Inaburra School, a K–12 Christian school in the suburbs of Sydney, Australia, has always emphasized a moral and ethical foundation for learning—but how best to teach it? In 1989, the school's board asked me to help transform the then-bookbound media studies program into a hands-on learning experience for the students.
Geniuses at Work
As you step into the large media studies classroom, you notice students working in small groups at one end. Some of them are operating crash-edit video suites; others are working with eight-track digital audio recording equipment. You see students putting the final touches on their research project about a selected aspect of the print media. Upstairs, things are just as intense. A group of students is operating an A/B roll-edit suite. In another room, students are pre-taping a radio show that will be broadcast by an in-house radio station.
Ten to 15 times a year, most media students from grades 10-12 produce a live television variety show for various targeted audiences. They invite Australian and visiting media and educational professionals to attend, as well as family and friends. Every so often, the fun is open to everybody.
Whenever we have visiting guests, a unit swings into production of a current-affairs show. Students sometimes get to interview high-profile decisionmakers such as executive producers of international news shows; federal ministers for communications in Australia; and the head of children's television for the British Broadcasting Company.
A small group of students is busy producing "School Torque," a teen-issues program that airs on Special Broadcasting Services, a national broadcaster in Australia. Students develop a theme for each of the 26 half-hour episodes that will air during the year, and some 200 schools from across the country contribute video segments so that their views may be included.
Learning Through Producing
Authenticity is a key principle in the media program, and is reflected in the means and intended ends of all program exercises. Students are evaluated not only for their skills and knowledge, but also for their understanding of the media's role in serving or disserving human understanding and its power and responsibility.
Arguably, the mass media is the largest disseminator of information to the youth culture, and for this reason, Inaburra School has made it a main focus. Young people need to experience the decision-making processes that shape the selection of the images, sounds, and words that will seek their attention for most of their waking hours. It is easy to get sidetracked into a preoccupation with developing the skills needed to operate technologically advanced equipment; students and teachers alike have gone down that track and, inevitably, it leads to a dead end. In media studies, the emphasis must be on the purpose of communication, not on the tools we use to construct messages.
Students begin their projects after one or two weeks of introductory lessons, which cover project development and processes, journal-keeping, and general procedures for the class to operate smoothly. The individuals or groups are then trained to operate equipment. Students learn terminology on an as-needed basis, and thereby become responsible for using learned terms correctly in their conversations with peers and with visiting industry and educational representatives.
By the time they complete their projects, the students will have operated advanced equipment, considered what will and will not be presented, evaluated their own and their peers' work, presented research results to the class, and produced live media events for various audiences. This wide range of hands-on experience goes a long way toward preparing them for the real world because they've practically been there. They've gained a substantial frame of reference from which they can quickly assess new and real situations. They consider genre, cultural texts, nuances of advertising association, and the purpose of audience positioning. Frame of reference has important implications.
Truth and Consequences
At Inaburra School, students learn about media integrity, or the lack thereof, in an exercise called "Make Them Lie." Students record a 10- to 15-minute interview, asking a range of questions, and then they edit it down to 60 or 90 seconds, just as they would for a TV news bulletin. Then students go back to the original film and do a new edit, framing the content so that it misrepresents the interviewee's point of view. "Can we do that?" students ask. "No—but do people do it?" Students see just how possible it is, because they have physically performed the task. They realize that they must consider what doesn't get shown as well as what does, to determine the truth of a reported piece, thereby developing the skills to discern truth from falsehood in what is presented to them—or by them—in the media.
Before or after students "make 'em lie," they discuss such subjects as media corporate power and corruption, journalistic bias, editorial omissions, and other contextual matters.
One day, a media executive came to talk about a kidnapping case that was in the news. Government agents and the police could not find the kidnapper. A student asked how the media could find the suspect. "Bribery," the executive answered, in explaining how a certain news organization got to be the first to secure an interview with the kidnapper. "Do morals or ethics come into play?" a student asked. "No," came the stunning reply. "It's whatever sells; I have a budget, and I have to make a profit or lose my job."
The topic of discussion became this: If certain players in the media would do anything to get a story, would they sensationalize a dull story to make it sell? Yes, agreed the students. Would Christians in the mass media compromise their faith? Mixed yes and no.
Some may argue that the benefits of Inaburra's media program can be achieved in a traditional class using traditional methods. Particular disciplines can and should be taught with a narrow focus and a reliance on documentary materials—for example, scriptwriting and analysis in English class. Inaburra School recognizes a need to consider all the imagery and information bombarding teenagers—and all of us—and stimulate students' ability to put it in perspective. And the more deeply and experientially this knowledge sets in, the greater the benefits.
A Worldwide Audience
Many print, TV, and radio networks in Australia have run stories on the media studies program at Inaburra School. American educational film crews have produced stories about the program and used them for showcases at Southeast Asian teachers' conferences and media literacy conferences in Australia and the United States. Educational representatives have visited from New Zealand, China, Japan, and the United States. And Inaburra representatives have given presentations in schools as far away as Seattle and Boston.
The students gain practical experience while still in school. Those who want to work in the media industry can go on to tertiary training and then to employment. Their professional progress, in most cases, is quite impressive.
