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[IP] more on Scholastic Rethinks Path to 9/11 Study Guide





Begin forwarded message:

From: Dave Crocker <dhc2@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: September 9, 2006 8:54:34 AM PDT
To: dave@xxxxxxxxxx
Cc: ip@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx, Alice Kehoe <akehoe@xxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: [IP] Scholastic Rethinks Path to 9/11 Study Guide
Reply-To: dcrocker@xxxxxxxx



Rather than washing its hands entirely due to the fallout with former president Clinton, the company will still provide a guide to the show, but will try to incorporate the controversy into the guide by focusing on media literacy, critical thinking, and historical background. “After a thorough review of the original guide that we offered online to about 25,000 high school teachers, we determined that the materials did not meet our high standards for dealing with controversial issues,” said Scholastic President Dick Robinson on the company's Web site. “At the same time, we believe that developing critical thinking and media literacy skills is crucial for students in today’s society in order to participate fully in our democracy and that a program such as ‘The Path to 9/11’ provides a very ‘teachable moment’ for developing these skills at the high school level.


This could be quite a useful exercise.

The effect of propaganda -- material that contains a small amount of truth and a great deal of tailored untruth -- is strongly reversed by having a credible commentator offer insight about the material while it is being watched.

In other words, properly educating the viewer about a distorted program, while they are watching it, can result in a strong reaction against the program's creators. In effect it can innoculate viewers against the program's creators...

d/
--

  Dave Crocker
  Brandenburg InternetWorking
  bbiw.net



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