Observatorio mediático escolar: un espacio para la lectura, comprensión y apropiación de los lenguajes digitales y su relación con el poder

Abstract

This study was developed around an initiative that sought to build mechanisms for critically reading the discourses presented in the digital media of today's communication ecosystems, particularly with students in Cycles IV and V at the Francisco de Paula Santander School, IED (District Educational Institution) in the capital of the Republic. To this end, an exercise was first carried out to characterize the strategies and components of the processes of reading and appropriation of media languages present in contemporary communication ecosystems by students, so that it would be possible to obtain an overview of the uses and practices carried out in this context, without forgetting to monitor the reading processes that are given greater emphasis in the curriculum, which also provided a perspective on the phenomenon in general. Likewise, the idea was conceived of carrying out a pedagogical-symbolic mediation that, from the school context, more specifically, from spaces for the construction of complementary knowledge in the context of the Single School Day, could consolidate processes of critical media literacy, from the figure of the School Media Observatory, called Media Watchers. Likewise, a review was carried out of studies and research on three fundamental areas: Media Languages, Communication and Power, and Literacy and Literacies. which provided a broad and reflective perspective that highlighted the need to open up and promote scenarios in schools that reflect on the messages circulating in media-digital contexts, placing issues such as power systems and the ways in which they shape young people's ways of being, existing, and inhabiting everyday life at the center of the discussion. Thus, once the current landscape in relation to communication ecosystems and their increasingly pervasive influence on young people, especially those of school age, had been outlined, a theoretical approach was taken in order to consolidate some notions and structure the central concepts mobilized in this research. However, this approach did not aim to construct a rigid framework from which to propose the strategy to be implemented, but rather to serve as a guide based on three central axes, which were: Communication and Power, Media and Interfaces as Languages, and Literacy and Literacies from a Multiple Perspective. Similarly, educational processes as an exercise in criticism and resistance make visible a phenomenon whose complexity deserves and needs to be addressed more forcefully in educational settings. The methodological strategy took into account the qualitative approach and Action Research in Education, so that a process of constant reflection on the actions carried out could be consolidated. In this sense, the idea of setting up a collaborative scenario called Colaboratory was materialized, whose purpose was to become a space for reading, analyzing, and reinterpreting media discourses, but also for recognizing the multiple aspects that come into play in the construction of a message in such environments. Thus, the strategy included a phase of recognition and familiarization with the technical elements and characteristics of various genres, formats, and types of media that constitute the universe of communication ecosystems, in order to move toward a phase of constructing processes that were more complex given that they are connected to dimensions such as discourse and the decoding of media languages. These processes involved the creation of a series of data collection tools, as well as the organization and structuring of materials that would allow students to approach the concepts described above. In this way, the processes carried out made it possible to present a proposal that contributes to the discussion on how to carry out analytical and critical media literacy processes in schools, which resulted in an exercise that highlighted the urgent need to embrace the important transformations that are taking place due to these mutations and changes in the ways of reading and interpreting reality through digital devices, their supports, interfaces, and the consequent disposition of the messages that circulate through them. The reflective processes carried out allowed for the configuration of observant readers and prosumers who establish a critical distance from reflective and analytical processes to reveal the truth-power relationship that is at the center of this discussion. Beyond thinking of media literacy processes as issues that are exclusively connected to the instrumental dimension or effective use of certain devices, this research is a commitment to enabling the appropriation and understanding of digital languages in order to consolidate a critical and proactive view of the media-digital universe by young people in the school context. In this sense, the research presents a commitment to empowering young people in school contexts, in terms of reflective and proactive processes, which means that the proposal is not only about reading as a critical exercise, but also as an exercise in active citizenship, insofar as it seeks to build relationships between school contexts and everyday spaces where the meanings and significance given to personal and collective actions and decisions are played out.