Once upon a time, there was a fabulous movie titled, "The Wizard of Oz." Dorothy is whisked by a Kansas tornado up to the wondrously bizarre kingdom of Oz and embarks on a journey to find her way back home. "We're off to see the Wizard," she and her companions sing, and off they go, down the yellow brick road until, after several adventures, they reach the Wizard's castle in the Emerald City.
The Wizard is one big mysterious dude, a shadowy monster looming above all in his royal chamber, shooting out flames and smoke and roaring noise whether he is pleased or displeased. He, truly, is the fearful Wizard of Oz, whom no one in Oz dares challenge. Except Toto, Dorothy's cute little dog, who trots to a curtained cubicle at the side of the room, and tugs back the curtain, showing Dorothy and the others that the mighty Wizard of Oz is only an old humbug (definition: a trickster; a deceiver) gent, pulling levers and speaking into a microphone.
Media literacy is exactly like that. "The Wizard of Oz" is an allegory for media literacy, as that dilemma so perplexes critics of media and culture in the 21st century. Warnings about the absence of media literacy, and attempts to teach it, take the approach of finding ways to understand the monster, when all that needs to happen is for a curtain to be pulled aside, revealing the instantly recognizable truth. The media monster, which so intimidates citizens and critics alike, is only an ordinary person, using a set of tools that a third-grader could learn to use.
And should, too. No academic subject in America's schools – not language, not reading, not math, not social studies, not science – takes a greater role in the average American's life than media. But media is not a core subject in American schools, never has been. Students are graduated from high school and sent out into a media blizzard they literally don't understand. They have not been taught to "read" media, and so they stare at Oz without a clue.
A few of these graduates go on to become media professionals. In college, they learn the media tools and how to use them, in schools of print and broadcast journalism, entertainment production, marketing, public relations, and advertising. They learn which levers to pull, and when, and how to speak into the microphone for maximum Oz effect. In May 2007, U.S. Dept. of Labor statistics indicated 1.07 million media professionals in an adult population (15 and over) of 240 million. The other 238.93 adult Americans go into other careers and remain essentially media-illiterate, which creates all kinds of problems in a media-saturated world. Americans today accuse the media of bias, irresponsibility, moral decay, Hannah Montana. And many of those accusations are true, because media professionals, the new wizards of Oz, know they can get away with it in a media-illiterate world, at least until someone pulls the curtain back.
The media literacy gap has become a wedge. The result is an American crisis, creating fear and mistrust, even loathing, of a media institution that is the life blood of democracy, vital to our society’s constant and reasonable demand for information and entertainment, and a huge hub of the economy.
Every Monday, we'll be pulling the curtain back and talking about these problems and the media tools with which to solve them. Learn the tools, unmask the wizards. Simple. Speaking of problems, here's one. Terrorists are, of course, not only media literates, but media experts. A quick quiz, with one answer: the 1995 bombing in Oklahoma City, and the 9/11 attacks, both occurred at the same time, 9 a.m.; and the summer, 2006, plot to blow up airliners – foiled, happily – involved airliners flying from Europe to the United States. Why? People with media literacy will know the answer immediately.
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