December 2011 M-Passioned Member: Gillian “Gus” Andrews
Gus Andrews - The Media Show
Name: Gillian “Gus” Andrews (gandre.ws)
Title: Producer
What do you do?
I’m the producer of The Media Show (themediashow.net), a series of YouTube shorts about media and digital literacy aimed at young adults (with the idea that high schoolers “watch up”). We’re a puppet show with sensibilities somewhere between the classic Muppet Show and, say, Team America: World Police or Crank Yankers. The show has always been an experiment in educating through viral video: how do we reach people when mass broadcast media are on the decline? How effective can media be at educating outside the classroom, “in the wild”? Can we change minds? Behavior patterns? These questions have long fascinated me.
Tell me about your latest work or project in media literacy.
I’m actually currently working on a pitch and grants for a much bigger show, on digital literacy, for an older audience — up through senior citizens. My dissertation brought me into contact with a huge number of adult Internet users who were struggling to do things like use web addresses to figure out where they were online, or make sense of search results. Some of them put themselves at risk of identity fraud by posting their account names, passwords — even credit card numbers. The idea is to make a show for them along the lines of home improvement shows, or makeover shows — Queer Eye For Your Aunt Mabel’s Laptop, say — and get it on TV. I’m working on grants and partnerships for this show at the moment.
Aside from that, production of The Media Show continues apace. This season we’re working on similar content to what the other show should cover, about how the Internet works — search engines, “content farm” websites full of spammy content. Even an episode on how important spelling is online. (Oddly enough, we’re also doing a lot of riffing on classic Sesame Street sketches this season, too, which we previously did in using Grover’s Near and Far sketch to talk about cinematography). I’d like to find a university or college to affiliate with for the next stage of production — doing formative and summative research to make sure the show’s messages are getting across, stepping up our publicity efforts to get the show seen more broadly, and fine-tuning the show’s humor and aesthetics.
Why is media literacy important to you?
I can’t think of a more important issue, as an educator. So much of what we understand about science, government, health, finance, and international affairs comes to us through the media. In fact, media are the *only* exposure many of us have to these topics after high school — it’s not like questions of gender, say, or sometimes race (depending on where you live), where our understanding of who we are and what kind of influence we have is also shaped by our everyday interactions with other people. Unless people are introduced to critical ways of looking at the media, they’re likely to take everything at face value. I cringe at literallyunbelievable.org, where you can find people who believe The Onion is a legitimate news source… you get the sense that it’s their gut reaction to anything taking the form of a news article.
What are you most excited about in the media literacy field?
I’m most excited about stuff that’s probably well outside of what most people think of as “media literacy”: Wikileaks, and all of the less-recognized participatory efforts (like ePluribus Media) to expose buried information to the public eye. Youth on 4chan do some amazing forensic photographic work in trying to identify criminals and other bad actors — like people who have posted photos of themselves abusing cats. The results aren’t always pretty — they approach vigilantism at times — but it’s an intriguing development when you consider the fact-finding skills these folks are developing and teaching each other. And some of the skills are being put to good use: members of the big formless group known as Anonymous (which arose out of 4chan) and other folks related to the Occupy Wall Street movement are researching police corruption and piecing together a picture of the corporate and governmental response to the movement. (The historical relationship of this movement to ad-criticism mag Adbusters is also really interesting.)
When I work on my show, I try to keep in mind that some of the kids watching may be light-years ahead of me — they’re not just skeptical, but actually leaning on the lever of that skepticism to pry up big rocks and look at the creepy-crawlies underneath. It has to change what we identify as the goals and upper limits of media literacy, the terrain of what we think might be knowable. It’s empowering to reconsider the media from this perspective: why just sit and complain about the content of reality shows, when you could maybe go dig up more information on the financial and marketing decisions that brought those shows to TV? Why snipe about Fox when you could go grab information about News Corporation’s newsroom practices or financial contributions to campaigns?
Why did you become a NAMLE member – what benefits do you see to membership and how will it support your work?
NAMLE is the best resource we have for bringing together an academic discipline, which is more scattered and marginalized than just about any other. This summer was my first time at the conference, and it was great to meet everyone. I think the organization’s big strength is the diversity of practitioners who participate. The conference this year was terrific — the report from media literacy instructors in China, particularly, was fascinating as a comparison case, considering the different institutional factors which shape educators’ priorities there. Just like biological diversity, NAMLE’s support for diverse approaches helps our field survive, and helps us make a strong case for media literacy when it comes to crafting policy recommendations. I’m always glad that NAMLE is there to point to when I need to explain what “media literacy” means.
Category: Features, M-Passioned Members, NAMLE Action!
Join Email List
