Notes to presenter: The Media Education: Make It Happen! presentation is part of an awareness program that includes this PowerPoint workshop, a facilitator's guide with handouts, and a companion booklet. These resources are available free to download from <www.mediaeducationweek.ca> Arrows () indicate when to click the mouse to make text or images appear on the screen.  (Next Slide)

Media are constructions Media products are created with a purpose and from a perspective using forms and techniques. Media literacy deconstructs media products, exploring factors and decisions on how they were made. Source: Ontario Media Literacy Resource Guide Media are constructions. Media products are carefully constructed. They are created with a purpose and from a particular perspective using specific forms and techniques.  Media literacy works toward deconstructing media products. It takes those products apart to show how they are made and explores the decisions and determining factors behind them. In addition, each medium has its own grammar and shapes reality in its own particular way. Different media will report the same event, but will create different impressions and messages.  (Next Slide)

Audiences negotiate meaning We all bring our own experience to media we encounter. Media literacy helps us understand how individual factors affect interpretation. Source: Ontario Media Literacy Resource Guide Audiences negotiate meaning. We all bring our own life experience, knowledge and attitudes to media we encounter. Each of us, in our own unique way, makes sense of what we see and hear.  Media literacy encourages us to understand how individual factors such as age, gender, race, and social status affect the way we interpret media.  (Next Slide)

Media have commercial implications Media industries belong to a powerful network of corporations that exert influence on content and distribution. Source: Ontario Media Literacy Resource Guide Media have commercial implications. Most media production is a business and must therefore return a profit. In addition, media industries belong to a powerful network of corporations that exert influence on content and distribution. Questions of ownership and control are central to understanding media, since relatively few people control what we watch, read and hear in the media.  (Next Slide)

Values and ideological messages underpin all media Media convey messages about values, power and authority. Source: Ontario Media Literacy Resource Guide Values and ideological messages underpin all media. Explicitly or implicitly, mainstream media convey ideological messages about values, power and authority. In media literacy, what or who is absent may be more important than what's included.  (Next Slide)

Each medium has a unique aesthetic form Each type of media has its own grammar and elements that shape reality in a unique way. Each medium has a unique aesthetic form. Each type of media has its own special grammar and technological bias and shapes reality in unique ways. Therefore, different media might report the same event but create different impressions and different messages.  (Next Slide)

Media Studies Triangle Text Audience denotation connotation commodity codes genre values intertextuality psychology textual competence gender culture social function MEANINGS A practical framework for deconstructing media products and messages is the Media Studies Triangle, a multiple perspective model developed by Eddie Dick for the Scottish Film Council.* The sides of the triangle represent three broad conceptual areas, within which we can ask questions to deconstruct a media product and its messages.The double directional arrows show the inter-dependent aspects of media.  The Text side refers to the media product we want to deconstruct.  The Audience side is whoever is watching, reading or hearing the media product.  The Production sides refers to whatever goes into the actual making of the product. (*This model is available as a handout in the workshop guide.)  (Next Slide) technology Production codes & practises finance control ownership distribution legality Source: Media Studies K-12 DRAFT © Toronto District School Board