Should Media Literacy Focus On Popular Culture Texts?
It may seem obvious that media literacy focus on the media texts of popular culture, but in the context of elementary and secondary schools, there is considerable debate about the merits and pitfalls of using popular media texts in the classroom (Hart, 1997; Greenaway, 1997). “Schools, at all levels, are constituted to devalue popular culture, including its electronically mediated forms…” (Aronowitz and Giroux, 1991, p. 153). Texts from popular culture may challenge and disrupt the routines of the classroom and provide opportunities for teachers and students to discuss epistemological issues relevant to students’ growing understanding of the processes involving in learning and communication (Giroux, 1994; Dewing, 1992). According to this argument, the texts of everyday life, when constituted as objects of social knowledge, provide the possibility for combining textual, historical, and ideological analyses in ways that help students and teachers move beyond the limits of traditional d
