Media Reform Ideas | 53 comments (53 topical, editorial, 0 hidden)

This is a commonly made argument.

"People who believe in Bad Idea lack education in history/critical thinking/economics/whatever. If they were better educated, people would not believe in Bad Idea. After all, I am educated, and I do not believe in Bad Idea, so others would be just like me."

I strongly disagree with this notion. I think it overestimates what education can accomplish, and further it begs the question of what exactly is meant by education. I find these discussions tend to end up somewhere around, "well, if everyone was educated into a Philosopher King, then we wouldn't have these problems."

by Zwackus on Tue Feb 14th, 2012 at 05:02:49 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Media Reform Ideas (none / 0)

That's a rather strange point of view. For me, one of the major drivers of history is the spread of humanist ideas through education. It's not some sort of thought experiment we're talking about; there are results which can be evaluated.

But in any case, I am not talking about teaching values, but about giving children tools. There is nothing ideological in teaching media analysis, any more than there is in teaching mathematics. Most people will barely use their maths learning once they leave school; they will generally have much more use for media analysis skills.

_{It is rightly acknowledged that people of faith have no monopoly of virtue
- Queen Elizabeth II}

by eurogreen on Tue Feb 14th, 2012 at 07:33:17 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Media Reform Ideas (none / 0)

As a historian, and as an educator, I completely disagree with you. But this is another topic for another day. Let's have that discussion in a different diary.

by Zwackus on Tue Feb 14th, 2012 at 07:58:49 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Media Reform Ideas (none / 0)

Revealing the ideology in existing media is itself ideological. Not bad, but ideological.

"It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."

by ARGeezer (ARGeezer a in a circle eurotrib daught com) on Thu Feb 23rd, 2012 at 12:30:54 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Media Reform Ideas | 53 comments (53 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

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