ML4ML Joke of the Week: From a Fortune Cookie, "You deserve respect and will eventually get it"

This week's joke of the week came to us from a fortune cookie I cracked open after a decent meal of moo shoo pork following NAMLE 2015 (National Association for Media Literacy Education conference. I cringed and cackled as I read the message that struck to the heart of both the hopes and fears of my identity as a media literacy advocate. An existential masterpiece!

Fortune hits home for media literacy advocates

I think this fortune has the quality I most highly esteem in humor: sentiment that is both ironic and sincere at the same time. If I may paraphrase others paraphrasing Mark Twain, the surest sign of a rare intelligence is the capacity to consider contradicting notions simultaneously as valuable and valid. Do you feel respected and/or disrespected and/or lacking respect as a media educator, all at once? I sure do! I can't count the times I have been patted on the back for doing something "so important" and "so necessary" for learners of all different age groups and settings, feeling good for a few minutes, and then realizing that the pat on the back comes with no room in the curricula, no funding, no supporting efforts and no growth in the participatory community for doing and expanding media literacy. Like much of the best comedy, this fortune cookie delivered hope, some hidden truth, and a slap in the face all in one neat little package.

Alpaca Cartoon Satire of Economic Inequality Issues:Funny, yes, but does this ML Award Winner promote ML?

Friday night, the National Association for Media Literacy Education (NAMLE) awarded the collection of short films We the Economy its "Media Literate Media" honor. The award is "designed to interest mainstream media in doing, covering or including media literacy in their work by recognizing outstanding contributions made by mainstream media professionals with national reach." At the awards ceremony, the short film, The Unbelievably Sweet Alpacas by Adam McKay, co-founder of the Funny or Die website. I loved the film short, but I was puzzled about its connection to ML. Take a look at the video let us know your thoughts on this question in the comments below:

• How is this short film "doing, covering or including" media literacy? What makes this "Media Literate Media?"

Just to make sure I wasn't totally crazy and out on my own with being confused about the media literacy connection, I asked the people sitting near me at the NAMLE 2015 awards ceremony what the film short had to do with media literacy, and the answers I got ranged from "I don't know" to "Nothing."

"If media literacy means anything that's critical and media, then yes, it includes media literacy." 
-- Dr. Grazi-Prego

Because I like the video itself so much, I watched it with some other colleagues and friends the next night, after the NAMLE conference concluded, and posed the question above. The first response got a lot of laughs among our group, from future long time ML4ML guest pundit, Dr. Grazi-Prego, "If media literacy means anything that's critical and media, then yes, it includes media literacy. They're only posing one perspective. I almost saw it as the opposite of media literacy. But what do I know, I'm just a doctor [of Media & Communication]." Certainly, the video would make a great text for media literacy analysis because of its clever techniques in delivering a complicated message about important issues, but I had to agree that the video itself seemed to be promoting the transmission of knowledge from a particular perspective with strong appeals to authority ("most economic experts agree").

Maybe we're missing something (we usually are). What's your take? [Share in comments below].

[After the jump, I share a funny exchange with colleagues and friends upon a second viewing after the NAMLE conference, and I consider whether our puzzlement is a troubling symptom for the field]

"Historical Context, It's Why Old People are Sad" (and why ML4ML is Back!)

Where have you been? Well, as you can see from yesterday's new post, ML4ML is back! Our beloved blog has been on hiatus while I finished my dissertation contributing to the history of media literacy--here's a clip of my defense:
Whoops! That was just an approximation of the process brought to you by the funny folks at BYUtv's Studio C, but dissertation defenses do get a bit medieval, and literally reach back to medieval times. My advisor literally told me to "Bring a sword," and that she loves "the ritual," which many describe in terms of brutality and torture. Speaking of which, I won't get it into what my historical research is about here--it's not funny enough, yet. But I will offer the following clip from The Daily Show with Jon Stewart to emphasize the importance of context, and in particular historical context.

Obama: I'm a single mom, and at the end of the month, 

              it's really hard for me to pay the bills.

Stewart: That's not why you lost. Actually, that joke was brought to you by Context.

              Context, look at how silly the world would be without Context. 

In this post (after the jump), I recommend using the Daily Show clip below to remind us how much knowledge it takes for jokes about current events in the news to make sense (this clip is from just last November, the day after the GOP won back the U.S. Congress in overwhelming fashion in the midterm elections), and how accurate representation is not just about showing real images and quoting accurately.