Towards Health, Wealth, and Wisdom;

ACME Builds An Independent Media Literacy Movement

Rob Williams

We live in the most mediated society in world history, with Americans spending 10-12 hours a day consuming media. The Kaiser Family Foundation tells us that the average American home typically owns three televisions, three tape players, three radios, two VCRs, two CD players, and at least one computer, not to mention access to a wide variety of newspapers, comics, magazines, and books. While media can entertain, educate, and inspire, much of our media is owned by large transnational corporations whose sole interest in profit-making trumps larger social concerns. These corporations, in the words of media literacy pioneer George Gerbner, have “nothing to tell but everything to sell.” As a result, we find ourselves literally embedded in a corporately-owned media culture that promotes disease instead of health, impoverishment instead of wealth, and cynicism, apathy, and ignorance instead of skepticism, engagement, and wisdom. When seen in this context, seemingly isolated media events come into focus:  

·    Channel One’s predatory practices in 12,000 U.S. public schools.

·    Super Bowl Half Time Show “wardrobe malfunctions” (Media giant Viacom, which owns both CBS and MTV, has a vested interest in pushing the profit potential of both Janet and Justin).

·     “Misinformation” about the Iraq War reported as “news” (Media giant Newscorp owns Fox TV and enjoys close ties to both the FCC and the Bush White House).

·    Last June’s FCC ruling making it possible for one media corporation to own up to 8 radio stations, 3 television stations and a newspaper in any given US city.

Clearly, we live in a media culture that serves the interests of a few at the expense of the many. 

Given our hypermediated corporate culture, we need a critical and independent media literacy education movement more than ever. Historically, “media literacy” has been broadly defined as an educational approach that aims to teach individuals how to access, analyze, evaluate, and produce different kinds of media. Corporations have worked hard to co-opt this movement, providing watered-down ML curricula funded by media companies that ignores critical issues important to the health of our children, our culture, and our democracy. "The problem we face with a hyper-commercial, profit-obsessed media system is that it does a lousy job of producing citizens in a democracy,” observes Rich Media, Poor Democracy author and founding ACME member Robert McChesney. “A solution is real media literacy education that doesn't just make people more informed consumers of commercial fare, but makes them understand how and why the media system works - so they may be critics, citizens and active participants. This is the type of media education ACME is committed to doing."

The Action Coalition for Media Education’s (ACME) October 2002 founding heralded the arrival of a new activist approach that seeks to invigorate the media literacy movement by championing critical education, independent media production, and grassroots media reform through civic engagement. Our coalition is made up of educators, students, public health researchers, independent media producers, policy makers, and political reformers all dedicated to the essential goal of improving our media culture as we enter the 21st century. Our organization is independently funded through membership dues, grants, and member donations. ACME’s Ethics Code, which embraces a “full disclosure” policy for all ACME members, states that ACME takes NO money from Big Media corporations and their allies. ACME is dedicated to supporting member-driven initiatives such as Free Press’ “Fight the FCC” campaign, NMMLP’s “Boycott Bud” initiative; various “Dads and Daughters’ campaigns, to name but three – while creating provocative and FREE classroom resources for our members, curricula like our recent nationally-focused “Media Literacy Monday” initiative which tackled Super Bowl alcohol advertising.

"Media literacy is so dangerous to media corporations that they have moved to hijack the movement as it builds momentum,” explains MEF Executive Director and founding ACME member Sut Jhally. “ACME is the organization that cannot be hijacked. ACME’s formation and launch therefore is an important political moment." It is only by working together in our classrooms and communities that we can reform our media culture to create a healthier, wealthier, wiser future for us all. We cannot be satisfied with a media system that enriches the few at the expense of us all.

Join ACME at www.acmecoalition.org!!

Rob Williams, PhD, (rob.williams@madriver.com) is a teacher, historian, writer and musician, and has taught and written about media literacy education for many years. He currently serves as a Vermont-based media literacy consultant; runs a two-person film production company called MEMEfilms, teaches history, humanities, and media studies at Sacred Heart University, Champlain College and Burlington College; and is board president of the Action Coalition for Media Education.