Here is my reflection for today.

I logged on tonight to my iGoogle page and my YouTube widget had presented me with a “Spotlight Video” which was an incredibly moving video of a Haitian woman being pulled, alive from rubble. After watching the very moving two-minute clip, feeling incredibly grateful for being alive and feeling refreshed by humanity’s willingness to help others, I clicked over the the “Most Viewed” video. Wow, what a contrast: “Blow-Up Doll for Dinner?”

We should examine our visual landscape for learning moments like this keep our finger on our culture’s pulse. And take it as a reminder of the power of a global video culture to transform and inform lives, as well as fill them with media-saturated messages that do nothing more but perpetuate stereotypes.

Whose ready to rally for some media literacy standards with me?