How we made the media

USA-based James considers the media in its widest sense and its relationship to dyslexia I was first introduced to the term “dyslexia” through a forgotten television series titled “Ben Casey”. In that evening’s program the good Dr Ben Casey discovered a young man who saw letters and words backwards. Even though I was in the
seventh grade and could not read write or spell I said to myself, “that cannot be me, because I don’t see letters or words backwards”. However, the term stuck in my head. What the television programme was actually describing was dysgraphia.

In the 1980s I was on the Board of Directors of the Public Television Station, E.T.C. Fridley Minnesota, USA. Our main objective was to provide television access to anyone in the community that wished to make a television program about the subject of their choosing. In 1986 it was awarded The Number One Public Television Station in the nation. This was an incredible opportunity for me to spread the understanding of dyslexia. It was also a call to other people with dyslexia capitalising on their higher verbal skills, creativity and imaginations. In graduate school, I was determined to write about my own experience as growing up with unidentified dyslexia. In 1992 my work was published under the title of The Runaway Learning Machine, I was now able to utilise the media of publishing in an attempt to spread the understanding and to empower those with dyslexia. Later The Runaway Learning Machine was written into a play and I was now able to spread the understanding of dyslexia using the media of theatre. In light of the fact that most people could not read, centuries ago artwork was commissioned as a medium to inform or tell a story. These stories could be of a religious nature, recording history, great military victories or how wealthy and wonderful is the king. Curiously, one of the greatest painters of all time was Leonardo da Vinci, who some scholars believe was dyslexic. Following his death, individuals began to examine his papers and had much trouble deciphering them stating, “Leonardo was such a genius he wrote in his own code”, but I believe he was dyslexic, dysgraphic or both.

The media of film and television is greatly represented by individuals with dyslexia, individuals such as George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, Anderson Cooper, Robin Williams and Whoopi Goldberg are just to name a few. So what should the person with dyslexia glean from this article? If you believe that your personal dyslexia is holding you back from being part of the media described above, you just might be mistaken.