Media Mindfulness

The Religion Communicators Council presented an Award of Excellence to Sister Rose Pacatte, FSP of Pauline Center for Media Studies/Daughters of St. Paul for Media Mindfulness: Educating Teens about Faith and Media.

For more information about the DeRose-Hinkhouse Awards of Excellence, visit the Religion Communicators Council at http://www.religioncommunicators.org

A blockbuster resource for teaching about the media and media messages within a context of Christianity. Both authors have a wonderful reputation for their work in this area, and once again they have delivered a resource that is invaluable to anyone teaching about media literacy.

This is an important book on a timely and critical topic. By approaching media and popular culture from a perspective grounded in faith and Scripture, Hailer and Pacatte have given us a powerful, comprehensive resource for helping teens understand and thoughtfully reflect on the role media and technology play in their young lives. The four-part "media mindfulness" strategy gives educators, ministers, and mentors a framework and effective activities for engaging youth in thoughtful analysis of media and its influence on attitudes, behaviors, faith, and values. This book belongs in every church, youth ministry, and religious education program.

Media Mindfulness is a positive response to the cries of adults who feel that media bombardment is destroying the values and characters of youth today. The questions and examples given in the book are so immediate and relevant to the forces that bombard youth in the popular culture of today, that this is a book not to be missed by anyone who influences young people. In addition to having teachers and youth ministers teach this curriculum, library media specialists should surely become familiar with the concepts so logically and clearly explained. Highly recommended for Catholic high schools, parish religious education programs, parents and librarians.

Media Mindfulness: Educating Teens About Faith and Media presents a comprehensive, integrated curriculum that evaluates media objectively in light of our call to live out the Gospel.

Sisters Hailer and Pacatte (a.k.a. Sister Catechist and Sister Media) successfully combine their considerable expertise into a convenient and user-friendly resource. Their main premise is that we can learn to integrate media literacy and our life in Jesus Christ in order to study any medium we choose—from books to blogs, popular music to popular culture.

This integration results in what the authors term "media mindfulness": critical thinking about media combined with Gospel values. This compelling approach honors the Catholic teaching that media are gifts from God, gifts which offer both promise and peril. In this light, we are called to discern rather than denounce, to respond rather than react.

The authors offer a number of creative tools to guide students as they discuss, discern, explore, and create media. Particularly useful is the idea that any medium is a constructed reality designed to transmit values, a concept that permeates the entire work. Also helpful is the Strategy of Media Mindfulness used to analyze the different forms of media in today's popular culture.

Educators will also appreciate the accessibility and consistency of the text. Every chapter begins with a Scripture reflection relevant to the medium being studied and an introduction to the objectives and values of that medium. Then the medium is deconstructed technically and historically while introducing the perspectives of society and the Church. Chapters conclude with a comprehensive list of resources and activities along with creative prayer suggestions that integrate the medium studied.