Julia Child was famous for teaching Americans how to cook French food via her cookbook, and later, her cooking shows on television. "The French Chef" appeared on television in 1963.

However, "if media, for example, plays an influential role in shaping our identities, our views will be limited by what the media presents to us as reality" (Parmar and Krinsky 33).

Since I never met Julia Child personally, all I know about her is what I have heard on TV, in print, and on the radio. I first learned about her through the recent movie "Julie and Julia". Through becoming inspired by her gusto for cooking and eating, I decided that I really wanted to get into cooking as well. This has really influenced my identity because now I am a cooking instructor and enjoy cooking everyday at home as well.

It is interesting that although I've never met the real Julia, I share the cultural memory of her with other Americans, a memory based on knowledge from the media, which is filtered. So even the knowledge I share about Julia with others will never be heard from the real Julia, but the media interpretation of her.

I watched Disney's "One Saturday Morning" cartoons every Saturday, for almost a whole day, so I remember learning different things from the characters in the shows. I learned about school issues from the show "Doug" and about how to be an independent girl in "Pepper Ann". I also learned about the social dynamics of a school playground in the show "Recess".

"But who does this benefit? Those controlling the medium and the corporations behind these products profit by creating another consumer. If mainstream media promotes limited knowledge (e.g., narrow depictions of what is considered beautiful, prescribed gender roles, etc...) imagine what knowledge they are excluding from mainstream airwaves?" (Parmar & Krinsky 33).

What Parmar and Krinsky say above applies to my own experience of being a consumer to kids shows on television. Instead of participating in Freire's "construction of knowledge" I was simply absorbing many different meanings and knowledge about life from cartoons. Many of those cartoons probably had hidden agendas and messages that I was not even aware of, and yet I was letting them shape my identity.

Bill Clinton's affair with Monica Lewinsky as well as his impeachment debate was shown all over the news, on TV, and on the radio. This event highly affected my identity, because Clinton was the president of the U.S., and yet he kept lying about the fact that he had an affair outside of his marriage. I realized several things about myself through continually hearing about Clinton.
1. I want to be an honest person
2. I think having fidelity within marriage is important
3. I also learned that Americans are pretty moral people, because of the fact that after Clinton lied about his affair, many Americans were threatening to impeach him.

"...knowing is a social process, whose individual dimension, however, cannot be forgotten or even devalued" (Freire, 92)

It was through social discussions with my parents, teachers, and other students, as well as Clinton's portrayal in the media, that shaped my view on him and on the values I wanted to hold myself accountable to.

"To teach is not to transfer knowledge but to create the possibilities for the production or construction of knowledge". ~ Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of Freedom

After acquiring knowledge about the Columbine School Shooting on TV, the radio and from my parents, We had a discussion at my school about why the student shooters did such a thing, and how this kind of situation can be prevented in the future.

I began to think about what kind of person I wanted to be towards these shooters. Did I want to be vengeful and angry, or did I want to love them and try to understand why they did such a terrible thing, that it stems from being confused about their own identity? I decided from them then on to reach out to students who look sad, instead of making fun of them.

Thus, I was able to construct my own knowledge through having my teachers open up this topic for discussion, instead of just telling my classmates and I what happened, and what we should learn.

9/11 Attacks:
I remember...sitting in class in shock as my teacher told me that the twin towers had been hit by terrorist planes. I rushed home and watched the news on TV with my family non-stop, listening to reporters anxiously talking about what was currently happening, and hearing about it on the radio.

My views on the 9/11 attacks were definitely influenced by the media. Watching the scene of the Twin Towers crumbling over and over again made me realize how weak America could be, and that we could be attacked by outside forces at any time. I remember thinking about all of my fellow Americans who died that day, and felt a sense of sympathy and unity with other Americans.

However, learning knowledge from the media does not make one a responsible American citizen. One cannot consume information to be a citizen; citizenship needs to be constructed. Freire notes, "citizenship is not obtained by chance: It is a construction that, never finished, demands we fight for it. It demands commitment, political clarity, coherence, decision. For this reason a democratic education cannot be realized apart from an education of and for citizenship (Pedagogy of Freedom, 90)"

I was fortunate enough that my teacher allowed to discuss and construct our own understanding of what it means to be an American citizen. In the midst of 9/11, I was able to process everything not just by consuming the media coverage of the event, but by talking to my parents and teachers about it, and trying to figure out as a fellow citizen what I could do to support those who this tragic event had directly affected.

I frequently remember my father listening to NPR, "All Things Considered" in the car, and now as an adult, I listen to it while driving as well.

When I was younger, I did not realize that the media usually has an agenda in the way it frames certain people or events that happen. However, listening to NPR helps me understand what is going on around the world in terms of current events, and is part of my identity as an American citizen. Since many Americans listen to NPR, it is a part of the cultural memory of our country

"Critical study correlates with teaching that is equally critical, which necessarily demands a critical way of comprehending and of realizing the reading of the word and that of the world, the reading of text and of context" (Freire, 22).

I remember one of my English classes where we compared what the news was saying about the amount of soldiers dying to the actual toll of soldiers dying in Iraq. Our teacher would have us compare articles about the war in Iraq with the toll number, which he would erase, and right again everyday, as the numbers of those dead increased. This exercise in being critical of what is portrayed about the war from the media clearly showed me that the media was not telling the truth, and that there was definitely more going on, in terms of fighting and casualties, than the media, the government, or President Bush, wanted to to uncover, This was one of the first timesI realized that someone was in control of the media, and that it shouldn't be taken at face value.

"Learning is a process where knowledge is presented to us, then shaped through understanding, discussion and reflection" (Freire, 90).

As a family and in my classes I discussed and reflected on what was happening in Katrina, and how the media was portraying the events happening there, and how the portrayal differed when covering different races and classes of people.

Being older when Hurricane Katrina happened, I was able to see more clearly the way the media was portraying certain races and classes of people, and therefore I was able to construct my own knowledge instead of taking it all in at face value.

I remember the election of Obama being a very exciting time for many Americans, as he is the first African-American person to be President of the United States.

During the election season, I rooted for Obama because I believed it would be a great accomplishment to have an African-American president, considering America's historical treatment of African Americans. However, my knowledge of media portrayal of Obama was not very critical. I let my excitement over Obama's race rule my knowledge of the President instead of critically examining how he was being portrayed in the media, and what agendas were getting put fourth. All in all though, I believed he would make a good president.

Radio broadcasting also is a cultural memory that is held, and continued to be held by many Americans, especially in the form of "The Prairie Home Companion", a live radio variety show featuring singing, drama and humor.

I distinctly remembering listening to Prairie Home Companion with the my dad on long road trips, listening to the main talk show host, Garrison Keillor crack jokes and narrate a short private detective scene called "Guy Noir". Listening to this show with other Americans made me appreciate all of the radio variety shows America used to have in the past. It was my connection to a past I had never experienced.