Controlling Our Perspectives

Recently I was given the wonderful opportunity to attend a New Mexico Media Literacy Catalyst Training Session with Andrea Quijada. She introduced me to the concept of really viewing media through lenses. In other words, when we view media, we have a particular lens that we view it through that is based on our preconceived ideas formulated through experience in our environment. When we are asked to change this lens, than we are able to view the media from another lens. A great example she posed was to take a simple print ad with a woman in the ad and change the ad to have a man or vice versa. In the example she provided, we viewed a print ad of a young girl holding a Hamburger Helper glove and asked how we would feel or what we would think if instead of the little girl we saw a little boy. For me, this forced me to verbally and visually consider the conception of men and women and why I had those pre-concepts.
This was only supplemented when I recently read Stephen Downe's Blog Post that linked to an article about the capability of rewiring the connectivity of neurons. I commented, "...the concept that this is an excellent article when considering Media Literacy and the amount of content that gets "trapped" in our brain. The fact that we can rebuild connections means that people can really have affect on understanding and viewing of media as we can have new experiences by changing our perspective and changing our pre-conceived ideas when viewing media. "
 
"Taking the New Out of Neurons
Fascinating. We a born, grow up, live and die with basically the same set of neurons in our neocortex. How, then, does learning occur? As we've been saying, "Without new neurons, the neocortex's vaunted flexibility must come from changing connections between existing neurons, constantly rewiring our mental circuits in the face of new experiences and sensations." Ed Yong, Not Exactly Rocket Science, October 2, 2008. [Link]"