Deconstructing Media Media Literacy

The Power of the Media The media’s the most powerful entity on earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent, and that’s power. Because they control the minds of the masses. - Malcom X The Effects of Advertising: (3:30mins) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOeuHJhj-gc

What’s Media? Medium = mediator of communication; a channel; e.g., a cell phone transmitting a message from the sender to the receiver, then reversed with the response Media = multiple ‘channels’ of communication: T.V., internet, radio, etc. Mass Media = media sending messages directed to diverse and very large receiver audiences; the receiver is not in the same place as all the other receivers of the same message, or receiving the same message at the same time (e.g., movie audiences, magazine readers)

What’s MEDIA LITERACY? The ability to access, analyze and create media in a variety of forms. The ability to interpret the symbols, techniques and meanings of the multitude of messages sent out daily through T.V., radio, billboards, internet, etc. (particularly in advertising).

Essential Question How do media images influence your life? How is that influence positively or negatively reflected in your culture?

What are some examples you remember seeing where the media had an enormous effect on the Canadian public?

The Media Triangle

5 Key Questions… Plus 1! Who created this message? What techniques are used to get my attention? What lifestyles, values, viewpoints are represented or omitted? How might different people understand this message differently from me? Why was this message sent? EXTRA: What, of significance, was left out? (misleading?)

1. Who created this message? Who sponsored it? (hint: it’s a company!) Why?

Cosmopolitan Magazine Owner: The Hearst Media Corporation

2. What techniques are used to attract my attention? And to persuade, inform, entertain me.

http://fashaddix.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/jessica_alba_cosmopolitan_magazine.jpg http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_p3feBYwNs2I/SG0xjUCM7uI/AAAAAAAAHW4/G3InRj_2CFc/s400/scarlett-cosmo.jpg

What values, lifestyles and points of view are represented in this message? (“worldview”) Which/ whose are left out?

Peyton: Hillary Burton -- Date of birth: 1 July 1982 (24 yrs.) Nathan: James Lafferty -- Date of birth: July 25, 1985 (21 yrs.) Lucas: Chad Michael Murray -- Date of birth: August 24, 1981 (25 yrs.) http://www.onetreehillonline.com/

4. How might some people understand this message differently from me? Also, who is the targeted audience? How is the message tailored to them?

5. Why was the message sent? Who paid for it? Who profits?

CRITICAL THINKING Q. Q. What determines the cost of an ad? The demand for the medium by the consumer.

The percentage of revenue comes from advertising and marketing:

Seventeen magazine reaches over 14.5 million 12+ year olds Seventeen magazine reaches over 1.9 million 17-18 yr olds *Advertorial Monthly 1/3 column in Seventeen magazine can be used to promote your message. 3) This is an ad from Seventeen.com trying to attract prospective advertisers. What would interest a company to advertise in Seventeen? What audience do you think they would they be most interested in? Did you read Seventeen? How old were you when you began being interested in it? http://www.seventeen.com/about/pop/

6. What is left out of the message that might be important to know? Real consequences? Based on morality & justice?