Critical Media Literacy

The Black et al reading is the second reading in this class (after Alper, week 2) to emphasize the need for children to develop “critical media literacy.” Both papers recommend that children gain some critical faculties for analyzing the cultural messages and assumptions that they receive from media. I think this is desirable, but I wonder how feasible it is to ask young children to think critically about the media that are simultaneously shaping their capacity to think and ways of thinking. Critique requires a knowledge base and set of values to critique with, and the media that young children encounter are constantly shaping their knowledge and values. I am not sure it makes sense to ask children with such plastic minds to have established powers of deep critique at this age. Cultural critique is hard enough for adults. Would it make more sense to encourage less critical, but more blunt, methods of resisting certain cultural influences (similar to the “Just say no” attitude toward drugs and strangers)? Are children capable of reasoning about the values of the very media that shape their values?