JD Swerzenski

Friday, May 20 at 12:00 PM

307 Allen Hall

“A growing consensus agrees that the development of media literary skills involve both the interpretation and production of media (Buckingham, 2013; Jenkins 2009). Less clear is how these dual pedagogical goals can coexist meaningfully (Ito et al., 2009; Hobbs, 1998). Media production may offer students opportunities to develop technical skills, but can it also help develop critical thinking? A two part study was conducted to investigate this question, focused specifically on the media-production oriented Gateway to Media I-II course. First, a lecture study measured the development of critical literacies during the Gateway course. Second, a more focused lab study tested the efficacy of an in-class activity using peer feedback to stimulate critical analysis of media works. The results showed that media production can be used to develop critical thinking; however, connections between technical and critical process must be in implemented in classroom practice for these developments to occur.”