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| Widener, Jeff. #161188472478. Associated Press, 5 June 1989. |
Boy on Beach
A lone protester stands defiantly in the street, a standoff with a pillar of military tanks. The image makes a powerful impression, an immediate statement on power, control, and freedom, buzzwords of every 21st century political campaign. Tank Man, as he is sometimes referred to, has never been identified. A faceless man carrying a shopping bag, this iconic image is the embodiment of the protests at Tiananmen Square in 1989. A revolt against government corruption and control, he stands as a symbol to the world, the only context for events otherwise shrouded by a government obsessed with secrecy.
Looking at this photograph we never get the impression that this man is any more than your every day citizen, caught in the midst of a shopping trip by a parade of tanks. His casual dress at odds with the formal military deployment ahead of him, he reaches us not through words, not through actions, but by providing a context for events. This is not a tank charge on enemy forces---the opposition is armed with nothing more than a shopping bag---and the show of force is grotesque to the onlooker.
New Horizons
Jeff Widener's iconic image was snapped as Soviet powers were dissolving and the Cold War was coming to an end. It was a time of rapid globalization and incredible technological advances, and with this information traveled faster than ever. Ten years later, Nikon would antiquate Widener's FE2 with the release of their first digital reflex camera [1], ushering in a new age of communication.
In the digital age, media literacy has become more important than ever. With over 700 million images uploaded to Facebook and Snapchat each day [2], photographs comprise a significant portion of the information we process. Such trends are particularly important among the 12-17 year age demographic, where an estimated 62% of teens are active Instagram users [3]. This marks a critical moment for education, as the majority of students entering high school begin to adopt new forms of communication without the tools to use them.
Student use of imaging devices is particular precarious when discussing privacy concerns, and more specifically, the issue of sexting. 2% of grade 7 students are reported to have sent a sext, a number which increases ten-fold by the end of high school [4]. Student abuse of technology is frequent, and only likely to become worse unless a responsible attitude toward these new horizons is fostered.
Literacy Through Photography
Images such as Tank Man challenge our interpretation of photographs. The viewer is responsible for constructing meaning from objects, symbols, composition, and emotions, and these skills align favourably with the Media Literacy strand of the Ontario Language curriculum.
Engaging students through imagery is not a new idea. It is something that is done in every child's formative years by using picture books to draw connections and interpret stories. Unfortunately, this habit trails off as students begin to comprehend more complex streams of text. But what of more complex images? Encouraging students to analyze and interpret aspects of photographs such as audience, purpose, and perspective will give them the ability to move forward with a more objective view and will translate into a more self aware and responsible environment in which students engage culture and society through images.
But beyond the intellectual practice of analysis, photographs also provide many ways for differentiation in the classroom. Photography is an excellent tool for engaging visual learners and student creativity. It allows a unique opportunity for students to construct meaning in a medium other than text, a practice which could be particularly useful for students that are not native speakers of a language, or that require accommodations on written work.
Here in the digital age, we have access to photographs of almost every person, place, and event that exists in our world. Social media has become inundated with pictures, and acronymns such as "tl;dr" exist, meaning "too long; didn't read." We therefore need to leverage this vast new information resource to promote student literacy. Students cannot abuse technology unless they use technology, and it is our responsibility to teach them how.
