased? A discussion of these in a balanced manner will assist students to enhance their critical thinking ability. As educators and not merely instructors, we do have a social as well as ethical responsibility to prepare students to not only read the word, but the world as well. We can do it by bringing media literacy/education into the classroom. 

Media education is a process that makes students thoughtful and critical consumers of messages and makes them attuned to prejudice.

There is a underlying pattern which runs through all the messages in the media. Media educators have a responsibility of asking the students to see the pattern and of making the students sensitive to the way the patterns validate certain ideas, values, and social norms. Media education is capable of equipping the students to understand how the media work and becomes sensitive to the function of media (social and mass media) in their life. Today we live amidst viral social media memes, tweets, news, opinions, and videos. We are bombarded with information and disinformation/misinformation that we are daily exposed to by the mainstream and social media. It influences us in so many various ways and shapes our worldview. It forces us to embrace a specific worldview. Unless the students are educated to read the content critically, they will be uninformed and misguided.

Respected teachers, it is our moral responsibility to prepare our students to “read the world”. It is simple to prepare them to “read the word” but it is not simple to prepare them to “read the world”. We should be ready to face challenges as teachers.