Baker

=Frank W. Baker=

//[[image:baker_frank.jpg width="170" height="242" align="right"]] “Slowly, the education community is starting to understand that media literacy is as important as reading and writing.”//
- Frank Baker

Frank Baker is a former broadcaster and administrator in educational television systems. He has presented workshops internationally, concerning media literacy and education, taught graduate courses at the University of South Carolina, and served on boards of educational organizations as president and vice president. Baker has published two books as well as several essays and articles for periodicals. Baker is the co-founder of the Media Literacy Clearinghouse website, which is a collection of articles, background and lesson plans of media literacy in education. Currently, Baker works as an educational consultant for the NCTE (National Council of Teachers of English) Assembly of Media Arts and is a frequent blogger for their website.


 * Graduated from the University of Georgia with a bachelor's in Journalism
 * Worked television news from 1977-1986
 * Orange County Public School System Administrator of Instructional TV/Distance Learning (Orlando, FL)
 * Awarded "Outstanding Achievement in an Individual in K-12 Education" by the United States Distance Learning Association
 * Professor of media literacy at University of South Carolina 1999
 * President of National Association for Media Literacy Education
 * Vice President of National Telemedia Council
 * Assisted South Carolina State Department of Education English Language Arts in revising state standards on Media Literacy
 * South Carolina ETV (PBS) 1998-2003
 * Served on the National Council for Teachers of English "Commission on Media" 2005-2008
 * "Leaders in Learning" recipient by National PTA and National Cable TV Association 2007
 * National Council of Teachers of English- (Consultant) 2007-Present

For a complete list of Baker's career accomplishments and accolades: [|Biography Homepage], [|Short Bio], [|Detailed Career List]

Baker's published texts span a wide variety of subjects including film study guides, television political campaign ads, media literacy curriculum, toy advertising, tobacco product advertising, and obesity prevention.

His published non-fiction books include:
[|Coming Distractions: Questioning Movies]- " Give young readers the tools they need to evaluate the barrage of media messages that reach them every day. Value assumptions, product placements, and cues to act are embedded in each media message. This fun series embraces media as entertaining and useful but also empowers readers as they learn a systematic way to question pop culture and to recognize how influential media messages are."

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[|Political Campaigns and Political Analyzing: A Media Literacy Guide]- Analyzes how television, radio, Web 2.0 can be used by the news media to have influence over which candidate should be elected. [|youtube promo]=====

Baker demonstrates a comprehensive understanding of the motion pictures and how to view them crtically and analytically. Baker's website solely devoted to films showcases a four-part published article, featured in the "Australian Screen Education," which he presents a film-study guide to the Academy Award-winning "To Kill a Mockingbird".

[|Baker's Film Study website] [|"To Kill a Mockingbird" Film Study]

For a complete list of Baker's published work: [|Published Work]

Media Literacy Clearinghouse
In 1998, Baker collaborated with the late Dr. Peter N. Johnson (USC School of Medicine) to create The Media Literacy Clearinghouse. This continually changing web site a collection of articles, background and lesson plans designed to assist K-12 educators and parents in understanding the role of media.

[|Media Literacy Clearinghouse] (Official Website)
 * 1) Standards teaching non-print media
 * 2) What is media literacy
 * 3) Integrating media in classroom
 * 4) Analyze media
 * 5) Become media aware
 * 6) Locate appropriate resources

Workshops
Frank Baker has conducted workshops since 1998, and recently has presented his media literacy material to educators internationally. From visual storytelling, to tobacco advertisements geared towards youth audiences, Baker's workshops are the staple of his professional career.

[|Workshop Homepage] [|Workshop Complete List 1998-2010] [|Workshop Testimonials, Endorsements, Recommendations]

NCTE
Aside from the professional consulting Baker conducts through NCTE, he also communicates daily with an official blog website. Discussing issues such as "Should social networks be banned from public school internet access" or "Why teachers should try Twitter" Baker shares his media literacy knowledge and opinions on current topical issues in media.

[|NCTE Assemby of Media Arts Blog]

Thoughts
Frank Baker is a man who has quite an accomplished and truly eclectic career. With media literacy being such a broad and ever-evolving subject, I am impressed with the range of work which he has published, presented in workshop, developed into curriculum, and taught as an educator. I am particularly impressed with the depth of knowledge which he writes concerning films, for someone who is neither a filmmaker, nor film critic. Baker's "To Kill a Mockingbird" article is as comprehensive of a film study that I would have read in film school. With a career as diverse as Baker's, it is interesting to observe that perhaps his most frequent task has been as a hands on presenter. While publishing texts, developing curriculum and legislation are essential, perhaps on of the best ways to educate people is in a classroom setting. As our integration with technology and gadgets become more functional with everyday life, (especially within education) the necessity to approach media literacy, such as the “language of film”, “digital media”, "Web 2.0" and "news literacy", employing critical thinking to understand these mediums, will be essential.

Rocky Smith

Rocky, you did a really good job with this page! It is very well developed and in-depth. With someone like Frank Baker, there is a lot of information to fit onto one page and I think you did a great job. Baker seems like a very interesting person and I would love to sit in on one of his workshops. I really like how he takes aspects from his previous career in broadcasting, and turns them into valuable tools and lessons that we can use in this field as well. I've always been personally interested in how media affects/targets it's viewers and two of Baker's workshops that I would be particularly interested in are called, " Buy Me That: How Toy Ads Influence Kids " and "Tobacco Advertising & Marketing: How Big Tobacco Targets Youth." Baker puts a whole new spin on things, one that I haven't seen very often and I think his ideas are very insightful. -Christie

 I'm glad to see that Baker is such an advocate to media literacy. There's such a focus on the core subjects like math and reading that other important skills such as being able to use media effectively sometimes suffers. The bottom line is that the future will depend on being able to use technology to get through a day of work. -Chris Gargasz

I have heard Frank Baker speak several times at OELMA conferences. He has a very important message. He also frequently contributes to the OELMA listserv (pretty much daily). - Susan Berg

Rocky, Great job on the site! Frank Baker seems to be very passionate about media literacy. From your information, he has many accomplishments already and seems to be continuing down the right path to bring back the importance of media literacy in schools. I believe that with new technology being brought to schools, media centers are taking on a new face. I am curious to see what a school library will look like in 5-10 years from now! -Andy Luciano