Hello Alamo!
The next digital, accessible resource I want to talk about is one I’ve used a few times, Kanopy.
Just as with Libby, you can download the app (even through Roku like I did) and use your library card an PIN to log in.
As I said, I’ve only used it to watch a few documentaries, but I’m pretty impressed with the variety I browsed the past 2 days.
Kanopy is a service offered through select libraries and universities, mostly dedicated to streaming educational and cultural content. It’s also well-rounded and features straight entertainment, like the movie Clueless.
In the browse tab, our library has content categorized as movies, documentaries, business, education, health, world cinema, sciences, and instructional films and lessons, among others. What really excited me, though, is the category for media and communications, surprise, surprise.
Of course I’m very passionate about the truth-telling, “muck-raking” aspect of journalism; that’s why I chose it in college. But one little sub-genre that really captured me, that I absolutely would have gone for if I trusted my abilities more at the times, was critiquing media.
I took classes with some truly amazing professors, one of which focused on how different types of media have affected societal thinking. For a very simple example, political cartoons depicting bankers with comically large and pointy noses in 1930s Germany helped create a fearsome stereotype that helped propel war.
Media history, media ethics, and media and society really had an effect on me. It helped me develop better media literacy. In my last post, I mentioned that I’m passionate about the different skills a library can teach you, and media literacy is a big one. Media can very easily manipulate you if you don’t have the ability to think through why pieces of information are being presented the way they, and that’s been a very relevant skillset for a long time, but especially now.
On top of this programming, it also offers unlimited streaming on Kanopy Kids, a curated collection of children’s shows catered to ages 2 to 8.
Kanopy happens to be a bit pricey to maintain, so many libraries impose monthly limits. Online it says each patron gets a set amount of “tickets” per month. However, it doesn’t seem like any of the content I browsed cost anything.
You can set up your Kanopy account here.
Happy free streaming, and
Salud!
No responses yet