Media education: how are we doing it?

Abstract

This thesis explored how we are doing media education in NZ secondary schools, from the perspectives of New Zealand secondary school teachers and students, and how their perspectives align with established literature around media education, media literacy and media studies. The aim behind this research was to update the New Zealand literature around media education and, importantly, to give a voice to teachers’ and students’ experiences. This qualitative research consisted of an anonymous online survey of teachers and students of Media Studies, with five teachers and four focus groups with 41 students volunteering to be interviewed. The findings suggest that teacher and student participants shared a love for Media Studies but also found it to be challenging in many aspects, such as production, group work and assessment. Teacher participants felt some isolation within the subject, from their colleagues inside school, from media industries, and in the curriculum. The results suggest that Media Studies still suffers from poor perception from people outside of the subject; chiefly from other teachers and students who do not teach or study it. It was also found that despite the adoption of many different styles and approaches to media teaching, teacher participants still favour some of the older approaches to teaching Media Studies. The examination of media literacy revealed that the concept is not often thought of explicitly, but there are certain commonalities present in the work of teacher participants. Film was the predominant medium used in Media Studies teaching, according to the data, but television and social media are becoming more popular subject matter. Finally, a balance of popular and high culture was sought by the teacher participants in their classrooms, and desired by the students. In conclusion, while Media Studies teachers and students in New Zealand have a wide range of understandings about Media Studies and other related concepts, they tend to agree on the important things, which leads to having a reasonably cohesive and uniform approach from school to school.