[NIFL-FAMILY:1646] Re: media literacy

From: Marguerite Lukes (mlukes@lacnyc.org)
Date: Thu Aug 28 2003 - 14:06:10 EDT


Return-Path: <nifl-family@literacy.nifl.gov>
Received: from literacy (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by literacy.nifl.gov (8.10.2/8.10.2) with SMTP id h7SI6A724542; Thu, 28 Aug 2003 14:06:10 -0400 (EDT)
Date: Thu, 28 Aug 2003 14:06:10 -0400 (EDT)
Message-Id: <3F4E43C7.2DCA70FF@lacnyc.org>
Errors-To: listowner@literacy.nifl.gov
Reply-To: nifl-family@literacy.nifl.gov
Originator: nifl-family@literacy.nifl.gov
Sender: nifl-family@literacy.nifl.gov
Precedence: bulk
From: Marguerite Lukes <mlukes@lacnyc.org>
To: Multiple recipients of list <nifl-family@literacy.nifl.gov>
Subject: [NIFL-FAMILY:1646] Re: media literacy
X-Listprocessor-Version: 6.0c -- ListProcessor by Anastasios Kotsikonas
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.77 [en] (Win98; U)
Status: O
Content-Length: 1245
Lines: 44

I saw the first of these ads in the
Sports section of the New York Times. It
was the one depicting a dark hallway of
an apartment building covered with
graffiti.  At first I did not understand
the ad nor its intended message. And who
knows why I was even flipping through
the back pages of the sports section!
There is another ad depicting a buzzer
plate of an apartment building that 
looksvery much like the entrance to my
building (or 90% of the apartment
buildings in New York City). A colleague
saw it and said, "Hey! That's where my
grandmother lives."

What concerns me is the negative nature
of these messages, the apparent
pathologizing of stereotypical images
that are meant to be iconographic of
"poverty," and the fact that the images
implicitly reflect a whole array of
social problems that will not be
"solved" by family literacy.

To me, if we are doing outreach to
inform people about family literacy
(both potential participants and
potential supports), we would do better
not to reinforce such negative
stereotypes.  

Marguerite

-- 
Marguerite Lukes
Director of Program Services
Literacy Assistance Center
32 Broadway, 10th floor
New York, NY 10004
tel: 212.803.3322
fax: 212.785.3685
mlukes@lacnyc.org
http://www.lacnyc.org



This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Thu Mar 11 2004 - 12:16:49 EST