SSED535:

Lesson 1: What is Historical Media Literacy?

Lesson 1 Introduction

What does it mean to teach or learn history through the use of popular media? After all, entertainment media make things up. Students are supposed to encounter true information and knowledge in school. What can people learn from media that make things up? Almost everyone will say that they know visual media depictions of the past aren’t totally “true” or accurate. Still, many people seem to find them true enough to make references to them when talking about history—or to get upset when they hear that Hollywood (or whatever industry) is making a media production that “inaccurately” portrays a social group or perspective they care about. Despite these widespread and legitimate concerns, many educators are drawn to include historically oriented media in their classrooms. Millions of students are drawn to engage with these media on their own outside of school. Almost everyone in modern society encounters some historically oriented media and has their thinking about or understanding of the past influenced to some degree.

Historically oriented media contain messages that their makers want to convey to audiences. Sometimes these messages can be chiefly commercial—with the purpose of appealing to audiences by making them feel good (inspirational stories), excited (adventure stories), or empowered (stories of national, cultural, or identity heritage). Sometimes messages can be serious, trying to persuade the viewer to reach a particular conclusion about how the past relates to the present. There may be a contemporary social or political cause that the makers (which can include writers, directors, and producers) want to advocate by depicting the past in a particular way. Commercial entertainment and serious purposes aren’t always in opposition. For example, historically oriented media can have the commercial purpose of appealing to diverse, multicultural audiences and the serious purpose of opposing racism, religious intolerance, or other discrimination—conveying a message that uses present-day values to make meaning of the past.

Media may want to “tell” audiences about things in the past and how to think or feel about them in the present, but it would be a mistake to conflate this purpose with teaching or learning. Teaching is more than just conveying messages to be consumed and internalized. Likewise, learning is more than just having your thinking or memory influenced by a conveyed message. Teaching (at least when done well) involves helping others to explore new ideas through applying knowledge and information. Learning (at least when meaningful) involves developing more robust understandings of complex phenomena. This is why it is problematic to think of media themselves as “teaching” when they are just consumed in the classroom. Rather, teaching is what educators do with media in the classroom, and robust learning comes from what students do in response.

Your initial readings this week will provide helpful orientation to these questions and issues that cut across the whole course. Each was selected for a different purpose. Toplin’s chapter provides some introductory theory on historically oriented film (and by extension other media forms). In particular, he offers an approachable take on what “truth” and “fact” and “accuracy” mean. In other writings, Toplin coined the term “faction” to describe how media such as film blend broad historical factuality with fictional details, invented characters, and imaginary circumstances in order to tell a narrative story. Toplin doesn’t use that term in this chapter, but keep his idea in mind as you read his cautious defense of filmmakers and history movies. The article by Butler, Zaromb, Lyle, & Roediger introduces you to pedagogical issues of teaching with media by looking at learning effects. In particular, pay attention to the potential for “misinformation” effects. Lastly, the article by Metzger & Suh introduces big implications for historically oriented media in the classroom. Even teachers with the best of intentions can end up using media for educationally weak or problematic outcomes due to a host of possible complications and pressures. You will notice that each reading chiefly aligns with one of the Discussion Table prompts—but you are encouraged to make connections across the readings and prompts at all of the Discussion Tables, this week and every lesson to come.

Objectives

In addition to becoming familiar with the structure of this course, the tools for interacting with class activities, and the members of this community, by the end of this lesson you should be able to

• articulate a definition of “historical literacy” that (1) includes mass media as both purveyors of content and as communication forms that convey messages in alternate ways, and (2) positions it as a skill for teachers and learning outcome for students;
• make arguments about the dynamics between factual accuracy (authenticity) and fictional creativity (imagination) in historically oriented media;
• take an informed position on what makes educational uses of historically oriented media appropriate or effective and when uses are inappropriate or ineffective;
• identify various historically oriented media examples; and
• analyze how various examples of historically oriented media use the past to convey messages to contemporary and present-day audiences.

Readings and Activities

By the end of this lesson, make sure you have completed the readings and activities found in the Lesson 1 Course Schedule.