Double Entry Journal #5

Media in education has been used in classrooms in forms of text, audiovisual and digital material to convey facts and information, using the material for essentially the same purpose for which it was intended, to instruct or to entertain. Media Literacy Education, however, is the capacity to access, analyze, evaluate, and communicate messages in a wide variety of forms"(Hobbs, Jaszi & Aufderheide).

The social bargain is this, "we as a society give limited propertyright to creators to encourage them to produce culture, at the same time we give other creators the chance to use that same copyrighted material, without permission or payment"(Hobbs, Jaszi & Aufderheide). Two key questions judges use to determine Fair Use are, "did the unlicensed use" transform" the material taken from the copyrighted work by using it for a different purpose than that of the original and was the material taken appropriate in kind and amount, considering the nature of the copyrighted work and of the use?(Hobbs, Jaszi & Aufderheide)" 

For example if a teacher uses the movie The Lion King to notice how the animals in the movie reflect racial stereotypes, the teacher has just used the movie in a different way from which it was intended, the sole purpose of entertainment.  When the teacher asked the students to notice stereotypes, she was introducing the media to point out examples of behavior, attitude and action, a clear example of Fair Use.

In my digital story I used Principle Four: student use of copyrighted materials in their own academic and creative work.  I copied pictures from a website, downloaded a song from Itunes and used editing software to create something new which expressed my own personal ideas. "Educators should provide attribution for quoted material, and of course use only what is necessary for the educational goal or purpose"(Hobbs, Jaszi & Aufderheide); therefore, specific permission is not required from the original creator in order to use copyrighted material in multimedia project for school related assignments.

The fair use myth which surprised me the most was, "school system rules are the last word of fair use by educators.  I didn't realize I could challenge the school policy on fair use if it doesn't allow me all the freedom under fair use as I need to do my work, and do it well.  All schools should update their policy to be in line with the Fair Use doctrine.


References: Hobbs, R., Jaszi, P., & Aufderheide, P. (n.d.). Code of best practices in fair use for media literacy education. Unpublished raw data, Media Literacy Education, School of Communication American University, Washington, DC. Retrieved from http://mediaeducationlab.com/sites/mediaeducationlab.