The Inquiry Model

The inquiry model is a structured framework that will help students recognize basic issues and provide strategies for developing subject content. This model helps to stimulate open questioning and encourages students to be intellectually curious about the world; it also demands that they have the proper tools for meaningful research and discussion. Since many of the topics that interest students (such as censorship, bias in news coverage, popular culture trends) need to be focused as soon as possible, this methodology is ideally suited to media study.

The inquiry model is especially suited to the introduction of media-literacy activities in the classroom. For example, one can easily apply the model to a provocative short film, a television documentary, or an excerpt from a feature-film video that reveals a powerful moral dilemma. Through an intense shared experience that raises a whole range of issues, students are enabled to see the value of a structured framework for facilitating focused research and critical thinking.

The inquiry model might be used, for example, to explore the following question: "Why do Canadians seem to prefer American media?" The following alternative solutions might be investigated:

• Media content, from films to television, is predominantly American in origin.
  
  
• American programs are generally cheaper to buy; have better production values, which reflect lavish budgets; and have a faster pace than do most Canadian programs.
  
  
• Quality Canadian programs may reflect our identity, but most Canadians' indifference about or insecurity in this area compels them to avoid endeavours that hold up the mirror to our society.
  
  
• Intense competition in the United States ensures that only the most salable commercial products are seen.

Students might then explore the alternatives by collecting data in the following ways:

• Statistics are available in resources on the Canadian film industry and from the reports of various commissions on broadcasting and the film industry.
  
  
• Students could check with Canadian television networks on the comparative costs of buying an American show - especially those in reruns - and of producing a Canadian series.
  
  
• Students could watch some typical Canadian shows and compare them with the American product in order to notice differences in themes, characterization and pace.
  
  
• Students could check the ratings of one of the better Canadian television series and the box-office take for some of our critically acclaimed films. In addition, by formulating a questionnaire and having a cross-section of people answer it, students could determine whether the results confirm or deny the notion that Canadians are indifferent to or insecure about seeing their identity portrayed.
  
  
• Students could write or talk to Canadian media professionals regarding the allegations about the benefits of competition in the United States.

Critical-Thinking Strategies

The critical-thinking movement in the 1980s has helped to provide some important strategies for teachers of media literacy. According to Robert Ennis, critical thinking refers to a body of intellectual skills and abilities that enable one to decide rationally what to believe or do. It also includes a set of values: the pursuit of truth, fairness or open-mindedness, empathy, autonomy and self-criticism. A "strong sense" critical thinker is one who strives to live in accordance with the values of critical thinking and who is able to think dialogically. A typical mass-media issue involves a blending of intellectual, affective and moral responses. Many issues carried in the media demand that we move back and forth between opposing points of view. It is here that good dialogical thinking can help us out. Dialogical thinking involves a dialogue or extended exchange between points of view or frames of reference.

The following checklist of typical critical-thinking skills is reproduced from Robert Ennis, "A Concept of Critical Thinking," Harvard Educational Review, Winter 1962: 38.

Critical-Thinking Checklist distinguishing between verifiable facts and value claims determining the reliability of a claim or source determining the accuracy of a statement distinguishing between warranted and unwarranted claims detecting bias identifying stated and unstated assumptions recognizing logical inconsistencies determining the strength of an argument

Teachers interested in more information on these approaches should consult Eleanor MacLean's Between the Lines: How to Detect Bias and Propaganda in the News and Everyday Life (Montreal: Black Rose Books, 1981) and the current books and articles on critical thinking in educational journals such as Educational Leadership and Phi Delta Kappan.

Values Education

The mass media are an ideal resource for the discussion of moral dilemmas, the development of moral reasoning, and the use of techniques such as values clarification. Dialogical reasoning, which has been described as an important part of critical thinking, can play a significant role in discussions of topics such as the pros and cons of the mass media, government control of media, censorship, advertising, and the moral values identified in popular television and films.