January 25, 2011

Improving student skill in critical evaluation of media
 
Media literacy has been defined as a framework to guide the access, analysis, evaluation and creation of messages in a variety of forms, including print, video, images, and web-based media.  Media literacy entails articulating the role of media in society and developing the inquiry and communication skills necessary for functioning effectively as citizens of a democracy (Center for Media Literacy). 

The core concepts of media literacy include the following:

1. All media messages are constructed using a creative language with its own rules.
2. Different people experience the same media message differently.
3. Media have embedded values and points of view.
4. Most media messages are organized to gain profit, power, or exert influence over others.

The following activities can be assigned to help students develop media literacy skills:

Each student should select an example of a message delivered through visual media and answer each of the following questions:

• Who created this message?
• What creative techniques were used to attract attention to this message?
• What values, lifestyles and points of view are represented in (or omitted from) this message?
• Why is this message being sent?  What is the purpose of this message?

Illustrate the way a complex media message functions with discussion of a short film clip or short video.

• Present the message to one group of students with access to the visual image only.
• Present the message to a second group of students with access to the dialogue only.
• Create pairs of students (one person in each pair saw the image, one heard the dialog).  Ask each student to react to their media piece individually. 
• Have students in each pair compare their reactions to each piece and then to their reaction to the full message (audio and visual).  How does the complex media message differ from each component in isolation? 
• Share the comments of student pairs with the class in a report-out discussion.

Based on a teaching tip submitted by Taimi Olsen, Ph.D., Assistant Director, Tennessee Teaching and Learning Center, University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
http://tenntlc.utk.edu/
 
Resources

MediaLitKit.  Center for Media Literacy.
http://www.medialit.org/cml-medialit-kit

Visual Thinking.  Center for Teaching, Vanderbilt University.
http://www.vanderbilt.edu/cft/resources/teaching_resources/activities/vizthink.htm#stories

International Visual Literacy Association http://www.ivla.org/drupal2/index.php

Film Vocabulary Flashcards.  Quizlet. 2010.
http://quizlet.com/168298/film-vocabulary-flash-cards/

Potter, J. (2004). Theory of media literacy:  a cognitive approach. Thousand Oaks, CA:  Sage.
 
Davis, B.  (2009). Tools for Teaching ( 2nd  Ed.).  San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

 

Updated 04/23/13 cdw