Week 2 - Blog Posting #3 - Media Literacy

The average American spends more than 4 hours per day watching TV, 2 and half hours online, is exposed to 300 to 3000 advertisements each day. How can we keep our head out above water when we swim in the information ocean? Teaching young and old to critically think will be a key.

New Mexico Media Literacy Project (http://www.nmmlp.org/) believes one of the most important media literacy skills is deconstruction – closely examining and “taking apart” media messages to understand how they work.

This website provides 3 layers of questions to deconstruct any media message.

Basic deconstruction questions

1. Whose message is this? Who created or paid for it? Why?

2. Who is the “target audience”? What are the clues (words, images, sounds, etc.)?

3. What “tools of persuasion” are used?

4. What part of the story is not being told?

Intermediate deconstruction questions

1. Whose message is this? Who created or paid for it? Why?

2. Who is the “target audience”? What is their age, ethnicity, class, profession, interests, etc.? What words, images or sounds suggest this?

3. What is the “text” of the message? (What we actually see and/or hear: written or spoken words, photos, drawings, logos, design, music, sounds, etc.)

4. What is the “subtext” of the message? (What do you think is the hidden or unstated meaning?)

5. What “tools of persuasion” are used?

6. What positive messages are presented? What negative messages are presented?

7. What part of the story is not being told?

Advanced deconstruction questions

1. Whose message is this? Who created or paid for it? Why?

2. Who is the “target audience”? What is their age, ethnicity, class, profession, interests, etc.? What words, images or sounds suggest this?

3. What is the “text” of the message? (What we actually see and/or hear: written or spoken words, photos, drawings, logos, design, music, sounds, etc.)

4. What is the “subtext” of the message? (What do you think is the hidden or unstated meaning?)

5. What kind of lifestyle is presented? Is it glamorized? How?

6. What values are expressed?

7. What “tools of persuasion” are used?

8. What positive messages are presented? What negative messages are presented?

9. What groups of people does this message empower? What groups does it disempower? How does this serve the media maker's interests?

10. What part of the story is not being told? How and where could you get more information about the untold stories?

This website provides projects by using both the good and "Bad Ad contest winners" advertisements to ask the above questions. They also provide sample deconstruction to help students to have a better idea of what deconstruction should be. http://www.nmmlp.org/media_literacy/deconstruction_gallery.html

CML MediaLit Kit (http://www.medialit.org/default.html)

Their self introduction explains what they do very well: Like a map for a journey, the CML MediaLit Kit™ provides a vision and directions for successfully introducing media literacy in classrooms and community groups from pre-K to college.