In almost every area of our lives, whether in the sphere of politics or business, in our social conduct or our ethical thinking, we are surrounded and influenced by the media.
Media are used for a variety of purposes, including advocacy, education and enrichment, entertainment, journalism, public service, personal and artistic expression...
Media include newpapers (both print and online), magazines (both print and online), film (professional and amateur), radio (short-wave, long-wave, digital), television (network, cable, on-demand/streaming), Internet/World Wide Web, books (print and digital), CDs, and DVDs.
There are many things to consider as we tackle media literacy, including:
- How to critically analyze and evaluate media texts
- Media conglomerates and the business & globalization of mass media
- Media (specifically journalism) as the Fourth Estate; that is, the intersection of media and government
- News and Fake News, as well as issues of media bias
- Sociopolitical and sociocultural aspects of media content such as the repeated use of stereotypes and the glamorization of violence
We will interrogate a variety of topics and issues, as well as engage a multitude of media texts in this course, all designed to hone our critical sensibilities and enable us to educate others. As we begin, take a moment to read Plato's "Allegory of the Cave." The "Allegory of the Cave" can be found in Book VII of Plato's best-known work, The Republic, a lengthy dialogue on the nature of justice, written as a series of conversations between Socrates and others--primarily Sophists--whose thoughts and political actions influenced citizens. Although somewhat utopian in its vision of an ideal world, The Republic is written as a discussion of the education necessary for a man to be (or become) a Philosopher-King.
(from "Plato," Encyclopedia Britannica)
The son of a
wealthy and noble family, the elements required for one to be a citizen of Athens, Plato (427-347 BCE) had planned to pursue a career in politics when
the trial, exile, and eventual suicide of his mentor Socrates (399 BCE) changed his life. He
abandoned his political career, turned to philosophy, and opened a school on the outskirts
of Athens dedicated to teaching the Socratic search for wisdom (known as Dialectic). Plato's school, the
Academy, was the first university in western history and operated from 387 BCE until 529 CE, when Byzantine Emperor Justinian closed it. Socrates was a thinker and a teacher who proselytized in an effort to educate, but Plato was a teacher and a writer whose
writings typically appear as dialogues, with Socrates as the principal speaker.
In the "Allegory
of the Cave," Plato symbolically describes the predicament in which mankind finds
itself and proposes a way to salvation. Although brief, the "Allegory" presents
most of Plato's major philosophical assumptions: his belief that the world revealed by our
senses is not the real world but only a poor copy of it and that the real world can only
be apprehended intellectually; his idea that knowledge cannot be transferred from teacher
to student, but rather that education consists of directing students' minds toward what is
real and important and allowing them to apprehend it for themselves; his faith that the
universe ultimately is good; his conviction that enlightened individuals have an
obligation to the rest of society and that a good society must be one in which the truly
wise (the Philosopher-Kings) are the rulers.[1]
Please read the "Allegory" (found on the Blackboard course site) and then post a blog response to the following question:
How might the "Allegory" help us understand media and media influence?
Please provide concrete examples to support your claim. And for fun, try drawing a picture (or creating a digital picture) of Plato's cave and uploading it onto your blog post. Feel free to share links or other media files (images, gifs, etc.), too.
