Analysis of the The New Literacy: Language of Film and Television by Harold Foster - Book Report/Review Example

Mass communication has influenced the everyday lives of humans for centuries. In the middle age mass media manifested itself in the form of written press. The written press, which was invented in fifteenth century, allowed the world to evolve by providing a medium in which to express ideas and became a storage area for knowledge. During the early half of the 20th century innovation changed the capabilities of the mass media. The two inventions that integrated audio and visual dimension were the radio the television. The television integrated both dimension simultaneously and became the most influential mass communication medium of the 20th century. In order to learn more about the effects of medium on mass communication a book about the effects of television on mass communication was selected to be reviewed. This paper is a review of the book “The New Literacy: Language of Film and Television” by Harold Foster. Mr. Foster is an educator of the English subject at the University of Akron. He also has vast experience teaching at the High School level. In his book the author recognizes that mass communication has a major influence over the lives of people living in our society, especially young people. Due to this influenced which can not be denied, the thesis of the author is that Americans educational system should take advantage of television influence and integrate visual literacy into the students educational curriculum. The title of the book is very suggestive of the author’s theory which establishes visual literacy as new form of learning. In the preface the book he describes how the mass media influences us. It established the reason why people need to develop visual literacy skills to comprehend the impact of manipulative techniques of advertisements and to better understand valuable information the mass media can provide such as new reporting, documentaries and films relating to the every day struggles of humanity. At the end of the preface the author acknowledges those who help him and inspired him to write this book. The author’s thesis that the American educational system should take advantage of television influence and integrate visual literacy into the student’s educational curriculum is quite interesting. This is a fresh perspective which goes against the common belief that television is detrimental to the learning capabilities of young people. The monotonous act of watching television stagnate the mind and prohibits creative thinking. Prolonged TV viewing may alter the brain’s structure and functioning, making it a suspect in the increasing number of learning disabilities found in American Children (NesSmith, 1995, p.114).The large amounts of time children spend in front of the television can be utilized for more stimulating activities that enhance cognitive abilities such as reading. Mr. Foster recognizes society’s perception of television influence of young people, but he moves away from all the studies that try to persuade society into one the view that television is a bad influence. The author’s thesis is innovative and practical. He established the existence of a problem and a viable solution for taking advantage of a mass communication medium to improve the communication process. Despite the great unique theory within the book the author does a poor job of delivering the message and following through with the content of the book the overall theme of the thesis. The book is composed of five chapters. The author utilizes a descriptive technique in the book with a mix of analytical approaches in certain sections. The first chapter is very good and encourages the reader to think about the possibilities. It mentions theories about the effect mass media has on members of society, particularly children. He utilizes various examples and dissects particular television shows and films well. One very powerful example the author mentions occurred on September 30, 1973 when the movie Fuzz was featured on network television. Gollowing the telecast of the movie a gang of teenagers recreated a violent scene from the movie and killed a woman by burning down the woman’s car (Foster, 1979). Violence is one of the strongest elements from television which has the most impact in the minds of humans. The next chapters of the book were not very good. The second chapter of the book provides contradictory evidence in regards with the author’s original point of view. The author from the beginning says that television is very influential because it creates a visual image that creates an illusion of reality. In this chapter the book presents various arguments of why films and television are not real and the author provides exact details of the different tricks Hollywood utilizes to create the illusion. The chapter does not seem appropriate to validate the impact of the mass media of society nor does it validate television as an influential medium. This chapter also is not aligned with the thesis of utilizing television to in the learning process of young adults by means of visual literacy. The third chapter was even worse than the second chapter. In this chapter the book provides an in-depth look a particular film the author thought was relevant to the subject matter. The idea is not bad as far as continuing the theme of the book, but the execution of the author was horrendous. The chapter shows a critique of a film mixed with a type of descriptive narrative of a bunch of irrelevant details that bored the reader and did not provide any additional insight towards the theme of the book nor did it help validate the thesis in any way, shape or form. At this point a reader might be tempted to close the book and put it away forever. The next chapter got back right on track. Chapter four of the book finally made sense and I considered it the best chapter of the book. The chapter explained the value of visual literacy and how it can impact and change the comprehension of the things people see while watching television. Lasswell’s view of communication emphasizes the importance of persuasion in the communication process (Usf). This chapter reiterated this theory by explaining how television provides a persuasive message that the receptor can misinterpreted if the person lacks basic understanding of visual literacy concepts. To the author visual literacy is new discipline that incorporates all reading, writing and thinking about messages transmitted in television programming. The author in this chapter breaks the theory of scholars that say television and films have a negative influence on the educational system and that film study has no room inside the classroom. He clearly explain the difference between showing a film for the sake of it and the scientific approach of visual literacy in which communication elements such as reception, interpretation and creation are practiced in reading and written exercises during visual literacy teaching. The last chapter of the book mainly provides different methods for teaching visual literacy which is a good way to finish off the book. When I picked to this book I had two biases after reading the title without even opening up the first page. First of all I thought all the information of the book would be obsolete since it was written 28 years ago. I also was biased about what could actually be learned from television since to me television was not a pedagogy tool such as other mass communication mediums such as the computer can be. I thought that the author was stuck in a time loop in the past and if he traveled to the 21st and viewed the power of a computer he would be ashamed he ever wrote a book claiming television was a tool to help teachers learn. I was completely wrong. Despite some of the defects of the book which I mentioned earlier the idea of visual literary and its implication for society in the 21st century and beyond are mind boggling. Visual literacy is a field of study that can help everyone better understand the massages people received from the mass media. The mass media is changing and we entered into a new economic era called the convergence age. In this era the media distribution channels collapse and instead public having various independent channels such as broadcast, cable, radio, print, online media integrated into one single media delivery chain powered by broadband internet (Pricewaterhousecoopers, 2006). Visual literacy has more applications in today’s reality due to the evolution of mass communications. The book by Harold Foster was a good piece of literature. It provided a unique insight into mass communication and the television medium. The author ended the book by forecasting the value of visual literacy in the future and the evolution of visual images provided by the television. He thought that visual literacy was going to lead to a revolution in the way school’s taught its curriculum because television was becoming more powerful every year. This view was bit unrealistic, but the message about the value of visual literacy was right on target. This discipline is good for everyone, but students in the communication field must learn about visual literacy since the methods in this field can be applied to various areas of mass communication such as journalism, public relations, television and film. References Foster, H. (1979). The New Literacy: Language of Film and Television. National Council of Teachers of English. 1-65. NesSmith, W.C (1995). Social Sciences: An Introduction: Harcourt Brace & Company. Pricewatercoopers (2006). The Rise of Lifestyle Media – Achieving Success in the Convergence Era. Retrieved September 28, 2007 from http://www.kent.edu/ici/MediaMindsetsResearchCluster/convergence-report.cfm Usf.edu. Communication Process. Retrieved September 30, 2007 from http://www.cas.usf.edu/lis/lis6260/lectures/shannon.htm Read More