'Seduction' as a Contemporary Strategy for Media Literacy Pedagogy
Biographical Sketch
Nolan Bazinet is a PhD candidate in Education at the University of Sherbrooke in Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada where he teaches as a sessional instructor and is also an English instructor at Champlain Regional College.
Type of Presentation
Individual presentation
Brief Description of Presentation
The presentation will be based on a theoretical framework in order to teach critical media pedagogy that assists students in being more ambiguous about what and how they post online.
Abstract of Proposal
Non-profit organizations such as Mediasmarts in Canada, as well as the European Commission in Europe, define a key component of media literacy in the ability to produce or create media. However, as CBC recently reported, many young people are feeling pressured to constantly produce content online (“YouTube Burnout”, 2018). Similarly, contemporary films such as Bo Burnham’s Eight Grade effectively demonstrate young people’s relation to social media, particularly the necessity to constantly post information about themselves online. Given this, one may wonder how media literacy pedagogy may educate young students to not feel the need to constantly produce information about themselves. The media theorist Byung Chul-Han (2016) suggested that an effective contemporary strategy lies in ‘silence’. For Han, ‘silence’ is not necessarily about preventing ourselves from posting information online, but appreciating the little gaps of solitude and silence in which they might eventually find something to actually say (p.84). Thirty years earlier, Jean Baudrillard (1987) strategized a theory of seduction, which is in opposition to society’s obsession with incessant production. Such a strategy, he claimed, is antithetical to the surveillance and computer processes that are the contemporary equivalent of alienation and forced identity (p.74). Building from these theorists, this paper seeks to develop a framework of media literacy pedagogy that focuses on how students can produce ‘seductive’ media. Rather than teaching students to remain completely silent online, seductive media would allow students to express themselves without giving away all information and would allow them to be more creative about how they share information.
Location
Session 5B (Summit, Double Tree)
Start Date
2-23-2019 10:15 AM
End Date
2-23-2019 11:45 AM
Recommended Citation
Bazinet, Nolan, "'Seduction' as a Contemporary Strategy for Media Literacy Pedagogy" (2019). International Critical Media Literacy Conference. 37.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/criticalmedialiteracy/2019/2019/37
'Seduction' as a Contemporary Strategy for Media Literacy Pedagogy
Session 5B (Summit, Double Tree)
Non-profit organizations such as Mediasmarts in Canada, as well as the European Commission in Europe, define a key component of media literacy in the ability to produce or create media. However, as CBC recently reported, many young people are feeling pressured to constantly produce content online (“YouTube Burnout”, 2018). Similarly, contemporary films such as Bo Burnham’s Eight Grade effectively demonstrate young people’s relation to social media, particularly the necessity to constantly post information about themselves online. Given this, one may wonder how media literacy pedagogy may educate young students to not feel the need to constantly produce information about themselves. The media theorist Byung Chul-Han (2016) suggested that an effective contemporary strategy lies in ‘silence’. For Han, ‘silence’ is not necessarily about preventing ourselves from posting information online, but appreciating the little gaps of solitude and silence in which they might eventually find something to actually say (p.84). Thirty years earlier, Jean Baudrillard (1987) strategized a theory of seduction, which is in opposition to society’s obsession with incessant production. Such a strategy, he claimed, is antithetical to the surveillance and computer processes that are the contemporary equivalent of alienation and forced identity (p.74). Building from these theorists, this paper seeks to develop a framework of media literacy pedagogy that focuses on how students can produce ‘seductive’ media. Rather than teaching students to remain completely silent online, seductive media would allow students to express themselves without giving away all information and would allow them to be more creative about how they share information.
