Week 3 - Media as Inquiry

Ever since The Enlightenment, there has been a huge emphasis placed on inquiry, or the search for truth.  The Enlightenment brought free thinking, new ideas, scientific discovery, invention, innovation, and even religious curiosity and freedom of faith. New forms of media were invented and innovated, from the printing press to moving pictures, which have led to the incredible boon of media sources we enjoy today.  Inquiry is still one of the main sources of creativity in media today.  In our reading/viewing, we read about how to build a cathedral, and saw how crayons are made.  The crayon creation was especially interesting to me, as it was a very hands on way of seeing how things are done.  Being able to watch something be made rather than being told how to make it is a very unique form of learning.  While the book was full of pictures, it was harder to follow and you had to imagine the process much more.  The crayons were more straightforward, taking you through the complete process and explaining things as you saw them happen.  Obviously there is a place for both of these.  A book about crayon creation might be pretty interesting, but wouldn't be able to capture the full experience, and a film about cathedral building might not be able to show clearly how they are made as the subject matter is so antiquated.

In class we watched multiple examples of visual learning.  The two documentaries we watched, one on seahorses and one on lemmings, had very different ways of portraying the information.  The lemmings documentary tried to keep things interesting by providing a narrative flow to the information, while the seahorse documentary seemed to focus more on a logical flow of information, not so much on a story or process.  But both had problems.  Both seemed to present the information with a bit of a slant, allowing the opinion of the narrator to influence the information provided.  There was also a distinct humanizing of the subjects in both documentaries that caused certain opinionated descriptions to sound like logical fact.  There was also a problem in that the lemmings story had information that was completely fabricated (Lemmings commit mass suicide).  This can cause obvious problems, particularly if it is the only source of knowledge the viewer partakes of.  We need multiple sources of information and media in order to get the full picture.

In class we also watched "Chang" a silent documentary about a family living in the jungles of Siam, that likewise portrayed a certain humanization of the creatures involved.  It was narrative driven and often contrived.  While very different from modern documentaries, there were very informational pieces such as seeing how the family solved problems, the influence of community in these people's lives.  Also different from modern documentary, it didn't presume to be the source of all knowledge.  It was obvious when it deviated from the truth, and thus wasn't as misleading as the lemmings documentary was.   

So while media based on inquiry and knowledge can be beneficial and useful, it can also be detrimental and destructive if used incorrectly.  

Week 2 - Moral Lessons

One of the main focuses one finds in children's media is an emphasis on moral lessons.  These lessons can be taught plainly, such as those found in Aesop's fables, or vaguely, which is how most moral lessons are conveyed in this type of media.  Harry Potter, most Disney movies, the Chronicles of Narnia, episodes of Arthur.  They all have moral lessons to teach such as the importance of honor, family, respect, kindness, ambition, faith, etc.
Historically, there has been a dramatic difference of opinion as to the moral state of children.  They are either evil or perfect. If they are evil, they need to be taught moral lessons to save them and get them on the strait and narrow path of righteousness; if they are perfect, then moral lessons protect and keep them innocent and righteous.  These moral lessons are to teach kids the difference between good and evil.
One of the implications of these lessons is that it is the parent's/adult's responsibility to teach the children and keep them safe.  Fairy tales often follow this trend.  A parent or adult offers a caution to the youth in the story and when they disobey, they reap the consequences.  These are called cautionary tales.  In these fairy tales we also see foils depicted, characters that are either completely good or completely bad.  As Bruno Bettleheim points out, this is useful for teaching young minds about right and wrong, as their minds are not yet mature enough to understand the complexities of emotions and choices and the human condition.  By teaching clearly defined lessons with polarized characters, children learn more quickly, and moral issues can be overcome easily.  However, as Bruno makes clear, this condition doesn't last forever.  One of the reasons why Provo is considered "The Bubble" is that these sort of lessons are taught a little too often, to people a little too old for them.  There was a time in my teens that I honestly believed that Mormons were the only truly "good" people in the world.  This was caused by a constant stream of lessons that taught me that the fullness of the gospel was only found in our church.  If others don't have the truth, then they must all be heathens right?  Thankfully, my mission sorted out this horribly false ideal.
Outside of class, we watched 4 different versions of the 3 little pigs story.  I found it interesting how each one seemed to emphasize a different lesson.  The original seemed to be all about not talking to strangers, while the one about the toddler pig at Christmastime seemed to be more about obeying your parents.  And yet, there was an interesting theme found in that one that seems to crop up a lot in this genre.  The toddler pig, while naughty, was able to fight off the wolf and rise above the adversity, receiving no punishment.  Thus, the moral lesson is more or less lost.  These sort of parody stories tend to teach the wrong lessons, while sticking to a tried and true method of story telling.
Pinocchio also offers a sort of different moral view.  Instead of Pinocchio being guided and directed by adults and given the correct lessons in life, he is taught all the wrong lessons by adults, and is forced to learn courage and morality on his own.  Even his "conscience" doesn't always help.  He simply learns through experience and after seeing the consequences, he is able to choose good.  Sometimes, the moral stories don't focus on the parents as the source of wisdom, but on the youth's own experience.