Communications and Media

Within the current context of post-modern American society, possessing the skills needed to deconstruct and analyze media is imperative. Without it, many of the hegemonic representations that are presented to society will be received as reality when they are nothing more than symbolic constructs. The danger in this may not initially be apparent, but it is present, nonetheless. Beneath the exterior of seemingly innocent presentations of family, work, and personal life, lies a complex system of realities that all combine to form a dual presentation of reality. On the one hand, there is denotative reality, which is the reality of forms as they are, and the other is constructed reality which includes denotative reality, but goes a step further my using language and other forms of media to create and assign new meanings to denotative reality. The ability to manipulate signs and signifiers lead to a new found power for the media It could now create believable myths that offered consumers the ability to transcended the biological realities of life through colorful words and enticing imagery. With the medias presentation of constructed reality, the mundane aspects of daily living were transformed into opportunities for self-actualization.  The media helped to seduce man into believing that perfection, as demonstrated through airbrushed advertisements and creative camera angling, was finally in reach. America constructed a cultural system and reinforced its own values through various forms of media and advertising. Due to the domination of America across field of hard (military) and soft (media) power, the cultural values were exalted to universal status. That is, until international perspectives and denotative reality began to  undo the construction, piece by piece and re-present American life as it is.

Critical media literacy is an educational response that expands the notion of literacy to include different forms of mass communication, popular culture and new technologies.  It allows for the term literacy to be comprehensive in its definition, as the critical element ensure that  relationships between media and audiences, information and power are not simply observed but taken apart in order to comprehend all levels of their meaning. Having the ability to analyze media critically allows observers to develop and contextual and multiperspectival approach addressing issues of gender, race, class and power,  how these issues are interwoven into the mainstream media, and how the media representations shape social reality.

In the docu-film The Fog of War Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara (2003), Mr. McNamara pointed out clearly and eloquently how this universal Americanism, was in reality, not. Rather, it was a self-proclaimed ideological framework that imposed itself upon the cultures of the other world through foreign polices that sought to secularized and democratize the world. In the end, it was not the other nations that suffered the brunt of the repercussions of this hubris, but America itself, for the first time during the Vietnam War. The war was do disastrous for American in terms of life, resources, and image that Mc Namara created an entire list of lessons that America was forced to learn about how the world really felt about its impositions Our (America) judgments of friend and foe alike reflected our profound ignorance of the history, culture, and politics of the people in the area, and the personalities and habits of their leaders (Mc Namara, 1995). The reflective nature of the film, in and of itself, takes a step in the direction of suggesting personal responsibility as the framework needed to embrace humility and prevent such events from occurring in the future We did not recognize that neither our people, nor our leaders are omniscient (Mc Namera, 1995).

The entire notion of media deconstructioncritique manifest because of the exclusionary mentality that dominated soft culture for most of the twentieth century, and let too many of the errors of cultural self-perception that contributed to the loss of the Vietnam war. A structured, hegemonic series of images and values that increasing grew to not reflect the realities of American life ultimately created the atmosphere for the growing media literacy movement (Kellner  Share, 2005), headed by two organizations one of which is the Alliance for a Media Literate America (AMLA). The AMLA champions media literacy, defined as a series of communication competencies, including the ability to ACCESS, ANALYZE, EVALUATE and COMMUNICATE (Kellner  Share, 2005) which enables students to contextualize the various forms of media they consume within the larger social context. Critical media literacy tools also bring to light the aspects of media that are un-stated and allows for students to reflect on issues like the dominant cultural ideologies, gender, race, sex, class, politics, and even democracy itself. It is empowering for marginalized members of society to be given the tools to understand the notion of social context, and through technological education articulate and providing access to communication technologies, allowing them an avenue from which to voice their stories and concerns (Kellner  Share, 2005).  Without these tools, such concepts go un-considered by the masses, much less unexamined or unstated. In order to prevent the singular world view that lead America through bouts of unnecessary war and turmoil, communication technology, the media literacy movement and its techniques seek to create a citizenry that participates and is invigorated through debate and the democratic process.

A shining example of a man who is media-eloquent and learned to master the tools of communication technology to express his perspective is documentary film maker, Michael Moore. His independent alternative media film production Fahrenheit 911 (Moore, 2004), which generated a substantial amount of controversy by claiming that the Bush Administration used the 911 terrorist attacks to raise money for the un-related Iraq war. Armed with a fierce and clear perspective, satirical wit, mastery of the emotive camera angling, and a stash of relevant media clips, Moore created a film that stylistically imitated the shock and awe tactics (Hammer,) of the mainstream media as they propagate confusion within the American public regarding the actions of government and corporations. He cuts, edits, chops, omits, distorts and deletes information in order to show, subversively, the level to which American media is no longer about journalism or holding to democratic ideals relating to the peoples rights its about preventing government and corporate transparency. Moores film was critiqued for being just as manipulative as the mainstream media, regarding how messages are delivered to the public, but that was Moores goal, and the reason why the film was such a success.

In order to truly transform the American culture and the media in which it is displayed, the prevalence of counter-hegemonic views (Hammer) in the marketplace must become commonplace. It is in the push and pull of the ideologies of the culture and the counter culture that ideas get flushed out and new insights that benefit the state as a whole are formed. If the perspectives of marginalized populations are subverted, American culture ceases to be democratic in its own presentation of ideals. Instead all segments of the population must celebrate how the production of alternative and oppositional media often gives voice and agency to subaltern people, including marginalized students and allows them to talk back, and this talking back validates the integrity of the constitution and creates the space for social refection and correction.