Media Analysis
Teaching Children about Politics
This was done as part of my media analysis on November 17, 2011.
Think about the first time you voted in a government election, if you have voted. Now, do you remember it being a significant step into adulthood on the level of, say, getting a driver's license? If not, you may not be alone. Most youth tend to be apathetic about things considered to be within the domain of adults, such as politics. Younger children are even more so, and this has much to do with how it is being taught.
Official Curriculum:
Think about the first time you voted in a government election, if you have voted. Now, do you remember it being a significant step into adulthood on the level of, say, getting a driver's license? If not, you may not be alone. Most youth tend to be apathetic about things considered to be within the domain of adults, such as politics. Younger children are even more so, and this has much to do with how it is being taught.
Official Curriculum:
Most of you who went through high school remember civics class, where students learn about concepts such as the three levels of government, services provided by Ottawa/the province/the municipality, and elections. There is a structured curriculum to the course, which is one of its more reassuring qualities. Students can apply their knowledge through lessons, assignments and testing. However, it only lasts half a year (at least in my case), and may not have a lasting impact on students' political decisions in the future. There is also the fact that it still feels like the same dry school environment that kids are already familiar with.
Rating: 5
Unofficial Curriculum: [*]
Rating: 5
Unofficial Curriculum: [*]
Just as I have done with another media analysis on this site ("A New Scale of Good and Bad"), I have examined School House Rock yet again. This time, I looked at the process of how a bill becomes a law through the lyrics of an anthropomorphic piece of paper. (Of course, this production looks at the American context; all you have to do is replace "Congress" with "Parliament" and it essentially means the same thing.) The music is very upbeat, enjoyable and memorable, meaning that it is sure to be constantly present in children's minds. The downside is that television is still not regarded as a “formal” educational medium, and is seen as simply an entertaining supplement to "true" education.
Rating: 9
There are two dimensions of global cultural flow, or "-scapes", that apply to these media (Appadurai, 1990) [*]. The first one is the mediascape, which refers to the distribution of information and the images being presented within. In School House Rock, information is relayed through the medium of television and combines images and sound, while civics class uses the classic setting of the school and chiefly uses lectures and writing. The other dimension is the ideoscape, which focuses on ideologies being suggested through media, be they explicit or implicit. Despite their intentions of being neutral, an ideological bias would be inevitable when discussing a topic such as politics. For example, some of the topics that School House Rock approaches - for example, one episode on the environment - are almost always linked to the liberal side of the political spectrum. At the same time, civics class occurs in government-funded public schools, suggesting a significant influence from the ruling party at the time.
Rating: 9
There are two dimensions of global cultural flow, or "-scapes", that apply to these media (Appadurai, 1990) [*]. The first one is the mediascape, which refers to the distribution of information and the images being presented within. In School House Rock, information is relayed through the medium of television and combines images and sound, while civics class uses the classic setting of the school and chiefly uses lectures and writing. The other dimension is the ideoscape, which focuses on ideologies being suggested through media, be they explicit or implicit. Despite their intentions of being neutral, an ideological bias would be inevitable when discussing a topic such as politics. For example, some of the topics that School House Rock approaches - for example, one episode on the environment - are almost always linked to the liberal side of the political spectrum. At the same time, civics class occurs in government-funded public schools, suggesting a significant influence from the ruling party at the time.