At the expense of what

I have stumbled on an academic food fight of a sort. The National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) have authored a position statement arguing educators need to increase their focus on media education. This translates as a greater emphasis on digital media and popular culture noting that multimodality now represents the normal state of human communication. As a practical consequence, students would focus more of their time on news literacy, media production, digital citizenship, and mass communication and popular culture.

Of course, an increasing emphasis on such topics requires an adjustment in what has traditionally been taught. This adjustment has resulted in a backlash arguing secondary students already read few or no actual books and engage in very little writing.

I assume both positions have merit and that external forces such as increased STEM attention and the lack of writing in other areas of the curriculum bear some responsibility. I find it hard to ignore the dangerous reality that now openly exposes all citizens to political events argued openly in ways that ignore truth and require critical interpretation and an understanding of purposeful bias and manipulation to refute. I am a science educator by training, but see more science as inadequate given politicians promoting alternate realities that too many accept.