Annenberg Innovation Lab discusses media literacy


Students gathered on Tuesday evening in the west lobby of the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism to participate in “You Can’t Google the Future,” an event hosted by the Annenberg Innovation Lab.

The event was part of Media Literacy Week, which is being held for the first time in the United States from Nov. 2 to Nov. 6.

“The mission of MLW is to highlight the power of media literacy education and its essential role in that media is in everything we’re learning,” said Erin Reilly, managing director of the Annenberg Innovation Lab.

Reilly said the Lab hosted the event as a partner of MLW, in association with the National Association for Media Literacy Education.

The event was organized by the Lab’s two student workers Haley Madigan and Erin Gorman. In their presentation, Madigan and Gorman focused on 12 media literacy skills: play, simulation, judgment, appropriation, multitasking, distributed cognition, collective intelligence, transmedia navigation, negotiation, visualization, networking and performance.

Gorman is the communications manager at the Lab and is currently pursuing a Master’s degree in digital social media at Annenberg.

“Media literacy plays an important role in our lives. No one in this room is ever without their phone for even an hour at a time. What is important is to realize that while we may be ‘media literate’ now, the ever-evolving technologies mean that we need to evolve alongside them,” Gorman said during the presentation.

Attendees participated in activities such as finding a previously undiscovered feature in an app they use daily and experimenting with Avicii’s new 360-degree interactive video.

“While planning, the event evolved from a panel of teachers to a Twitter party to a Google Hangout, and eventually, it became ‘You Can’t Google the Future,’ an interactive discussion about media literacy,” Gorman said.

Gorman said the lack of precedent was challenging.

“It’s the first year of media literacy week, so we didn’t have past years to look back on. We definitely wanted to make sure that people are aware of the 12 media literacy skills,” Gorman said.

Madigan, a graphic designer and research assistant at the lab, co-organized the event along with Gorman, a junior majoring in media arts and practice.

“I hope the audience walked out of here understanding that they won’t always be the most media literate generation. When generation Z grows up, they’re going to inherit these technological skills. I don’t want to become my grandmother,” she said. “When I approach technology, I want to be comfortable using it, whether I’m 20 or 70.”

Gorman echoed Madigan’s sentiments.

“We wanted to prepare people for a changing workforce, so they feel empowered to keep growing along with the technology,” Gorman said.

Audience members in attendance were impressed by the event. Many participated in the various activities Madigan and Gorman planned out.

Kayla Briët, a sophomore at Fullerton College majoring in computer science, said she enjoyed the experience.

“I love anything that has to do with tech and storytelling, which was discussed here today. I think that in the end it comes down to storytelling and how we interact with the world around us,” she said. “So I really loved this event.”