"Screens" redefine human experience

For the past three years I have helped organize TV Turnoff Week activities in Southwest Portland as part of my involvement with the Northwest Media Literacy Center.

During that time, though, our concerns have extended beyond television—so much so that the national TV Turnoff organization has changed its name to “The Center for Screen-Time Awareness.”

Our society is now at the point where we are subjected to screens literally from cradle to grave. No one has actually started to market casket screens for the departed but anything is possible, especially if there’s a buck to be made.

Last year I stopped shopping at Albertson’s when the Beaverton-Hillsdale Highway store hung screens over the check-out lines. “Enough with the screens already,” I wrote “corporate.” A PR functionary wrote back that it was all an experiment and, anyway, I was the only person to complain.

I responded that I had other choices for where to spend my money, and in the future I would shop where I wasn’t treated as just another captive in a media demographic to be exploited. Moreover, I wrote, I would urge others to do the same. (You can complain to Albertson’s by calling 1-877-932-7948.)

Within the last few days three “screen” stories have appeared like separate dots in the mediascape. Connecting them is an exercise in screen-time awareness.

Two were from today’s newspapers. The first, on the front page of The Oregonian, reported on young teen “Party Boys” performing dancing so obscene that it drove girls subjected to it to tears and led to arrests for sexual abuse. The grotesque behavior by the McMinnville boys was modeled on a scene in the movie “Jackass.”

After the boys were arrested, one of their fathers complained that the arrests and incarcerations in the juvenile home were unnecessary. “I could have handled it myself. He listens to me,” said the father, who, like millions of other parents, obviously didn’t have a clue.

The New York Times business section today ran a story about how the Albertson’s experience has metastasized to malls, Wal-Marts and even shopping carts and gas pumps—any place drawing mass “audiences.” One mother is quoted as saying that that screens in malls captivate her children. “If it’s showing a preview of a movie they want to see, I can’t get them away from it.”

“…can’t get them away from it”? Welcome to parenting in the 21st Century. Who’s in charge here?

Finally, the Kaiser Family Foundation reports that 43 percent of babies under the age of one are watching TV, and that programmers at Disney and Sesame Street are actively targeting them. Media marketeers are told by their researchers that brand-awareness and bonding is possible before infants even learn to talk.

As reported in the Washington Post, there is an entire 24-hour network aimed at babies. It’s called “BabyFirstTV,” and it blatantly counters the recommendation of the American Academy of Pediatrics that children younger than two should watch no—that’s zero—TV.

Any expert in child development will tell you that the very young need the warm sensory interaction they get from parents. They also need to freely explore three-dimensional space in order to connect with the real world.

Hour upon hour of ubiquitous screen time is literally redefining, and confining, what it means to be human. It is blocking us from seeing and experiencing the world as it is.

Screen-time awareness, indeed! We absolutely must get a grip on our media consumption. We must consciously limit screen time and critically assess the time we and our children spend with media.

Finally, I have submitted media literacy legislation to State Senator Ginny Burdick and State Representatives Mary Nolan and Larry Galizio. It calls on schools to teach media literacy to our children.

I urge you and your friends to write these three lawmakers to support the legislation.

Salem update: Lawmakers check in

Today State Sen. Ginny Burdick left a message on my answering machine apologizing for an 11-week delay in getting back to me. Seems she has suffered disruptions from staff changes etc.

Anyway, we are now playing phone tag, but it looks as though we may have some traction on getting media literacy legislation introduced this legislative session.

Actual passage is an open question....

Rep. Mary Nolan has expressed interest in the subject too, and Rep. Larry Galizio, a PCC teaching colleague, has agreed to put forward legislation on my behalf. I've told him I'd like to persuade my fellow Northwest Media Literacy Center board members later this week to be primary backers.

Stay tuned.

Lawmaker shows interest in Media Literacy

My amateur lobbying effort to give Media Literacy a formal place in the state’s schools has finally drawn a direct response from Rep. Mary Nolan, my state representative. My state senator is Ginny Burdick, who, after more than two months, still hasn’t responded to my correspondence.

If you want to review my “blog trail,” it begins here, then goes here and on to here.

Which brings us to yesterday, when Nolan e-mailed me. The relevant section of her e-mail follows. The Rep. Galizio mentioned is another state representative, Larry Galizio, who teaches media issues with me at Portland Community College. He has urged me to work through Nolan and Burdick and is unwilling to take the initiative because, he says, he is on the Ways and Means Committee. I still can’t fathom his reasoning, but, hey, he’s the decider.

So here is Nolan’s response….

Rick,

Thanks for your note. Always good to see your name in my in-box.

Here are my thoughts….

(Media Literacy) is an intriguing idea, which I'd be interested in learning more about. I'll follow up with Rep. Galizio, as well as investigate whether this is addressed in any way in the high school or community college curriculum in Oregon. Perhaps you could tell us a bit more about what the NW Media Literacy Center does.

Thanks,

Mary Nolan

I replied to Rep. Nolan and noted that she and anyone else can find out about the Northwest Media Literacy Center at mediathink.org.

I have also forwarded to her Oregon legislation that got to the governor’s desk in 2001 but died there because it hadn’t been vetted by the Superintendent for Public Instruction. The legislation establishes a state commission on Media Literacy that would advance its cause. I’ve also shared a New Jersey law that mandates that media literacy be taught in the schools.

Oh, and I’ve copied Sen. Burdick. At this late date I’m just testing to see whether she reads the e-mails she invites us to send her.

I’ll keep you posted.

Be still my heart! Stirrings in Salem!

Here is an update of my on-going mini-saga with seemingly aloof Salem legislators.

This episode notes signs of a pulse in Rep. Mary Nolan's office. It follows on my gentle prodding of her and two other lawmakers to introduce legislation that would advance Media Literacy in Oregon.

So far my admittedly amateurish lobbying has consisted of a trickle of e-mails (with relevant and short attachments) from me that have gone largely unanswered.

I am somewhere between being perplexed and exasperated by the experience.

But I am learning.

More than that, the silence from Salem is steeling my resolve.

First, a taste of Media Literacy, which is well established in schools in several other states—but unrecognized here.

Media Literacy is, among other things, an effort to get children (and adults) to be critically aware of media’s impact on their lives, their communities, their country and their planet.

Here's an example for children: When a cartoon program repeatedly tells kids that eating sugar-frosted, glucose-injected cardboard is great fun, kids (and their parents) should think about what this junk will do to their bodies and brains. Consequences like obesity and hyperactivity, for starters.

Example for "adults": When Super Bowl advertisers suggest to mass male audiences that drinking Coors somehow goes hand-in-hand with bikini-clad twins, guys should note that all Coors really offers is cold cans and bottles.

You’d think this would be obvious, but visual media don’t want you to think.

Media Literacy does.

So, as I say, I have been trying to get my elected representatives, Rep. Nolan and Sen. Ginny Burdick to put Media Literacy on this session's legislative agenda. I have included Rep. Larry Galizio of Tigard because I know him and have reason to believe might be interested. We both teach media awareness at Portland Community College.

At least Galizio responded to one e-mail, though he basically passed the buck and has not been heard from since.

So far Burdick might as well be dead.

Last Wednesday I received evidence of life in Nolan’s office when this e-mail arrived.

Rick,

Please forgive the late response to your earlier e-mail. Representative Nolan was in between staff for much of December and I'm afraid that your e-mail fell through the cracks when I took over. I'm sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused you.

I have printed out both of your e-mails and will pass them on to Representative Nolan and she will get back to you later this week.

Best,

Marah Hall
Legislative Assistant
Representative Nolan


“Later this week” was last week.

Two readers of the Red Electric have suggested that I phone these solons. This week I will, but please note, dear readers, that if legislators are going to invite e-mails (and they do), they should be prepared to respond to them.

In the meantime, if you bump into Nolan or Burdick, you might tell them to “call home.”

The number is (503) 245-7821.

Silence from Salem

Perhaps someone with inside knowledge can tell me how to get the attention of my two state representatives, Sen. Ginny Burdick and Rep. Mary Nolan.

I have now e-mailed them twice, on Dec. 6 and on Jan. 20, about the need for media literacy legislation to help our children learn how to critically assess media messages.

At least two other states in the union have such legislation.

The second time I wrote, I even pointed out two Oregon bills that had been submitted back in the 2001 session but died there. Their language would give us a leg up on drafting legislation for this session.

All I have received for my efforts is stone silence.

Now that the Democrats are in power (I’m a registered Democrat, by the way), do my elected representatives feel they can turn their backs on their constituents?

Another state representative I have tried to enlist in this effort is Larry Galizio. Larry and I teach media at Portland Community College. We have talked about the need to make young people aware of the impact of media on their lives. Indeed, that is exactly what our PCC courses set out to do.

Larry has been slightly more receptive to my appeals—but not much.

A little political history is in order.

When he was first elected to the House in 2004, Larry narrowly won in his suburban Tigard district, and he joined the powerless Democratic minority. When I approached him about the legislation in early 2005, he said that he wouldn’t be of any help as the Republicans didn’t want him to accomplish anything that would help get him re-elected.

I bought that argument, although it did occur to me that he could have promoted the legislation and modestly given credit to a Republican.

Republicans, I have reason to believe, also want their kids to view media critically and selectively. This is not a partisan issue.

Anyway, last fall, the political landscape shifted. Larry was re-elected handily and became an important part of the majority,

So I figured he would be the perfect go-to legislator.

Silly me.

Credit where credit is due: after my e-mail earlier this month, he got right back to me.

But here’s what he wrote:

Rick,

Have you contacted your Representative or Senator yet?

As Chair of the Ways & Means Sub (committee) I'm hesitant to introduce legislation that has a fiscal impact and isn't necessarily supported by the Education community. The DOE, OEA, AFT, etc....are all wary of unfunded mandates.

If you are unsuccessful with your Rep. & Senator, contact me ASAP as the deadline for filing fast approaches.

Larry

I wrote back that there needn’t be any funds involved. All I want is a volunteer commission on Media Literacy to get things rolling. And I informed him I had contacted Nolan and Burdick and heard not a peep from them. But I vowed I would do try again. I added that I would be happy to lobby for the legislation.

So I wrote Nolan and Burdick for the second time. As far as I can tell they are down there in Salem doing everything but answering their constituents’ mail.

Not that I buy Galizio’s tepid response. It sounds too much like buck-passing.

Meanwhile, all this is almost enough to inspire me to find a legislative candidate whose first pledge would be to answer constituents’ mail.

Former U.S. House Speaker Thomas “Tip” O’Neill once famously wrote, “All politics is local.”

Now I’m not so sure. To me, right now, “All politics is personal.”