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In this episode of Conscious Pathways, host Brittney Carey sits down with Ben Arthur, NFL reporter for FOX Sports and founder of the Pinnacle Code podcast, to explore the vital intersection of media literacy, culturally responsive education, and digital storytelling. As a first-generation Ghanaian American, Ben offers a unique perspective on the importance of culturally affirming education and how media literacy can empower both students and educators in today’s fast-paced digital world.
Throughout the conversation, Ben shares insights on the necessity of diverse, reliable information sources and offers practical strategies for managing media consumption in a way that supports mental health. Brittney and Ben also discuss the evolving role of digital tools like AI and augmented reality in democratizing storytelling, allowing for more diverse voices to be heard and celebrated.
The episode wraps up with a thought-provoking discussion on AI’s transformative impact on the workforce and how we can harness technology to focus on individual strengths. Listen in to discover how you can foster media literacy in your community, inspire future generations, and support a more inclusive, informed society.
Takeaways
- Representation and cultural affirmation are crucial in education to ensure all students feel seen and valued.
- Media literacy is essential in today’s world of constant information and the proliferation of fake news.
- Consuming news from diverse sources and perspectives is important to avoid confirmation bias and broaden our understanding of the world.
- Teaching media literacy should be a priority in schools and at home to empower individuals to critically analyze and evaluate information. Media consumption can have a significant impact on mental health, and it is important to establish guardrails and limit media usage for the sake of mental well-being.
- Consumers need to be aware of media bias and actively seek out credible sources of information.
- Storytelling is a powerful tool for promoting restorative justice and creating social change.
- The future of education should focus on personalized learning to accommodate different learning styles and prepare students for the changing workforce.
- Access to media tools and platforms should be equitable to ensure diverse perspectives are represented.
Be sure to check out Ben’s podcast, Pinnacle Code, where he spotlights high achievers in the Black community from all walks of life. Don’t forget to subscribe to Conscious Pathways for more conversations on the intersection of education and social justice, and follow us on social media to stay updated on future episodes!
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Transcript
[00:00:00] Brittney: Hi and welcome to Conscious Pathways, the podcast where we explore the intersection of education and social justice through transformative conversations in education. I am your host, Brittney, and as always, I am so happy that you are here joining me. As always, first things first, if you want early access to this podcast, if you want access to Ask an Expert you can me questions directly that I can ask directly to my guests.
You can join me on Patreon, I’ve linked that in the show notes below. Bye for now. For just 5 a month, you get access to all of that a monthly newsletter, monthly live streams. It’s a really great way to support the podcast.
And so all of that support helps me in that goal of getting an editor and being able to elevate.
I have big hopes and dreams of getting an editor for the podcast. So all of your support helps me in that in that dream and goal. But of course you, but of course, just listening to the podcast is just enough support. So I appreciate you being here and tuning in this week. I am joined by Ben on this week.
My guest is Ben Arthur. He is.
This week, I am joined by a special guest, Ben Arthur, who is a storyteller driven to help masses maximize their potential as This week, I am joined by Ben Arthur, a storyteller driven to help the masses maximize their potential as a proud Ghana As a proud Ghanaian American As a proud Ghanaian American, he is an NMFL
Super Bowl champion. He’s an NFL reporter for Fox Sports based in Nashville, Tennessee, and the host and founder of Pinnacle Code, a multi platform show focused on empowering first and second generation Black Americans through conversations around identity and achievement. I was so excited to talk with Ben I’ve been on Ben’s podcast, we did a little bit of a podcast swap, and so it was great to share my knowledge on his podcast, and it was really amazing to have him on with his background in media and journalism and storytelling, we talked a lot about how we can, the importance of digital media, we talked about the importance of media literacy in schools for students, how, teachers can, how teachers can prioritize digital media How teachers can prioritize digital media literacy within schools.
We also talked about how parents can also support their children at home with digital media. It’s something that has grown. Exponentially over the last few years, and we talked a lot about that. We talked about how it’s grown and how storytelling and media kind of work together. And it’s just something that’s been on my mind.
I know it’s been on, a couple of my guests mind. I know it’s been on a lot of my listeners minds as well, just concerns with digital media and how we are preparing students to engage in a world that is very media and very digital media heavy. So this is a really great conversation. So let’s hop into it.
Hi, and welcome to Conscious Pathways. Today, I am joined by Ben Arthur. Thank you so much for joining me today.
[00:03:12] Ben Arthur: Thanks for having me, Brittney. Excited to do this
[00:03:14] Brittney: Me too. I had the wonderful opportunity to be on Ben’s podcast, Pinnacle Code, a couple of weeks ago. I’ll also link that in the show notes if you’re interested in looking at that, but I’m so excited. It was so great to speak to you then, and it’s nice to connect with you again.
[00:03:29] Ben Arthur: for sure. Yeah, really looking forward to it. I mean, obviously, as we’ll get into in our conversation, we’re kind of in different fields, but I think there’s a lot of intersection in terms of like what we’re passionate about and what our missions are, our broader missions are. So really looking forward to this conversation.
[00:03:45] Brittney: Me too, me too. I think that was a big thing that I wanted to kind of shift a little bit with the podcast this year was to look outside the classroom for people who have, you know, connections in education who might not be a classroom teacher, but might still interact with students or might still have an impact on how students, you know, perceive themselves or perceive the world.
So, you know, it’s definitely a different direction, but I’m excited and kind of speaking about that different direction that we’re going in. Tell me a little bit about your, your experience in education.
[00:04:18] Ben Arthur: Yeah. So, um, for me, uh, Let’s see, grown up, went to a Montessori school and then, uh, did the whole public school thing from kindergarten on up. And then college went to a private school, a private Catholic university. So that’s kind of the, um, the broad, uh, education experience for me. I think my experience was really unique just because of the environment I was in, in terms of my schooling, like coming.
So I’m, I’m Ghanaian American. Uh, first generation of my family to grow up in the U. S. And so, um, I think that brought kind of some nuances. And I think honestly, I struggled kind of with my identity, uh, a little bit just growing up and not only because I was from like in a black immigrant family, but I also grew up in an environment where it was predominantly white and Asian in the suburbs of Seattle.
And so, um, honestly, I just felt like I grew up. Between cultures, like between like the suburb environment I grew up in and then not fully relating to my parents experience in Ghana, but then not fully relating to the typical black American experience and all that kind of maybe came together just in the way my schooling and and how I was educated and just how I was looking at the information that I was taught.
I think that all, you know, gave me a really unique perspective and it’s not something I complain about in any ways. I think it’s Um, given me my own unique power in a way and informed my perspective and, um, has fueled kind of what I do with my show, which, you know, maybe we’ll get into, um, later, but then also just how I look at the world and how I do my job and how I care myself.
So, so yeah.
[00:06:15] Brittney: Yeah, you know, we can get into it now because I know you just had, you know, a couple of weeks ago, you are shifting a little bit with your podcast Pinnacle Code. Um, and I think that, um, really resonates with what you were just talking about, how, you know, growing up and being kind of in between cultures and not really feeling like you fit into one specific area.
Um, and so how did that influence, you know, the work, one that you do kind of outside of Pinnacle Code, and also how did that influence, you know, beginning Pinnacle Code and the shift that you’re doing now?
[00:06:46] Ben Arthur: Yeah. I think we’ll, firstly with pinnacle code, the, just so your listeners are kind of aware. So the first idea or what I was doing for the first six months, really, It was focused on spotlighting high achievers in the black community, um, across diverse fields, focusing on folks outside of sports and entertainment, because that’s kind of like what we’re, what we’re fed in society.
Um, right. Like just the athletes the entertainers and the musicians and in the environment I grew up in, I didn’t really see that excellence in the black community outside of those two realms. And so that was kind of a big, um, focus for me. But what I realized was that that was just maybe a little bit too broad.
And I wanted to niche down and really speak to a specific person and and what better person to speak to is, uh, than the person you are or the person you once were or the experience you’ve had. And for me again, being second generation black American product of Ghanaian immigrants growing up in a environment where no one looked like me, where when I did interact with other black Americans, like I didn’t really relate to them.
When I would go back to Ghana with my family, I was too American for them. And then just in my environment in school, It was like, I’m black. I was like one of the few black kids, um, growing up in, in most of my, the schools, uh, that I went to when, and so, um, so yeah, that, that, that was kind of at the root of my shift to focusing on. Empowering first and second generation black Americans through conversations around identity and achievement. So, um, that’s kind of the where Pinnacle Code is at and, um, you know, where I kind of hope to expand. And, um, and yeah, that’s just that’s again, that’s really shaped. My life, and I think over time I’ve, I’ve learned to just appreciate that my authenticity is where my power is, right?
I’m not, I’m not like anyone else. Everyone, everyone has their unique gifts and strengths and weaknesses and, um, You’re your own person. You shouldn’t be or try to be any other person because your experiences, your context and everything gives you your power. And so I think as I’ve gotten older, I think really, honestly, Brittney, and it started really in college where I started to really embrace that more when I got outside of.
You know, the environment I grew up in and went to school, went away from home, went to a different state and being just in a different environment, I think I really started to just discover that authenticity because that’s where, like I said, where I think people, where your power comes from. So I think that’s where I’ve tried to lean into as I’ve gotten older.
Uh, now what, seven, eight years removed from college. And, for me, yeah, that’s kind of how that’s, you know, shaped, uh, my life, um, it being more so just as the years gone on, I’ve, I’ve, as I’ve matured, created a life for myself. I think I’ve really learned to lean on that authenticity and then And then, yeah, just really taking that focus into what I’m doing with Pinnacle Code now.
So, um, it’s kind of the story of my life and really just kind of putting it out there.
[00:10:13] Brittney: That is really beautiful. Really taking that, that experience that you had and elevating that and looking at what would you have wanted to see, right? Uh, when you were growing up, what experiences did you want to see? Which. That’s something that we’ve, that’s kind of coming to the forefront in education conversations.
You know, we talk about, you know, critical race theory. We talk about culturally affirming pedagogy, culturally affirming care. Um, and that’s really looking at the culture of the classroom and the culture of who’s, who’s like being present and who’s being seen and who isn’t being seen. Um, and so when you think back to your, especially your early, you know, Educational experiences.
Did you feel like you saw yourself represented within the classroom? Did you see like, feel like you saw yourself represented in the curriculum? And what was that experience like?
[00:10:59] Ben Arthur: Uh, no, I didn’t feel like I felt myself represented in the curriculum. Uh, that’s the short answer. Um, like I said, kind of grew up predom like environment predominantly white and Asian. And so I didn’t see, my peers didn’t look like me. My teachers didn’t look like me. I don’t think I And from the time I was like four or five years old until I was 18, I don’t think I had a single black teacher. Um, so I didn’t see it represented in the folks who were educating me. Many of them were great people, right? But they could not really relate to my experience. Um, and then in the curriculum, it was really just like Black History Month, right? Uh, and it was the same, it was the Martin Luther Kings and the Rosa Parks and, uh, that was pretty much it, and like slavery and, and, and it was just really February, right?
Every calendar year is really just February, so there was no, um, there was no constant, Um, there wasn’t, it wasn’t a part of the year long curriculum by any means. Um, so, so yeah, I think there was always maybe a disconnect and in that regard. And I think when you’re in situations like mine, I think a lot of people can relate to me in that, like, you just kind of learn to assimilate, like it’s just the environment you’re in and you just try to fit in.
That’s why I kind of say earlier how it was maybe harder for me to find my identity at first because. No one else was like you, um, in my environment. So you just kind of get in where you fit in and, and try not to be too much of a disruption and, um, and maybe not try to ask too many questions, which essentially isn’t a great thing at all.
But, um, that’s just thinking about, you know, where my mindset was when I was young, six, seven, eight, nine, 10, 11 years old. That’s kind of just where my mind was at.
[00:13:05] Brittney: Yeah. Yeah. And that’s, that’s the reality of so many students, right? We hear these stories often in time after time after time. And it’s a testament to why, you know, we’re advocating to have culturally responsive, sustaining, um, relevant pedagogy, just looking at, again, our curriculum, whose voices are we hearing?
Whose voices are we not hearing? Looking at the actual collective of our classroom, our curriculum. You know, who’s actually here? Again, who’s not here? Whose voices are being elevated? Um, and, you know, when we talk about critical race theory, that’s a big part of it, is just looking at the history that we’re actually not saying.
The history that we’re not talking about. Because the only time I ever heard about, you know, black people with when we talked about slavery or during Black History Month. That was pretty much the only time and it was always the same thing. Every year, you know, you know, George Washington Carver and his peanuts and Martin Luther King.
Um, I didn’t learn about, you know, Malcolm X until I went to college and I was
[00:14:02] Ben Arthur: that same Britney same. I did not. Yeah. I
[00:14:06] Brittney: What’s happening?
[00:14:06] Ben Arthur: him. Yep, exactly. I didn’t learn about Malcolm X. I didn’t learn about. So many figures. I didn’t learn about the Black Panthers. I didn’t learn about, I didn’t learn about like systemic racism. I didn’t learn about, um, Jim Crow. There’s so many things, um, that I didn’t learn about.
And, you know, I think as you get older, you sort of kind of realize, huh, we’re not, Really taught these things. And, uh, yeah, so I completely agree with you. I have the exact same
[00:14:41] Brittney: Yeah. Yeah, yeah, it’s all to this very western point. And it’s all through this very kind of European centric lens. I, I barely learned about Africa, barely learned about, you know, you hear about, Oh, there’s famine and there’s, you know, poverty and you hear all these different things, but it’s also like, yeah, but there’s also really beautiful things that are happening in Africa too.
Um, and it’s, you know, it’s, it’s a collective of a lot of really beautiful countries. And why are we not hearing more about this? Why are we not hearing more about the people and, and yes, the hardship, but also the beautiful things that are happening there as well. So, you know, I just feel like. It was failed us in a lot of ways.
And so when we’re looking at education right now, we’re looking at, okay, how can we change it so that it is actually telling the collective truths of our world, um, and the collective truth of the people who are part of this world? Um, and so that’s, that’s a lot of part of what we’re advocating for in education and kind of shifting gears a little bit and going to kind of your background too in journalism, you know, um, When we talk about kind of media literacy, um, you know, one, what does that kind of mean in schools, and what do you, do you think it should be prioritized in schools?
[00:15:52] Ben Arthur: It should 100 percent be prioritized in schools. Media might be the most powerful force on earth. When you think about, um, first of all, it’s a part of our planet. Our lives are our day to day lives. Like we wake up to our phones. We check social media. It’s how we connect With loved ones the various platforms There’s ai Uh the news sources out there Um, we’re inundated with more through various media sources than any other time in human history.
Um, and I don’t think we always take the time to think about, consciously think about that because it’s such, it’s just a part of our lives and who we are and how we interact and engage with the world. But I think sometimes we do need to step back and really look at it like that. And so I do think we need to prioritize media literacy in schools because especially when you look at the proliferation of like fake news and what’s real and what’s not.
Um, especially with the exponential growth of A. I. And deep fakes, it’s become more important than it’s ever been before in, in, uh, in human history. And so really making sure that that’s just as much a part of the curriculum as learning about like Native American history or, you know, Revolutionary war or whatever, because it’s how we engage with the world.
It’s how we perceive the world. Um, and so, so yeah, I’m extremely passionate about that and just being a journalist and, um, specifically in sports journalists covering the NFL. I, I see how people can get. The falsehoods, the rumor mills, the speculation that’s not true. Um, because someone shares something and then another person shares something and it’s the, it stems from.
a source that hasn’t been verified. And then all of a sudden it’s like the truth with the truth. You can’t even combat what’s been spread so much because the truth is become engulfed by what the narrative has become. And so I think it’s more important than ever that we kind of put these guard rails or have media literacy as part of a constant. Part of the curriculum from, you know, from the time our youth, our little kids up through higher, higher ed, just because kids are getting exposed to technology and the media at younger and younger ages. I mean, you see like three year olds messing around on tablets now and, and all that stuff. So I think it’s more important than ever.
[00:18:51] Brittney: I couldn’t agree more. I think the, the state of education and the state of, Just our society in general has shifted so much over the last, you know, Two decades, three decades, right? And you know, I remember when I didn’t really start learning about media literacy until I went to college Um, just because when I was in high school a lot of this stuff wasn’t super prevalent like we had social media But it wasn’t the primary space where people were getting their news, right?
You were still getting your news from the newspaper or the news channel, you know There might have been a couple of websites that you were getting news from but it wasn’t You weren’t getting your news from social media, right, when I was in high school. It was like Facebook, you know. Um, and so that was just something that was, that’s kind of exploded so much over this, this last couple of years, last couple of decades.
And so now we see that there’s young people who are, one, being exposed to social media at younger and younger rates, right? Whether that’s, you know, a big social media platform or something like Roblox, you know, those are platforms where you’re still kind of, you know, interacting with people in a social way.
It might be different, but you’re still interacting in a very social way and it becomes this kind of media esque thing. Um, and so for not really being mindful of what students and young children are interacting with, you know, they’re getting their, they’re getting information out there. And so for not actually teaching media literacy at these younger ages, you know, they’re going to learn things and they’re going to kind of get stuck in their ways with these types of stuff.
And exactly what you were mentioning before is that. You know, you might hear something on social media, but you might have heard that from a person, from a person, from a person, rather than really verifying that source and seeing, you know, is this an actual factual thing that happened, you know, and especially, you know, you also mentioned, you know, we have deep fakes, we have AI, it’s getting harder and harder and harder to tell what’s real and what’s fake.
Um, and so, you know, when we’re looking at education, yeah, this definitely should be something that we’re prioritizing and we’re, we’re looking at how it’s shifting. Um, you know, the current narrative in education, um, you know, how do you think the focus on media literacy, um, how do you think this kind of ties into these broader social justice issues?
So talking about, you know, especially how students can understand things like race, gender, equity, power dynamics. Mm hmm,
[00:21:16] Ben Arthur: I think a part of media literacy to is making sure that you’re getting your information from a variety of different sources, diverse perspectives, because I think and we see this, especially in politics. And I don’t want to get into the politics rabbit hole. But, um, if you’re only consuming news from a particular kind of source, You’re, you’re only, you’re, you’re ignoring a completely different perspective, um, and you’re getting so consumed in that world of that one side that you’re into when you’re constantly looking for confirmation bias to further, um, to, to, to further prove to yourself that this perspective is correct.
And that’s how you see. Why we see kind of a lack of people being able to come to the middle, right? Because it’s either the left or the right, like there isn’t an ability largely for people to come back to the middle. And I think that goes just with media literacy. More broadly, when you talk about issues of racism or, um, equity or socioeconomic challenges, immigration, whatever, I think it’s important that you’re getting information from a variety of verified sources.
Um, and I also think that that’s just how you grow as a person to, uh, to expand your mind. It doesn’t mean you have to agree. with everything that you’re consuming or engaging with. But I think it’s really important for us to be able to expand our way to expand our, our mind, uh, in that way to make sure we’re getting different kinds of information.
That’s not just how you’re the best informed citizen possible. It’s not how you’re just the most media literate person possible, but also I think how you can maximize. self and, uh, I think stay the most sane in a world where it feels like things are kind of getting out of control. Um, and so, uh, for me, just working in news, right?
Um,
[00:23:28] Brittney: mm,
[00:23:28] Ben Arthur: making sure I’m consuming news from all sides, right? Like I work at Fox Sports and we obviously know the Fox brand, Fox News, maybe, you know, Uh, is slanted in a particular way. But okay, what are what are the new sources on the other side? What are they saying? What is their perspective on certain issues and taking both of those in to come up with your own conclusion, like doing your own research.
Don’t just let one narrative just shape entirety of how you view the world or your perspective on certain things. Make sure you’re making a concerted effort. And I think that’s the difficult part to its media is so powerful that it’s, uh, unconscious in how we’re getting, um, how we’re being fed news, right?
But I think there is a part of it where we need to be conscious and intentional with what we’re engaging with and what we’re interacting with. Um, I think that’ll go a long way. And then, um, and then to the topic of media literacy too, like, I don’t think this is just a responsibility of like the educators and teachers in the classroom.
I think at home, like just how we tell Um, have the sit down conversation with our kids about morals or, um, how to respect people or the sex ed conversation or whatever it is, I think making sure that media literacy and making sure that You’re looking for verified sources of information that you’re you’re taking in different perspectives.
I think that should be a part of our regular routine as Americans and broadly citizens of the world. I think that’s super important.
[00:25:13] Brittney: yes, you bring up such a good point too, because we’re definitely in this very uncharted territory when it comes to media as we know it today. It’s very, very, very different than how we were consuming media, you know, several decades ago. Um, and the way that we’ve, we’ve mentioned, you know, social media has kind of exploded in the way that we consume media.
You know, before it was, you can consume media at these particular times of the day, and these particular ways that you can consume, you know, media and news, and now you have the media and news at your fingertips at any given moment, right? Um, you know, I remember, you know, a couple years ago, there was a time when I was consuming, you know, news, pretty much from the time that I woke up to like the time that I was, you know, It was going to bed.
It was just inundated with news everywhere. Um, you know, you turn on the radio, there’s news. I open my phone, there’s the news. Like, it’s just non stop access to news and my mental health was abysmal because it was, it was too much news. There was, there was too much, too much that was coming in at one point in time, but I was trying to get in so much information and trying to be aware.
Um, but it’s such a good point, especially when we’re talking about, um, it’s the same situation for them. You know, you wake up first thing in the morning, you might open up TikTok, you might open up Instagram and here’s some news for you, right? Especially depending on who you’re following and what content you’re interacting with, um, is going to be, it’s going to really dictate how your feed is looking and what people are feeding to you and what you’re consuming.
So as you know, people who are, Working with children as people who are parenting, you know, children and teenagers, it is really important that you’re engaging them in this dialogue. Um, because it, it’s uncharted territory. It’s something that’s, it’s, we haven’t seen media be this way in any way, in any part of our, our history.
And so having those conversations and being really open and honest about, you know, what media, you know, as a family, we, we value, we want to be consuming and, and, you know, being really mindful and critically thinking about, The media that we’re consuming. And like you said, not just consuming it from one specific source because you’re really only going to get a, a biased perception of that, you know, try to branch out and see other perspectives and try to kind of hear what’s going on in the general consensus and then being able to form your, you know, understanding and your opinions on things, but only after you’ve done a little bit of background digging.
[00:27:35] Ben Arthur: Exactly.
[00:27:36] Brittney: I feel like it, it annoys by. It annoys some of my friends. Most of my friends are used to me by now, but they’ll ask me like, Oh, well, how do you feel on this particular topic? And I, if I know about it, I’ll respond to it. But if I don’t know that much about it, I’m like, I honestly don’t have enough information to really have a genuine thought on it right now.
I need to do more research or I’m not sure about that. I need to do more research on it. Um, because it’s so important that we are aware of these things and we’re aware of that. Yeah. A lot of the media that we unfortunately consume today, it’s very biased. And. Uh, we have to do a lot of work on our end as a consumer to make sure that we’re getting our media from reputable sources.
I forgot, I should have looked at the statistic before we got on, but there’s an alarming statistic of how many people are getting their news from TikTok. Like TikTok is one of like the biggest news platforms now. Um, which is great in some ways because there are some really great creatives that are elevating stories that, you know, the bigger media platforms aren’t covering or can’t cover right now.
Um, you know, there’s a, a really brilliant young gentleman, um, who delivers the news in Spanish. Fantastic, right? So there’s some really great opportunities to connect with creators who are doing kind of the social good. But there’s also creators who aren’t doing that, um, who might be sharing information that’s not credible, that’s not well researched, that’s not well backed, um, and when you have really young, impressionable minds seeing these kinds of things, um, you know, it can be hard.
So, you know, we just talked about how overwhelming it is for, for parents to kind of see how much media and where their media that their students are consuming. Even educators, it’s hard for us to, to be really overwhelmed because we’re seeing all this, like, what are we supposed to do? Um, you know, how do you think, you know, adults working with children can help guide them in discerning credible sources from the bias or the
[00:29:31] Ben Arthur: it’s a phenomenal question, Brittney, and one I don’t completely have an answer to, right? Because it’s so fluid as our world continues to evolve. But, um, I just go back to, um, whatever it takes to maybe establish some guardrails. And, and I think this ties into what you were talking about with, with mental health, right?
Just feeling inundated from the time you wake up. Um, and, and like, if you have kids, like, whatever it takes to maybe establish guardrails or protections. And I know there are a lot of parents who have been lobbying, like, just from a political standpoint, just trying to affect policy, uh, with, you know, particular age, uh, or just limiting the kind of information that’s accessible to them.
Um, to kids on all these different platforms and, and, you know, going to court about this, I think all those things need to continue, but doing your best, I think, to kind of go back to your question about, like, just doing our best to make sure we’re establishing guardrails to protect mental health, because I think, I think that’s where a lot of the issues can come from, right?
Like, and, and I guess the, the fake information out there, the misinformation. All that stuff is kind of a byproduct, byproduct of the issues we’ve talked about. But I think it all, the guardrails we need in place, I think the most maybe important thing is for the sake of our kids mental health, for the sake of our Uh, mental health.
for me and my life, I mean, just working in the media, you can only imagine how many notifications I have. But, like for me, like, I don’t look at my phone, uh, like when I wake up. Like, I don’t look at my phone until You know, after I’ve gotten ready, taking the dog out, uh, in some cases worked out to like really prime myself for the day.
And then I try to only look at not like non related social media scrolling. I try to limit it to only like 30 minutes a day, uh, to the best I can. And so I know it’s, it’s kind of. What’s the word? Um, it’s difficult to be really intentional about managing media usage and media consumption and media engagement, but for the sake of our mental health, for the sake of kids mental health, um, for the sake of, you know, these parents trying to help these kids like with their mental health, I think we need to be As, as much as we can intentional, uh, with how much media we’re consuming when we’re consuming media and kind of like how we’re, we’re engaging with it.
Um, like we have to, we have to adopt more of a conscious lens towards it because. Um, unconsciously. I mean, that’s what the what the results we see in the world are now, like where it’s just kind of seems out of control. So I think we, there needs to be what I’m trying to say. There needs to be, I think, more discipline.
We need to teach our kids more discipline when it comes to media. Um, because I think that’s that ultimately is going to be what equips our kids coming up that gives them the best chance to be successful. Um, Because otherwise, you know, and we see it. I mean, there are cases all over and you’ve probably seen them to Brittney of just kids really struggling when they’re away from their phone for too long or, um, the growth of the issues with anxiety and depression and not really having real human connections or as much as they used to in generations past.
And so I do think there needs to be a massive focus on, you know, media discipline. I think that’s kind of where it stems from. And whatever way parents can do that with their unique situations with their kids, um, is what I’d advocate for.
[00:33:40] Brittney: Yeah. No, that’s, that’s such a beautiful point, because like, just talking about the, the guardrails, right? And it can feel, it could feel like you’re, I’m being overbearing. And of course, kids have addiction to their phones. They have addiction to social media, right? They, they’ve just had it for so long. And so it’s, it is going to be hard for them to, to break away from that.
Um, but it’s so important, you know, just the same as we put, you know, guidelines on, you know, alcohol and smoking, right? Because these things are detrimental to their health. They’re developing growth and growing bodies. It’s detrimental to them. So we’ve acknowledged that, yeah, maybe we shouldn’t just let them, you know, start binge drinking at 12 years old, right?
You know, we have laws that regulate that. Um, Same thing that we should be doing with social media, right? There’s, there’s, it’s not a very regulated type of thing. You know, there isn’t really a mandatory, like, minimum or, you know, maximum that you can join it. Some platforms have put on age restrictions, so you can’t join if you’re, like, under 13, I think.
Um, but that’s usually just a little checkbox, so it’s pretty easy to get around that.
[00:34:45] Ben Arthur: that. Of course.
[00:34:45] Brittney: Yeah, yeah, I’m just like, totally, I’m over 13, totally. There’s really no way to check and verify that.
[00:34:51] Ben Arthur: Yeah.
[00:34:51] Brittney: So there’s definitely flaws to how it is right now, but we know that having access to this much media unregulated is actually detrimental to students.
It’s detrimental to their social emotional development. It’s detrimental to their mental health. You know, I’m reading a book right now, The Anxious Generation, and it’s really showing us the statistics of how in the last 10 years students mental health has been rapidly declining at alarming rates. You know, they’re having higher rates of anxiety, depression, suicidal ideation in these young people and, you know, the thing that happened kind of at the same time was this expansion in social media, this expansion in access to media that children kind of have so easily right now.
So we’re seeing that it’s having a, a, a actual physical, emotional, social detriment to these students health. Then yeah, we need to start putting guardrails on it, and we need to, you know, look at, you know, what age are we giving children phones? What age are we giving them access to, you know, iPads, and what age are we giving, and like, how much access do they have to the Internet, right?
They shouldn’t just have free reign to the Internet if they’re like seven. There’s a lot of things on the Internet that should be regulated. Um, and so, And so when we’re giving them smartphones at such a young age and it’s not regulated, I know there’s some apps and some kind of safety features on some phones that you can put on there, but really look at it, really make sure that the students or the young people that you’re taking care of, what access do they have?
What do they know about the media? What should they know about media? What questions should you be asking of them? Um, there’s a lot of, a lot of dialogue that, you know, we can have with, with children outside of the classroom around this to make sure that. You know, they were helping them to kind of navigate this new area and this new kind of era of life with media But going a little bit more into so you have this background in storytelling and you know You’ve mentioned that storytelling is really important to how you kind of show up in your work How do you think storytelling in media can be a form of restorative justice?
How could it really help? How could stories help communities to start healing and kind of promote an understanding of diverse groups? Yes,
[00:37:14] Ben Arthur: right? I mean, storytelling, uh, media broadly, but storytelling. I mean, that’s how that’s how things change. That’s how policy changes. That’s how our emotions. That’s how empathy comes about compassion. Um, yeah, storytelling is, I think at the crux of that and, and for getting people to understand, like what the issues are like, like with issues like restorative justice and whatnot, like those kinds of issues and topics need to be packaged, uh, to the public in the right way to get. Massive change to happen to get people on board with. Okay. This is an issue that needs to be fixed. Everything. Everything is fueled by narratives, right? Some are more subtle than others, but it’s very key. And I just look at just in in my particular case covering sports. Specifically, specifically covering the NFL, um, or I guess just pro sports in general, you, you look at what happened, uh, like during the, the George Floyd, uh, protests, the way NBA and NFL teams were galvanized or the black lives matter movement.
Um, these folks who have the biggest platforms in the country, and I think like, just with an issue like restorative justice. Um, for instance, I think a lot of the issues involved in that. involve black and brown people, right? And, um, there is no plats. I mean, the, when you talk about the black people specifically, that are the most visible in the U S it may be in the Western world in general, it’s black athletes and black entertainers.
And so when those folks Are feeling empowered or inspired, uh, motivated by a particular mission. And we see them protest, like not want to play in games or kneel during the anthem, uh, to protest police brutality, uh, during the Colin Kaepernick years in the NFL and all the attention that galvanizes, right?
I think storytelling is, I think that’s very key to, to restorative justice, because I think that’s. Where we see the power, um, because I think when things aren’t packaged correctly, things don’t change. Um, I think you look at, um, and this is getting a little broader, but like, you look at some of the most powerful companies in the world, you look at Apple, you look at Nike, you look at Amazon, Oracle, BlackRock, um, All these companies, they have their narrative that they’ve mastered the art of storytelling and and how to get out a particular message, right?
Because that’s it’s key to everything. Um, so, so, yeah, long story. That’s a long way of answering your question, Brittney. But storytelling to me is, I mean, it’s key to get anything to change. It’s key to inspiring, to empowering, motivating. change or to motivating like us getting a certain spotlight on a particular issue.
[00:40:48] Brittney: yes, yes, yes. And I love looking at how storytelling and social justice, you know, and, you know, civic movements throughout the world. The couple of years I love seeing how they’ve worked in tandem together, you know, so during civil rights, you know, their art form that they had to do storytelling was music, right?
And so they got a lot of messaging out through the songs, through the hymns, and that’s how they communicated amongst each other because Obviously, they were former slaves. They weren’t taught to read. Um, you know, you look at, you know, the Chicano movement and how murals were a big, you know, way that they were storytelling, the way that they were telling their stories amongst each other.
Uh, the feminist movement used poetry and the Black Panther movement, they used drama. They would do performances on the streets to get people to hear their stories. Um, and so when I look at how storytelling, And how social movements and social justice have really worked hand in hand together. It’s a phenomenal experience.
And I think that during this age that we’re in right now, we’re seeing a lot of that. Digital storytelling. Lots of kind of visual storytelling. So in, you know, film, documentaries, short form, you know, even our current, like right now, short form video has been a big, massive way of storytelling that people have been utilizing.
Um, and, you know, how do you kind of see the future of storytelling evolving in this digital age that we are now?
[00:42:13] Ben Arthur: Yeah. I think with storytelling, as you said, it’s kind of, there’s been a massive shift to, to digital, um, because that’s, that’s the way the world now. Right. Um, so there, there’s been that shift. I think. I think one way we’ve really seen it expand is just just with the the creator economy and how many billions that is generating per year at this point like the number of like Creators on youtube and whatnot that there are and and people Leveraging and this kind of goes back to my previous point Um, but people leveraging storytelling, getting a particular narrative out there to funnel people to their business to buy their products or to engage, um, with their message.
Um, and so I think we’re going to continue to see that grow and evolve, whether it be through AI. Augmented reality. Um, just all the different and it’s there. There are more media forms that we can’t even really conceive of right now. I think that are going to be present over the next few years only. But, um, but yeah, it’s just kind of where we’re going.
And to go back to your previous point about how, you know, with the Black Panther movement or the feminist movement, Chicano, Chicanos, whatever, like, you know, All of that was storytelling, right? It’s just that maybe a lot of it was just through the written word or poetry. That’s still media. That’s still communication.
That’s still storytelling. It’s just that now in today’s age. All of that is translating to digital mediums, whether it’s through social media or, uh, websites, blogs, AI. Um, so I, I think we’re only going to continue to see that, um, evolve. And, um, again, I think that, I think that that really emphasizes the importance of knowing that everyone is, is going to be trying to like control their narrative or, or funnel.
People with their narrative to a particular product or course or community, whatever, that it’s important. I can’t preach this enough for us to continue to keep our eyes open just in terms of getting our information from a variety of sources. Because otherwise you can get so caught up in one particular world that you’re closing off, you know, like there are 100 doors right?
And you get so focused on one door, two doors that there are 98 other doors that you’re leaving unopened that could also shape how you engage with the world and in part fuel your personal growth and development. So I think that’s so important. Um, so. So yeah, yeah, it’s going to continue to evolve and it’s going to evolve in ways that we can’t even think of just in this particular conversation because it’s increasing at an exponential rate.
I feel like every year. So
[00:45:31] Brittney: It really is. Every year there’s just something new popping up and it’s like, is this gonna stick? Is this gonna become the new thing? Is this gonna kind of fade in the background fairly quickly? It’s hard to know, but I think, you know, as you said, it all really goes into this aspect of storytelling and when we utilize media in this way to uplift the narrative Those, you know, social justice voices, when we uplift voices that have been historically marginalized, who’ve been historically oppressed, um, systemically oppressed, when we start uplifting these voices through storytelling and through media and, you know, just visual storytelling and all these different aspects of it, you know, we really can see the, the impact it can have on students and impact it can have on how people connect with each other and, and identity and all these really beautiful things that we’ve been talking about this whole conversation.
[00:46:18] Ben Arthur: sure, for
[00:46:20] Brittney: and Yeah.
[00:46:24] Ben Arthur: to that too. Just with that growth, right? It’s more important than ever before to make sure everyone has access to the tools we have. Right. So that just one particular narrative is getting pushed again, kind of to my previous points. But as we talked about in the very beginning, Brittney, just with, uh, growing up in the American education system, it’s very much a white Westernized view of the world.
Um, but just with the democratization of. Media tools available, uh, storytelling tools available to make sure everyone has access to tell their own story or their perception of stories. And, you know, just being Again, being second generation, um, black American with my family coming from Ghana in, in West Africa.
And just knowing that, uh, I think what is it in, in 2050, the most people, uh, Africa will, like most of the world’s population will be in Africa by in, in the next 25, 30 years and making sure. The kids there, um, you know, other maybe, um, whether it’s South America, whatever, but just making sure these other diverse communities in the world, they have access to the same tools because that’s where I think the gap between. The haves and the have nots can get really crazy, right? If it’s just the haves that have access to all the tools and the media and owning all the media, right? Like, we need to make sure that everyone else kind of has access to this, those same tools. So that just to maybe not only to level the playing field, so to speak, but to make sure, um, that the perspectives in the world are, are balanced in that one particular narrative is it doesn’t dominate.
So I just wanted to add that
[00:48:24] Brittney: Yes. Yes. Thank you for adding that in because it’s so powerful and it’s so true. You know, we look at even, you know, social media, kind of how it’s kind of conglomerated, right? And how there’s like, you know, one person who owns multiple different platforms that people are using and how that can also influence the narratives that can be told, right?
Because we’re. You’re gonna see a different narrative on Twitter than you’re gonna see on TikTok, than you’re gonna see on Instagram, than you’re gonna see on Facebook, right? There’s, there’s very completely different narratives because every platform’s gonna have its own set of rules and guidelines and things that you’re allowed to say, and things that you’re not allowed to say.
Um, you know, some platforms will let you say literally anything, and that platform, that we all know what I’m talking about, but that platform has become a cesspool of hate, right? Um, and if you go kind of on the more extreme side where on TikTok, it is very, very censored. So there’s a lot of things that you can’t say and you can’t talk about.
And so it makes people have to do a little tiptoe dance around it in order to deliver, um, you know, news or media in that kind of way. Um, you know, there’s, there’s, there’s pro and cons to both, but we’re kind of seeing the, the impact of what that looks like when you kind of. Um, either just let people have free reign to say and do whatever they want, or you have a platform that’s a little bit more restrictive, but you’re right, not everyone has access to these same tools.
Um, and so that kind of creates this very, this very peculiar digital divide that people have. Um, and we saw that particularly in, you know, the, the 2020, you know, when everyone went, you know, digital, everyone had to be digital because everyone was stuck inside. But there was this digital divide of people who.
Didn’t have access to certain things, didn’t have access to internet, didn’t have access to computers. Um, you know, might have only just had a smartphone. So like, you know, it makes it really hard to do your homework when all you have is a smartphone. So things like that, it creates this very, very big divide and kind of deepens these inequities that people have.
Um, you know, back when televisions became a big thing, you know, they started giving free television stations to people because they realized this is how people are getting their news. Right? This is how people are accessing this information. So we need to give people equitable, free access to the thing.
You know, when we, when we realized that phones became an integral part of how people communicate and how people can, you know, gain access to things and information. So to get the Obama phone, people giving out free phones, like just so that people have a way to have access to these important aspects, right?
Like that is, you know, now we all get alerts on our phones when things happen. Um, And so, there is that digital divide that’s happening, and it does create really deep inequities for people who need access to really important, you know, forms of media. Um, and on that note, tell me a little bit about how you reimagine the future of education.
What does that look like to you?
[00:51:18] Ben Arthur: Reimagining the future of education. I think as the world evolves, we need to focus more on personalized education, uh, particularly in the American context because that’s what I guess what we can speak to. But um, as we know, the traditional system isn’t for everyone. Everyone learns. Different, uh, children have, everyone has different strengths and weaknesses, what they respond to, what they don’t respond to.
And just because of their context at home or, uh, their culture or whatever, um, How everyone learns and engages with information is different. And so I think we need to, as we re as we talk about re imagining education, I think we need to look to personalize it more so that everyone can feel like their most or be their most authentic self
[00:52:20] Brittney: mm,
[00:52:21] Ben Arthur: as they become educated and, uh, become adults in our society.
Like I think we, We’re at, we have enough awareness now and enough tools now to where we need to start thinking about, okay, how can we start to adapt the education system for the modern world? Like we don’t have a system that adequately preps kids for what the world is becoming. We see degrees becoming more and more useless.
We’ve seen The rise of higher education costs skyrocketing. Just the workforce is changing as we know it the jobs that are getting wiped out because of AI and adjacent technologies and in turn the jobs that are going to start to be created because of AI and adjacent technologies. We need to start thinking about that more and I think I think all of that to say, I think that really starts with the individual and focusing on the individual because everyone has their own strengths that they can add to culture to society and making sure that everyone has a chance to be their full authentic self to become that person.
who can best help, um, is, is paramount. That’s what we need to focus on when we think about re imagining education.
[00:53:53] Brittney: yes. Full blown snaps for that. Thank you so much, Ben, for joining me, for sharing all of that great information. Uh, you’ve just, you have, you dropped so many gems, so I want to appreciate you for taking the time to, to share that with me and my audience. Um, where can my audience find you?
[00:54:11] Ben Arthur: Yeah. Well, first of all, Brittney, thank you so much for having, having me. This was great. Um, in terms of my, um, NFL content, uh, my journalism content, um, at Ben, Y Arthur, B E N Y a R T H. You are so Ben Arthur with a Y in between that’s for Instagram X, uh, threads and then, uh, for pinnacle code, my, uh, independent podcast, uh, It’s pinnacle code on YouTube.
So at pinnacle code, um, and on Instagram it’s outside of like YouTube, YouTube shorts, Instagram is where I’m most active posting clips for pinnacle code. And that’s at pinnacle underscore underscore code. Um, so that’s where people can tap in and engage with me.
[00:54:57] Brittney: Yes, absolutely, and I will link all of those down into the show notes, so if you want to connect with Ben in any of those platforms, you definitely can, and absolutely should. Um, again, I want to thank you so much for joining me, for coming and talking about, you know, your educational experiences, and digital media, and media in general, I really appreciate it, and I hope you have a great rest of your day.
[00:55:20] Ben Arthur: I hope you do too, Brittney. so much.
[00:55:22] Brittney: Thank you!