October 2012 M-Passioned Member: Susan Howard
1) What do you do?
I direct Pittsburgh Filmmakers/Pittsburgh Center for the Arts’ Youth Media Program. I oversee various media literacy programs in partnership with community institutions and organizations and at our media lab located at the Center for the Arts and at Filmmakers media arts facility. We offer workshops, classes and camps throughout the year at the media lab. We also have programs for high school students at Filmmakers.
2) Tell me about your latest work or project in media literacy.
We have recently begun the second year of our partnership with the Hear Me 101 Project at Carnegie Mellon University’s CREATE Lab. Hear Me 101 is a year-long youth media advocacy program that works with students in Pittsburgh’s Mon Valley to create short documentaries addressing issues relevant to their experiences.
3)Why is media literacy important to you?
Media literacy education empowers young people to navigate media messages encountered daily, with the ability to analyze and interpret those often-conflicting messages.
4) What are you most excited about in the media literacy field?
Many people now have access to tools that allow them to conveniently conceive, produce and distribute media of their own. A single device can do all of these things. This is powerful and exciting when it gives voice to stories and perspectives that are typically not represented in popular media.
5) Why did you become a NAMLE member- what benefits do you see to membership and how will it support your work?
NAMLE is a valuable resource that allows me to connect to other individuals and organizations in the media literacy field, access current information and improve our programs here at PF/PCA.
Category: M-Passioned Members
