Media Website Evaluation

Website Evaluation: The Media Awareness Network

Link: http://www.media-awareness.ca/blog/index.cfm

For my Media Website evaluation, I have chosen the Media Awareness Network site. This is a comprehensive, current, and easy to navigate resource for teachers as well as parents and students. I used this site extensively when I had to create the EMS 3O English Media course for my school.

The site is an educational tool for the public to access information about all forms of Media. In evaluating this website based on the Dalhousie University in Halifax criteria, the authority for this site is extensive and very reputable. The site is maintained and run by a whole team of writers, who have backgrounds in education, journalism, mass communications, and cultural policy. The site is run out of Ottawa, and works in partnership with Canadian and international organizations, and speaking to audiences across Canada and around the world. As well, MNet (the site’s nickname) has also developed its Young Canadians in a Wired World (YCWW) research program in order to build an extensive database about the role of the Internet in the lives of young people, so the site is also doing its own work in developing and monitoring Media literacy in out country.

The purpose of this site is to promote and educate Canadians, and the world at large, in all forms of media literacy. This site purposes to help all citizens evaluate and “read” the media. Young people are especially targeted for this, and the site is actually broken into two different sections; one side is Resources for Parents, the other Resources for Children. This site aims to look at deconstructing media messages so students can distinguish and safely understand the “smoke and mirrors” of the media. All the links are clearly marked and useful, and the site is extremely easy to navigate for child or adult.

In terms of coverage, this site is extremely comprehensive. All areas of Media Literacy are addressed, and target issues are subjects such as Media Violence, Online Hate, Media Stereotyping, Information Privacy, and Cultural Policies. These issues are the ones that are the most dangerous and affect the students the most. The site provides mostly its own information, but it also has a wealth of useful outside links if teachers or parents want more information on the subject. The extension of each of these Media topics is practical as well; for example, under Media Violence, there is another menu of links exploring ideas such as Violence in Entertainment, The Business of Media Violence, and Media Violence debates to name a few. The site offers an eye-opening approach to the problems, dangers and impressions that these media messages have on our youth. As a teaching tool, it even has a drop-down list for teachers, that separates the sites Media Lessons into Grade (Primary to Secondary grades) as well as Topic, and once you click on these parameters, the site automatically shows the teacher what lessons or links are the best for their grade and topic. It does the legwork for you, teachers!

The site’s currency is excellent since it seems as though it is updated daily, if not several times a day: the one section on Blog and News was discussing the recent media topic of The New Yorker’s cover illustration of Barack Obama and his wife dressed as Muslim terrorists and the implications of such an image on the public. All the links are current and none are dead or out of use.

Objectivity is an obvious concern when looking into a site such as this; is there any clear agenda? Does the site maintain certain bias, is it staunchly “anti-media” or contain political undertones that a literate observer should be wary of? In engaging with this site in the past, I can safely say that the site is wonderfully unbiased, and wants to both celebrate as well as decode the media. It offers an objective and highly educational approach, assessing what is potentially harmful, such as Women’s Body Image and Online Hate, and critically assessing how to read and evaluate such messages. It does not condemn or present an agenda, the site merely wants everyone to understand that simply because a racially prejudiced site quotes the Scripture, and it does not make it a religious or socially responsible site, to cite one example. To illustrate further, MNet provides statistics and examples on Online Hate, like how the number of Hate sites has leveled off to around 400 on the Web, and how these sites have dramatically increased the number of youths joining these types of groups. Follow the link to see what I mean:

http://www.media-awareness.ca/english/issues/online_hate/hate_and_free_speech.cfm

MNet offers information that both educates as well as alarms, but information is presented in a very responsible fashion.

The sites accuracy is impeccable, and all sections have clear authors and research to back up any numbers they present. The numbers previously stated in regards to Online Hatred are clearly marked as part of the Southern Poverty Law Center. All of the information on this site is accurate, up to date, and easy to understand. The site also offers visuals, teaching tools, and other links to aid in promoting Media literacy.

Both educators and parents can enjoy this site with their children, and look critically at the media that surrounds our culture. I have been on several Media Education websites as a part of my EMS 3O development, and I can easily espouse the credibility and utility of this fabulous site. Anyone who is looking for a great educational resource for all levels of instruction need not look any further.