scholarly journals Media Literacy and Its Use as a Method to Encourage Civic Engagement

Comunicar ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 20 (39) ◽  
pp. 73-80 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sherri Culver ◽  
Thomas Jacobson

Changes in technology have opened up a new kind of participatory citizenry; one in which engaged citizens’ blog, post, tweet, upload, create, and otherwise interact with others online. This paper explores the intersection of media and information literacy with civic participation by examining three specific programs operating in the United States. These projects include «Powerful Voices for Kids», «The Salzburg Academy on Media and Social Change»; and «Cultivating the NetGeneration of Youth as Global Citizens and Media Literate Leaders in a Digital Age», in which educators and students at schools in the USA and Africa meet virtually and physically to explore collaborative methods that use media to build bridges of understanding. Through analysis of each program’s practices and personal interviews with the program director, consistent methods for developing a strong media and information literacy program with a focus on democratic participation are revealed. These include a need for programs to reflect a respect for student interest in popular culture, willingness for program educators to put aside assumptions that students lack an interest in current events, recognition that technology use is a means to an end, not the ultimate goal, and the utilization of a support team for the instructors or educators. Los cambios en la tecnología han posibilitado un nuevo tipo de ciudadanía participativa; los ciudadanos utilizan blogs, correos, tweets, principalmente para crear e interactuar con otros. Este artículo explora la intersección de los medios de comunicación y la alfabetización mediática y su relación con la participación ciudadana, mediante el análisis de tres programas específicos que se llevan a cabo en Estados Unidos. Estos proyectos son «Voces para los niños» (Powerful Voices for Kids), «Academia de Salzburgo en Comunicación y Cambio Social» (The Salzburg Academy on Media and Social Change) y «Educando a jóvenes en Red como ciudadanos globales, alfabetizados mediáticamente en la era digital» (Cultivating the NetGeneration of Youth as Global Citizens and Media Literate Leaders in a Digital Age). En ellos educadores y alumnos de escuelas de Estados Unidos y África tienen encuentros virtuales y presenciales para explorar métodos colaborativos, utilizando los medios para construir puentes de entendimiento. A través del análisis de cada programa y las entrevistas personales con algunos de sus directores, se presentan métodos que consiguen un buen desarrollo de proyectos de alfabetización mediática focalizados en la participación democrática, incluyendo, a su vez, la necesidad de crear actividades que reflejen el respeto hacia el interés de los estudiantes en la cultura popular, la voluntad de los educadores para superar los prejuicios sobre su falta de interés en temas de actualidad, el reconocimiento de la tecnología como un medio y no como un fin en sí misma, y la utilización de un equipo de apoyo para el profesorado.

2016 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 315-338 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jack C. Laughlin

With the rise of atheism as a cause célèbre in the last decade or more, media and others have offered many interpretations for the apparent growth of nonbelief, ranging from the apocalyptic to the utopian. Many cite the Internet as a major contributing factor to this growth; undoubtedly new media have provided atheism with greater visibility. In this article it is argued that atheism as an Internet phenomenon ought to be understood less as the manifestation of a social fact and more as the discursive constitution of one or more publics in Michael Warner’s sense of the term. To this end, the article draws attention to a body of data that has received limited attention in scholarship to date, namely the blogs of some notable atheists. These are limited to blogs originating in the United States, and especially those by authors who identify as ‘progressive’. Thus, the conclusions drawn are not imagined to apply outside that context, nor are the sources employed considered to be representative of American atheism. But these limitations present no bar to the analysis of the particular discursive practices of the authors in question. Following Warner, virtual atheism as a public or publics has little capacity for agency: even if its growth as a social fact is true, and even as it develops agendas for social change, it is neither discursively or substantively robust enough to challenge any aspect of the contemporary neo-liberal order.


2004 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 75-92 ◽  
Author(s):  
James E. Goggin

Interest in the fate of the German psychoanalysts who had to flee Hitler's Germany and find refuge in a new nation, such as the United States, has increased. The ‘émigré research’ shows that several themes recur: (1) the theme of ‘loss’ of one's culture, homeland, language, and family; and (2) the ambiva-lent welcome these émigrés received in their new country. We describe the political-social-cultural context that existed in the United States during the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s. Documentary evidence found in the FBI files of three émigré psychoanalysts, Clara Happel, Martin Grotjahn, and Otto Fenichel, are then presented in combination with other source material. This provides a provisional impression of how each of these three individuals experienced their emigration. As such, it gives us elements of a history. The FBI documents suggest that the American atmosphere of political insecurity and fear-based ethnocentric nationalism may have reinforced their old fears of National Socialism, and contributed to their inclination to inhibit or seal off parts of them-selves and their personal histories in order to adapt to their new home and become Americanized. They abandoned the rich social, cultural, political tradition that was part of European psychoanalysis. Finally, we look at these elements of a history in order to ask a larger question about the appropriate balance between a liberal democratic government's right to protect itself from internal and external threats on the one hand, or crossover into the blatant invasion of civil rights and due process on the other.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 32-54
Author(s):  
Silvia Spitta

Sandra Ramos (b. 1969) is one of the few artists to reflect critically on both sides of the Cuban di-lemma, fully embodying the etymological origins of the word in ancient Greek: di-, meaning twice, and lemma, denoting a form of argument involving a choice between equally unfavorable alternatives. Throughout her works she shines a light on the dilemmas faced by Cubans whether in Cuba or the United States, underlining the bad personal and political choices people face in both countries. During the hard 1990s, while still in Havana, the artist focused on the traumatic one-way journey into exile by thousands, as well as the experience of profound abandonment experienced by those who were left behind on the island. Today she lives in Miami and operates a studio there as well as one in Havana. Her initial disorientation in the USA has morphed into an acerbic representation and critique of the current administration and a deep concern with the environmental collapse we face. A buffoonlike Trumpito has joined el Bobo de Abela and Liborio in her gallery of comic characters derived from the rich Cuban graphic arts tradition where she was formed. While Cuba is now represented as a rotten cake with menacing flies hovering over it ready to pounce, a bombastic Trumpito marches across the world stage, trampling everything underfoot, a dollar sign for a face.


Author(s):  
Attarid Awadh Abdulhameed

Ukrainia Remains of huge importance to Russian Strategy because of its Strategic importance. For being a privileged Postion in new Eurasia, without its existence there would be no logical resons for eastward Expansion by European Powers.  As well as in Connection with the progress of Ukrainian is no less important for the USA (VSD, NDI, CIA, or pentagon) and the European Union with all organs, and this is announced by John Kerry. There has always ben Russian Fear and Fear of any move by NATO or USA in the area that it poses a threat to  Russians national Security and its independent role and in funence  on its forces especially the Navy Forces. There for, the Crisis manyement was not Zero sum game, there are gains and offset losses, but Russia does not accept this and want a Zero Sun game because the USA. And European exteance is a Foot hold in Regin Which Russian sees as a threat to its national security and want to monopolize control in the strategic Qirim.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
FRANCISCO CARLOS PALETTA

This work aims to presents partial results on the research project conducted at the Observatory of the Labor Market in Information and Documentation, School of Communications and Arts of the University of São Paulo on Information Science and Digital Humanities. Discusses Digital Humanities and informational literacy. Highlights the evolution of the Web, the digital library and its connections with Digital Humanities. Reflects on the challenges of the Digital Humanities transdisciplinarity and its connections with the Information Science. This is an exploratory study, mainly due to the current and emergence of the theme and the incipient bibliography existing both in Brazil and abroad.Keywords: Digital Humanities; Information Science; Transcisciplinrity; Information Literacy; Web of Data; Digital Age.


2014 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 201-213
Author(s):  
Renata Marks-Bielska ◽  
Wiesława Lizińska ◽  
Izabela Serocka

Evaluation of the importance of the USA as the trade partner of Poland is the main objective of the paper, based on the changes in the value of trade during the years 2000-2012 and changes in the structure of trade during the years 2008-2012. The data from the Statistical Yearbooks of Foreign Trade published by the Central Statistical Office was used. The potential for foreign trade growth was illustrated using the simplified analysis based on the gravity model of foreign trade concept. Gradually increasing value of Polish trade with the USA (the average growth rate 9.8%, EU-15 countries 13.1%). Polish exports are characterised by a higher than imports growth rate (USA - exports growth by 12.5%, imports 9.2%, EU-15 - exports 15.1%, imports 11.6%). Trade is strongly dominated by position of one group of products (over 30% share in both exports and imports). The potential of trade is poorly exploited currently. Trade was focused mainly on the countries situated in the close neighbourhood (mainly the EU countries with the domination of Germany).


Contention ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
AK Thompson

George Floyd’s murder by police on 26 May 2020 set off a cycle of struggle that was notable for its size, intensity, and rate of diffusion. Starting in Minneapolis, the uprising quickly spread to dozens of other major cities and brought with it a repertoire that included riots, arson, and looting. In many places, these tactics coexisted with more familiar actions like public assemblies and mass marches; however, the inflection these tactics gave to the cycle of contention is not easily reconciled with the protest repertoire most frequently mobilized during movement campaigns in the United States today. This discrepancy has led to extensive commentary by scholars and movement participants, who have often weighed in by considering the moral and strategic efficacy of the chosen tactics. Such considerations should not be discounted. Nevertheless, I argue that both the dynamics of contention witnessed during the uprising and their ambivalent relationship to the established protest repertoire must first be understood in historical terms. By considering the relationship between violence, social movements, and Black freedom struggles in this way, I argue that scholars can develop a better understanding of current events while anticipating how the dynamics of contention are likely to develop going forward. Being attentive to these dynamics should in turn inform our research agendas, and it is with this aim in mind that I offer the following ten theses.


Author(s):  
Halyna Shchyhelska

2018 marks the 100th anniversary of the proclamation of Ukrainian independence. OnJanuary 22, 1918, the Ukrainian People’s Republic proclaimed its independence by adopting the IV Universal of the Ukrainian Central Rada, although this significant event was «wiped out» from the public consciousness on the territory of Ukraine during the years of the Soviet totalitarian regime. At the same time, January 22 was a crucial event for the Ukrainian diaspora in the USA. This article examines how American Ukrainians interacted with the USA Government institutions regarding the celebration and recognition of the Ukrainian Independence day on January 22. The attention is focused on the activities of ethnic Ukrainians in the United States, directed at the organization of the special celebration of the Ukrainian Independence anniversaries in the US Congress and cities. Drawing from the diaspora press and Congressional Records, this article argues that many members of Congress participated in the observed celebration and expressed kind feelings to the Ukrainian people, recognised their fight for freedom, during the House of Representatives and Senate sessions. Several Congressmen submitted the resolutions in the US Congress urging the President of United States to designate January 22 as «Ukrainian lndependence Day». January 22 was proclaimed Ukrainian Day by the governors of fifteen States and mayors of many cities. Keywords: January 22, Ukrainian independence day, Ukrainian diaspora, USA, interaction, Congress


Author(s):  
Stefan Bittmann

COVID-19 is a serious coronavirus disease that is spreading all over the world. As of the date of this publication, 2.834.134 people have been infected with COVID-19 and 197.924 deaths have been recorded in 185 countries (John Hopkins Corona Resource Center, 25th April 2020) [1]. This overwhelming mortality rate requires intensive research activities around the world. To date, the number of deaths per day in the United States is still killing, indicating an uncontrollable state of infection spread. SARS-CoV-2 binds to the angiotensin II receptor in various tissues of the human body, particularly in the oral cavity and tongue. SARS-CoV-2 requires the cheerful TMPRSS2 to activate this inertia. SARS-CoV-2 uses the ACE2 receptor as a gateway to the lungs. The SARS-CoV-2 virus binds with the spike protein to the ACE2 receptor. COVID-19 is more common among African Americans in the USA (Science 10th April 2020). The comfort and the emotional loading capacity of the employees in the health service are key components for the maintenance of the essential health services during the outbreak of the COVID-19 virus (Coronavirus) [2,3]. Hence, it will be important to anticipate the charges linked with this work and to release support for employees in the health service. The supervision and assessment of the psychic health and the well-being of the employees in the health service will be important, just as the efforts to guarantee a successful reunion with colleagues if they are infected.


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