Between Two Ferns: Using Humor to Teach Critical Media Literacy in a Neoliberal World

Biographical Sketch

Raised on the shores of Sunny California and the Rocky Mountains of Wyoming, Dr. Molly Swick brings a unique perspective to education. She currently teaches educational philosophy, critical pedagogy, and health education courses at Northern Illinois University. Dr. Swick recently received the prestigious NIU Presidential Commission 2015 Sharon Howard Women Who Make a Difference Award and NIU's 2015 Outstanding Advocate for Latino Students Award. Her passion to move our society in a direction of compassion, hope and justice is evident in her commitment to using education as an agent to address and find remedies to issues pertaining to injustice. Dr. Swick's core commitment is excellence in teaching, and she has devoted her life to inspiring future and current teachers by presenting for various teacher education organizations as well as being a role model in her own classroom. The title of her dissertation is “Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of Hope: An Autoethnography in a Social Justice Classroom” (2013).

Type of Presentation

Individual presentation

Brief Description of Presentation

Using humor has the power to break down barriers and provide opportunities for dialogue, which can help teachers establish an atmosphere that encourages students to express their concerns and assist in creating the critical consciousness needed to navigate mass media. In this session, the literature supporting the use of humor as a pedagogical tool, as well as the six critical media literacy questions posed by Funk, Kellner and Share (2016) will be presented, followed by an example using the Between Two Ferns with Zach Galifianakis 2013 interview of President Barack Obama.

Abstract of Proposal

The neoliberal shift toward market-driven education and other social services has resulted in an increased concentration of wealth and power in the hands of the elite, less academic freedom to meet the needs of individual school communities, and a factory-like educational system that reproduces workers for those already enjoying economic and social power. Mass media has been successfully used to misinform and manipulate people to support neoliberal movements that may not be in their socioeconomic interest. In addition, the Internet has provided enormous access for groups promoting ignorance, hatred and intolerance. Sometimes the messages are hidden, sometimes they are obvious. Nonetheless, people must decipher enormous amounts of information.

Most believe that our “democratically elected” government should represent the will of the people; this system can only be authentic with a well-informed citizenry. In a post-truth and partial-truth media age, it is vital to foster critical media literacy in order to preserve policies that move us closer to a democracy and reject those that move us further away. Using humor has the power to break down barriers and provide opportunities for dialogue, which can help teachers establish an atmosphere that encourages students to express their concerns and assist in creating the critical consciousness needed to navigate mass media. In this paper, the literature supporting the use of humor as a pedagogical tool, as well as the six critical media literacy questions posed by Funk, Kellner and Share (2016) will be presented, followed by an example using the Between Two Ferns with Zach Galifianakis 2013 interview of President Barack Obama.

Reference

Funk, S., Kellner, D. & Share, J. (2016). Critical media literacy as transformative pedagogy. In M. N. Yildiz, & J. Keengwe (Eds.), Handbook of research on media literacy in the digital age. (pp. 1-30). Hershey, PA: IGA Global.

Location

Coastal Georgia Center

Start Date

2-25-2017 8:10 AM

End Date

2-25-2017 9:40 AM

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Feb 25th, 8:10 AM Feb 25th, 9:40 AM

Between Two Ferns: Using Humor to Teach Critical Media Literacy in a Neoliberal World

Coastal Georgia Center

The neoliberal shift toward market-driven education and other social services has resulted in an increased concentration of wealth and power in the hands of the elite, less academic freedom to meet the needs of individual school communities, and a factory-like educational system that reproduces workers for those already enjoying economic and social power. Mass media has been successfully used to misinform and manipulate people to support neoliberal movements that may not be in their socioeconomic interest. In addition, the Internet has provided enormous access for groups promoting ignorance, hatred and intolerance. Sometimes the messages are hidden, sometimes they are obvious. Nonetheless, people must decipher enormous amounts of information.

Most believe that our “democratically elected” government should represent the will of the people; this system can only be authentic with a well-informed citizenry. In a post-truth and partial-truth media age, it is vital to foster critical media literacy in order to preserve policies that move us closer to a democracy and reject those that move us further away. Using humor has the power to break down barriers and provide opportunities for dialogue, which can help teachers establish an atmosphere that encourages students to express their concerns and assist in creating the critical consciousness needed to navigate mass media. In this paper, the literature supporting the use of humor as a pedagogical tool, as well as the six critical media literacy questions posed by Funk, Kellner and Share (2016) will be presented, followed by an example using the Between Two Ferns with Zach Galifianakis 2013 interview of President Barack Obama.

Reference

Funk, S., Kellner, D. & Share, J. (2016). Critical media literacy as transformative pedagogy. In M. N. Yildiz, & J. Keengwe (Eds.), Handbook of research on media literacy in the digital age. (pp. 1-30). Hershey, PA: IGA Global.