STORYBOARD: (BRIEF) OVERVIEW OF MEDIA LITERACY

Audience: Potential class studentsGoals:1. Introduce the concept of Media Literacy2. Peak the interest of potential students

Key Concepts:• All media are constructed by someone for the purpose

of creating a specific view of reality.• Knowledge of how media is used to construct a view of

reality allows individuals to become critical media consumers and creators and act more effectively in their own best interests.

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In a recent study by the Kaiser Family Foundation , children as young a 8 years old and ranging on up to 18 are using media at a remarkable rate. The study showed that this age group in particular is using media on average more than 7 ½ hours a day and are multi-tasking with media while engage in other activities (including school) for more almost 11 hours per day.

There is little doubt that electronic media in all its forms is becoming the hub for most of our daily activities including social activities, learning, as well as for entertainment. To become literate with media is not to place a value judgment on its use or determine if it is a good or bad trend that has future implication for our culture and society, instead, media literacy is about understanding how media encodes and transmits values to us on behalf of a producer so that we as individuals can make our own determinations as to its value and meaning.

A Vision of Students Today: Use a short excerpt from this clip to set some context about how media is used by youth.

Consuming Kids: The Commercialization of Childhood, Media Education Foundation: Additional context from this. Use one short segment on media usage.

Generation M2: Media in the Lives of 8- to 18-Year-Olds, Kaiser Family Foundation. Graphic only.

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When you look at images or get information over a television or computer screen, we often see this viewing as analogous to viewing the world through a glass window that gives us a view of reality—of how the world really is. However, this analogy denies the fact that what we are actually seeing is produced for a purpose and are selected, edited and packaged to achieve a specific goal for the producer.

Len Mastermann in his book Teaching Media says that, the media are actively involved in processes of constructing or representing reality rather than simply transmitting or reflecting it. They use visual and narrative methods that intentionally exploit cognitive and emotional functions that drive our most basic perceptions and behaviors.

Lexus, December to Remember Campaign 2011: This clip allows people to ask the question, who’s values are represented here?

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The Filter Bubble: What the Internet is Hiding From You, Eli Pariser: First 20 sec. or so to set context.

Why we know less than ever about the world, Alisa Miller: Short segment on Anna Nicole Smith as top story in American media.

Napa Valley Register, 2008: For display only.

Part of the process of constructing reality for a consumer society also means that information needs to be filtered both by us and by the producers of media so that 1) we are not overwhelmed with information overload, and 2) we are not distracted by information not relevant to our concerns. However, this has led our culture to something of a chicken and egg scenario where we are not always clear if media is a reflection of our cultural values and norms, or it is media itself that is shaping and constructing those values and norms. In a large and diverse country like the United States, it has often been our mass media channels that have allowed us to feel like a homogenous society rather than any factual representation of us as American citizens in the mass media.

New Media has provided a more egalitarian means of communication in contrast to the tightly owned traditional mass media. Recently, congress and commercial interests have moved to regulate Internet media in order to control what information is accessible to consumers and to control media consumers experience as they browse the Web.

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The influence of media on a person’s perceptions of reality and on fundamental beliefs has been an area of concern and study since the rise of the first mass media, radio. Mass media is extremely effective at framing perceptions of the public. Both what is allowed and what is not allowed into the public discourse is driven by and drives media content through many channels. The rise of the Internet as a primary communication channel has shifted much of this dynamic by allowing for the dissemination of ideas and beliefs previously ignored or marginalized by traditional medias. However, even through these expanded channels, the media itself tends to reinforce and legitimize cultural perceptions that serve to benefit and enrich the purveyors of media content. No where is this more pervasive than in images and perceptions of gender and race as well as in political beliefs.

Killing Us Softly 3: Advertisings Image of Women: Short excerpt.

Tough Guise: Violence, Media and the Crisis in Masculinity: Short excerpt.

The Killing Screens: Media and the Culture of Violence: Short excerpt.

These clips will run under the narration. Some sound bites used during narration.

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Killing Us Softly 3: Advertisings Image of Women: Short segment of self-image and eating disorders.

Consuming Kids: The Commercialization of Childhood, Media Education Foundation: Short segment on obesity and other health problems.

Show clips from videos under narration.

Generation M2: Media in the Lives of 8- to 18-Year-Olds, Kaiser Family Foundation: Graphic only over narration.

While the benefits of mass media are numerous and obviously far out weigh the negative impacts, there are many problems that media literacy helps to make explicit. These negative impacts cover broad areas including social interactions, cognitive functioning, economic equity, educational outcomes, and psychological and physical well-being.

Two brief examples that are representative: 1) the kaiser report that measured media use among 8-18 year olds also shows that those with heavy media use were twice as likely to do poorly academically than those with low to moderate use. 2) the rise in media use among children and adults has been linked to numerous psychological and physical ailments including obesity and its plethora of physical dysfunctions.

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NAPCAN commercial on child modeling: This clip makes the connection between mirroring in child development and what happens (or is thought to happen) when children (and adults) are influenced through their use of media. 1) Establishment of authority and dependency, 2) mirroring of role model.

As students of media, we do not just examine the content of media messages, but we also investigate the ways that media texts are constructed by asking questions such as, Who made this? For what purpose What kind of world is represented in it? How does the producer hope I will respond to it?

The emphasis in media literacy education on the constructed nature of media also leads to a changing conception of the role of media audiences. For example, from a media literacy perspective, the purpose of the commercial media is not to sell advertised products to audiences, but rather to sell audiences to advertisers. What does it mean to “sell” the audience? It means that the values embedded in media content, from news to entertainment, all support the purchase of consumer goods as a normal and valid pursuit. Media producers work to deliver audiences to advertisers who are predisposed to buy their products.

In the end, all media texts, including the best journalism available, prime audiences to accept a particular view of the world. For this reason, we must seek to look critically (and skeptically) at all media messages by teaching and learning about media rather than teaching and learning with media alone. Even as we learn, we should also ask in whose interest is a critique of any media, including educational media. Schools position themselves as authoritative purveyors of information, and teachers are licensed to transmit knowledge, but even this long standing dynamic is in question with media learning that is independent or time or geography.

Masternann in his Teaching the Media book asks: “How and why has this information been selected?. . .Against what and whom is this knowledge directed?” At the heart of media literacy is the notion of critical thinking asking questions, making things that seem obvious problematic. It is trans-disciplinary, enriching our understanding of any subject matter as we keep asking those questions about how we learn things. Whether you’re looking at a textbook or a YouTube video, you still need to ask those basic questions. You have to go on a little bit further. Media literacy doesn’t just ask, what do we know? But How do we know? Media Literacy encourages questions that lead to personal empowerment as students become aware of medias purpose, analyze its validity, reflect on its influence, and take action to make their own experience important sources of knowledge and insight.