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One day after a career as an editor and producer of film and television, I observed that most people were not empowered in our media world. It is then when Liz Thoman and the CML fortuitously came into my life. Through her guidance and passion, I evolved into a librarian to engage with my fellow citizens young and old in a new conversation on our world. Liz empowered me to consider and look beyond the power structure. I am grateful for her mentorship.
Claire KwonGraphic Artist
I met Liz in 2005 at the Center for Media... Read More
Attached is the full-length transcript of the Celebration of Life for Elizabeth Thoman in Los Angeles on February 12, 2017.
Co-hosts were Tessa Jolls, Center for Media Literacy, Sr. Rose Pacatte, Pauline Center for Media Studies, and Michael Danielson, Seattle Preparatory School. Speakers included: Renee Hobbs, Bobbie Eisenstock, Frank Dawson, Jeff Share, Michael Robb-Grieco, Erin Reilly, Sr. Rose Pacatte, Tessa Jolls, Ira Gorelick, Fr. Anthony Scanell, Elaine Scott, Clifford Cohen, Daine Olsen, Pam Dawson, Roselyn Silver and Beverly Feldman with introductions by Michael Danielson.
Videos... Read More
A Remembrance of Sr. Elizabeth Thoman
June 18, 1943 – December 22, 2016
Sister Elizabeth Thoman, CHM, died December 22, 2016 at Bishop Drumm Retirement Center in Johnston, Iowa. Elizabeth Jeanne Thoman was born to John Arthur and Gertrude Roberson and grew up in Nashville, Tennessee. She entered the Congregation of the Humility of Mary in 1964, professing vows in 1966. She graduated with a B.A. from Marycrest College and earned a Masters degree from the University of Southern California, Annenberg School of Communications and also from Immaculate Heart College in Los Angeles.
Liz Thoman... Read More
Elizabeth Thoman Memorial Announcement, Program, Prayer
St. Augustine Parish Hall, Los Angeles, CA. February 12, 2017 Program for Celebration of Life
Announcement
A Remembrance
Prayer read at Sr. Elizabeth Thoman's Memorial Celebration
Patient Trust
By Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
Above all trust in the slow work of God. We are quite naturally
Impatient in everything to reach the end without delay.
We would like to skip the intermediate stages.
We are impatient of being
On the way to something unknown,
something new.
And yet it is the law of all progress
that it is made by passing through
some stages of instability.
And that it might take a very long time.
And so it is with you.
Your... Read More
Sr. Elizabeth Thoman altered the course of my life
By Sr. Rose Pacatte, Pauline Center for Media Studies Sr. Elizabeth Thoman, a member of the Congregation of the Humility of Mary and a woman religious who changed my life, died December 22 at Bishop Drumm Retirement Center in Johnston, Iowa. She was 73.
I first met Liz in 1990 in Portland, Oregon, at a meeting of Unda-USA (now SIGNIS), the Catholic association for radio and television. Liz gave a presentation on the magazine she had founded and published, Media & Values, and she spoke about media literacy: the ability to access, analyze, evaluate and create media in a variety of forms.
I had never heard of media literacy before. As a... Read More
How do Digital Media & Learning (DML) and Media Literacy Communities Connect? Why is it important that these communities work together towards common goals?
Henry Jenkins and Tessa Jolls on the meaning of Media Literacy and the need for a strong coalition of advocates regardless of the name. This conversation first appeared on Henry Jenkins’ blog Confessions of an Aca-Fan then in CML’s newsletter Connections (Oct/Nov. 2014). Henry: When I and other researchers from MIT wrote the 2006 white paper, Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21st Century, we were very aware of building on the foundations of the Media Literacy movement as it had taken shape in North America over the prior several decades. We made a number of gestures across the paper, which were intended to pay tribute to what had been accomplished, to signal the continuities as well as differences to our vision for the "new media literacies." For example, early in the paper, we emphasized that the newer skills and... Read More
The Core Concepts: Fundamental to Media Literacy Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow
By Tessa Jolls and Carolyn Wilson The Core Concepts: Fundamental to Media Literacy
Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow
By Tessa Jolls and Carolyn Wilson
Media literacy has survived through the years largely as a grass-roots movement which, slowly but surely, has developed around the world (Walkosz, Jolls and Sund 2008). While it has often been present on the “margins” of school curriculum, thanks to the steadfast support of global organizations such as UNESCO, media literacy continues to gain recognition and legitimacy worldwide. Yet because media literacy is rarely institutionalized in education systems and not taught... Read More
July 22, 2011
For more information:
Tessa Jolls, CML
310-804-3985
tjolls@medialit.com
For Immediate Release:
Voices of Media Literacy, a project representing the individual points of view of 20... Read More
ELIZABETH THOMAN
DATE OF INTERVIEW: Wednesday, Feb. 16, 2011
INTERVIEWER: TESSA JOLLS
(Quote)
Until the internet came along, everything was about television. As long as media literacy was about television, it could be dismissed as not being very important because television was not being used by educated people (or so they say!). But as soon as the internet hit everyday grassroots families, then we transformed into a totally different culture – and media literacy became a critical skill for learning to live in that mediated culture.
BIOGRAPHY... Read More
Television has a strong influence on the lives of most American families. Here are five specific actions you can take to help your family members become more conscious about what they see and hear in the media -- and start on the path to media literacy
A. Instill the habit of watching specific programs, rather than just anything that happens to be on.
1. Train your child to ask to watch television before being allowed to turn it on, just like they have ask if they can go out to play or to go to someone's house. This gives you the opportunity to ask why and what they want to watch. It... Read More
CML Publishes Start-up Curriculum for K-12 Media Literacy
25 Lesson Plans Help Students Explore Five Key Questions of Media Literacy
LOS ANGELES, CA, September 30, 2005 – "Where do I start?" is a cry often heard from teachers who would like to introduce media literacy in their classrooms, kindergarten to high school, but lack the tools to do so.
Now, a pioneering leader in media literacy has published a ground-breaking solution that provides an entry point for students of all ages to learn and master the basic principles of the field.
Five Key Questions That Can Change the World, developed by the Los Angeles-based Center for Media Literacy (CML), is an innovative collection of 25 cornerstone classroom activities and lesson... Read More
Media Literacy: A National Priority for a Changing World
Today's multimedia world is challenging the very foundations of education By Elizabeth Thoman and Tessa Jolls
The convergence of media and technology in a global culture is changing the way we learn about the world and challenging the very foundations of education. No longer is it enough to be able to read the printed word; children, youth, and adults, too, need the ability to critically interpret the powerful images of a multimedia culture. Media literacy education provides a framework and a pedagogy for the new literacy needed for living, working and citizenship in the 21st century. Moreover it paves the way to mastering the skills required for lifelong learning in a constantly... Read More
"Where is media literacy in the standards?" many teachers ask.
The standards movement in education emerged at about the same time (1980s) that media literacy education was gaining a foothold in Australia, England and especially in Canada where a group of high school English teachers formed the Association for Media Literacy (AML) and began to work with the Ontario Ministry of Education to write a media literacy "framework" that dovetailed with the existing English/Language Arts framework for grades 6 - 12. The resulting Media Literacy Resource Guide continues to be the... Read More
Partnership for Media Education
Collaboration Creates Momentum for National Conferences By Elizabeth Thoman
The movement for media literacy in the United States has emerged from a plethora of individual projects and activities throughout the country, each sustained more often than not by the passion and commitment of a single individual, a grassroots organization or a small group of teachers, parents or community leaders.
As the field expanded during the early 1990's the need for a regularly-scheduled national conference for ongoing professional growth and long-term development became more and more urgent. Initial conferences in Boone, NC in 1995 and Los Angeles in 1996... Read More
Five Key Questions That Can Change the World
CML publishes classroom activity guide with 25 core lesson plans for K-12 media literacy. by Jeff Share, Tessa Jolls & Elizabeth Thoman
"Where do I start?" is a cry often heard from teachers who would like to introduce media literacy in their classrooms, whether kindergarten or high school - but don't know where to begin.
Five Key Questions That Can Change the World is an innovative collection of 25 cornerstone lesson plans - five for each of CML's Five Key Questions of media literacy.
Developed by the Center for Media Literacy, it's a ready-to-go resource that will help you help your students build a firm foundation in the skills of media literacy! Features:
Easy-to-understand introduction for teachers on the Five Core... Read More
Iowa Educators Pioneer Media Now Curriculum
Innovative high school program built around 50 hands-on 'learning packages' By Jill Jensen
As far back as pioneer days, Iowans have led the field in education. The first settlers sectioned the land and established one-room schools within a mile or two of most farmsteads. In the 1860s, Iowans chartered the first land-grant institution of higher learning, Iowa State University. Matching Iowa's pioneer spirit, the university's programs are open to all, practical in nature, and available to everyone in the state through extension and outreach.
A century later, Iowa educators again blazed trails in the emerging field of media education with a unique self-directed, module-... Read More
We are, all of us, awash in media. Television. Movies. The Internet. Billboards. Newspapers. Magazines. Radio. Newsletters. Individually and collectively, we spend more time with more media than ever before — an average of 10.5 hours a day, about 25% of that time using two media simultaneously, according to a recent study of "Middletown, USA" by the University of South Carolina.
Children in particular have become media–obsessed. Another recent study, this one by the Kaiser Family Foundation, found that 68% of kids 2 and younger spend... Read More
UNESCO Convenes International Media Literacy Conference in Toulouse
Report prepared by Elizabeth Thoman, executive director Center for Media and Values, Los Angeles, CA
Overview of the Conference
In the summer of 1990, 180 delegates from 40 countries convened in Toulouse, France for an international colloquy on the future of media education worldwide. The conference was sponsored by UNESCO, the British Film Institute, and CLEMI (Centre de Liaison de L'Enseignement et des Moyen D'Information).
Most participants were media education teachers or national staff officials from European countries where media education is an established and well-developed field in both secondary and elementary public school systems. A number from Europe and Australia teach... Read More
Teaching Media Literacy in the ESL Classroom
A veteran language teacher outlines why it's important and strategies that work. By Arnie Cooper Both ESL theory and classroom practice point to an understanding of the target culture as a necessary element in second language learners' ability to master English. In this country, nothing offers a clearer window into our culture than the media. From Hollywood's entertainment and music industry to AOL/Time Warner's CNN, America's pervasive media not only reflects our value system but also influences our society on many levels.
In so doing, it provides an excellent springboard for a broad spectrum of skill building activities for English language learners. Indeed, many ESL publishers have... Read More
Why I've Stopped Watching the 11 O'Clock News"
Keynote Response: Conference on Ethics in the News Media By Elizabeth Thoman
Last summer I stopped watching the 11 o'clock news — on any channel. In years gone by I was a devotee of Channel 2's evening effort. That's when Connie Chung, Marcia Brandywine, Maclovio Perez and Jim Hill handled the newscast. Few of my friends around the country could believe that a major TV market would turn its 11:00 news over to not one but two women anchors, an Hispanic weatherman and a black sportscaster.
Actually I was rather proud that the then KNXT — under Van Gordon Sauter, I believe — had the guts to put that news team together — not because they were singularly unique — not one... Read More
TV's New Ratings Game
How the V-chip works and its challenge for parent education. By Elizabeth Thoman
For dozens of years, TV executives have told us that one thing determines the selection of what airs on television: ratings.
For years, they meant the Neilsen ratings, the system of counting how many people of specific ages and income levels are watching each TV show at any one time. Knowing the viewing ratings of each program was important because the more people who watch from the most desirable audiences, the greater the dollar value per minute of commercial time the networks or stations could charge.
That's how television in the U.S. worked. Until now.
1996 may be remembered not only... Read More
Media Literacy for the '90s - U.S. Style
An overview of the challenges to implementing media literacy in the USA By Elizabeth Thoman
In recent years, as I have travelled around the world to Manila for WACC's first congress or to Europe to connect with colleagues at conferences, I am often greeted with the question: what is the U.S. doing in media education? Upon hearing my reply of "very little," the cry is universal: How can a country that so blatantly inundates the rest of the world with its cultural products be so uncritical of what it's producing?
The answer lies in a complex political and economic media structure as well as a general myopia about the longterm impact of technology on social systems and family... Read More
Media, Technology and Culture: Re-Imagining the American Dream
Keynote address for the annual convention of the National Association of Science, Technology and Society January 16, 1993 By Elizabeth Thoman
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Gospel Challenge of Media Literacy, The
How the rise of an "image culture" created the global consumer economy - and what we can do about it. By Elizabeth Thoman, CHM Like most middle-class children growing up in the 1950's, I grew up looking for the American Dream.
In those very early days of TV, there were no cartoons. There was the Mickey Mouse Club, and Howdy-Doody of course. And Kukla, Fran and Ollie. But one program I also distinctly remember watching on Saturday afternoons — with some awe, I might add — was Industry on Parade. I felt so proud week after week to see tail-finned cars rolling off assembly lines, massive dams taming mighty rivers and sleek chrome appliances that would make life more convenient for all of us.
I also remember hearing... Read More
Adapting the Five Key Questions to Different Ages
As children grow, their ability to question broadens and deepens. By Elizabeth Thoman and Jeff Share To adapt media literacy to various age groups, it is helpful to know how children and young people of different ages process the world, and how each state of development influences how they process and learn about the media world in which they are growing up. Developmental psychologists generally break childhood into five different developmental stages, although, of course, children grow and develop at their own unique pace, regardless of what the "experts" project.
Age 0-2 : The Senses AwakenSymbolic thought begins during the first two years of life and parents need to provide a safe and... Read More