Chapter 6: Protection and Empowerment

After watching this video:

Three things I learned about storytelling are that we are impressionable and vulnerable in the face of a story, particularly as children,  storytelling can save us from having a single story of what books are, the consequence of the single story is that it robs people of dignity, but the most important thing I learned is that stories matter.

Chapter 6: Protection and Empowerment

But as the culture of sexuality keeps reaching down to younger and younger children, parents, teachers, and the general public wonder about media's influence on a young person's sense of personal and social identity. (p. 105)

I find this point very interesting. I do agree, but at the same time, this confuses me. I don't have children, I don't teach children, and there aren't any young children in my family that I see on a regular basis. I get my view and idea of "children" from when I am out in public and see them. It's difficult to me to explain exactly what I'm trying to say here, but because I don't actually interact with children, I don't see for myself how they use different types of media to shape who the are. 

This kind of heads-up on some of the disturbing aspects of contemporary culture is important because it helps adults understand what teens are seeing in the media that we're not. (p. 111)

This stuck out to me because I feel like it is so true. As an adult, if I see a Kmart commercial, I think "ohh back to school supplies...I can't wait!" I don't see a 'mean girl' stereotype, whereas a child might. And honestly, I don't remember what 7th grade me was thinking about when a certain commercial came on the TV.  But, again, with the lack of interaction with children, I am unable to get to see things from their point of view.

Some parents may choose not to limit their children's access to mass media, popular culture, and digital media. These parents hold a view of their children as capable and well able to manage the sometimes challenging, ugly, and difficult aspects of their environment. (p. 112)

This is a statement that I do disagree with. (Anyone with kids please don't take offence! I don't have kids so I just have to go on how I was raised and how I THINK I would raise a child!)

Children are children. They are too young to know what is best for them and I really don't think that they can make the best decisions for themselves. Even a mature child still needs parents who can help them to remain a child for as long as possible. It's all to easy to accidentally navigate to a dirty site, or watch a bad movie or cartoon because it's funny. I think children are too impressionable to be exposed to this type of vulgarity at a young age.

Something that comes to my mind is an experience that I had a very long time ago. The move The Ring Two was in theaters and I begged and begged my parents to let me and my best friend go see it. For some reason, they gave in and my dad took us to the theater. My younger sister, by 5 years, wasn't allowed to see it with us and she was very upset. The movie was very terrifying to me and I had bad dreams for a few nights after. Looking back, my I wish my parents would have stuck to their guns and NOT let me go see it. It was the last scary movie I have watched (and I'm still OK with that!)






Hobbs, R. (2011). Research as Authentic Inquiry. In Digital and media literacy: Connecting culture and classroom. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Corwin Press.