Lewis University’s First Annual Conference on Critical Media Literacy
April 6, 2013
Romeoville, IL
Conference Homepage:
http://criticalmedialiteracyconference.blogspot.com/
Featured Speakers and Presenters
Dr. Carl James York University Canada
Dr. Ira Shor CUNY, New York
Debangshu Roychoudhury, MA, New York University, PhD student in Psychology, The Graduate Center at the City University of New York.
Lauren M. Gardner, MSW, Fordham University, PhD student in Psychology,The Graduate Center at the City University of New York
Conference Proposals due January 8, 2013
Acceptance Notification by January 22, 2013
SUBMIT ALL PROPOSALS TO:
Brad Porfilio at Porfilio16@aol.com
Conference Theme:
Promoting Critical Awareness and Social Justice through Critical Media Literacy Today, media culture is one of the most dominant forces in society. It
contributes to defining our sense of self, driving our understanding of the ‘Other,’ and providing “symbols, myths and resources” for generating a common culture (Kellner, 1995). Mass media has become the corporate and political elites’ domain to consolidate their power.
Through the world of entertainment, corporate media control the content, production, and distribution of cultural texts, while simultaneously using their influence to gain control over the production of knowledge in such social outlets as cyberspace, newscasts, and political spectacles.
Consequently, mass media supports the corporate elite’s ideologies and practices and denigrates and ignores what cannot fulfill their agendas (McChesney, 1999, 2008).
Corporate elites infiltrate the lived, experiential worlds of consumers in order to sell their goods and services and perpetuate a corporatist worldview. Despite this power, some youth, schoolteachers and citizens not only hold the critical capacity to use Western cultural products, as reflective tools to critique formations and values ensconced within their own society, but they have remade themselves as social advocates who are committed to challenging the constitutive forces and actors behind corporate control over segments of our social life.
In this vein, this conference is designed to aid educational leaders,current and future teachers, youth, and other concerned citizens in their understanding of the mass media and its impact on the events that shape our lives. Promoting media literacy is essential to excavating (word choice?) social inequalities and fostering participatory democracy during the 21st century.
We call for proposals, presentations and workshops that urgently and critically redefine, redirect, and recreate notions of knowledge, truth, and justice through and with critical media pedagogy. Proposals might address topics such as (but not limited to) the following:
• What are the specific ways that corporate and political elites use mass media to promulgate their ideologies and practices?
• How does mass media perpetuate divisions amongst social groups?
• What role has mass media played in a potential elitist “war against youth?”
• How can educators, youth, and concerned citizens provide more genuine representations of global citizens through their own media products?
• How has media literacy fostered K-20 students’ critical engagement with mass media?
• How can media literacy position K-20 students to become active citizens and advocates for equity and social justice?
• How have various technologies employed by corporate conglomerates in mass media been used to foster critical understanding and solidarity, rather than employing these technologies to promote conformity and corporatism?
• How can various critical theories enrich our understanding of mass media in the age of neoliberalistic ideologies?
• What are some ways in which media literacy can be applied to the new demands and concerns of today’s digitized culture?
Follow
