Media Literacy: Home

1. All media messages are constructed - media is made by people who make choices, and their perspectives and values are embedded in the media they create

2. People use their own beliefs and experiences to construct their own meanings of media messages - different people interpret the same message differently 

3. Media can influence your beliefs, attitudes, values, and behaviors - understanding what the impact might be, and on whom, is the core of media literacy

1. Who made this?

2. Why was this made?

3. Who is the target audience?

4. What ideas or values are overt or implied?

5. What is left out that might be important?

6. Is this fact or opinion or something else? Is it credible? 

7. What cultural context are relevant to consider?

8. Who paid for this?

9. How do my prior experiences shape my interpretation?

10. Whose voices are represented? Who is left out?

1. Is my presentation of ideas fair?

2. What techniques will work best to convey my message?

3. Do I have permission to use this content?

4. Am I citing my sources properly?

5. Is the information in my message credible, accurate, and how will the audience know?

6. How might people feel after hearing, reading, or viewing this message?

1. Develop your own media literacy skills by accessing all kinds of media yourself, engaging in inquiry and reflection, and taking action yourself

2. Help students reflect on their use of technology and how it impacts them

3. Focus on a media document's significance rather than making a value judgment on it (do not say a piece of media is good or bad, instead, determine who is disadvantaged by it or what might people learn from it)

4. Share your own perspectives with students, but do not replace the in-class investigation process with declarations about what you believe to be true. 

5. Help students learn how to think instead of telling them what to think. 

6. Provide opportunities to examine all kinds of media, not just ones you find incredible

Here is a checklist for teachers to use to assist in the teaching of media literacy:

• Teaches students to ask their own questions about media messages rather than just responding to questions that the teacher asks.
• Teaches students to ask questions of all media (not just the things that they find suspicious or objectionable, and not just screen or digital media but also printed media like books or posters). 
• Includes media representing diverse points of view (e.g., does not reduce complex debates to only two sides and/or actively seeks alternative media sources).
• Encourages students to seek multiple sources of information and helps them learn to determine which sources are most appropriate or reliable for any given task.
• Requires students to justify opinions or interpretations with specific, document-based evidence.
• Seeks rich readings of texts, rather than asking people to arrive at a pre-determined “true” or “correct” meaning.
• Does not replace the investigative process with declarations about what a teacher or a cultural critic believes to be true.
• Teaches students to ask questions when they are making (not just analyzing) media, helping them to notice and evaluate their choices, and also to understand that their social media posts are media.
• Encourages students to see themselves as media makers by putting communication tools in their hands and inviting them to consider applicable ethics before sharing their works publicly.
• Encourages students to use multiple means of expression (image, sound, and word) and helps them determine which ones will best achieve their goal(s).
• Focuses on a media document’s significance (including who benefits and who is disadvantaged) or what people might learn from it rather than trying to determine whether a particular piece of media is “good” or “bad” or whether a student likes it.
• Helps students move through anger and cynicism to skepticism, reflection, and action.
• Encourages students to act on what they’ve learned without determining for them what actions they should take.
• Provides for assessment of media literacy skills.

1. Discuss ways in which the media influenced perceptions of a topic or event (how did people at the time know what was happening? How do we know today?) 

2. Have students compare/contrast a Hollywood version of a historical event with a historians

3. Access another countries interpretation of an event or issue

4. Gather a range of accounts for any historical events and invite students to analyze the accounts for accuracy, perspective, target audience and purpose. Have them create artwork that reflects what they've learned 

1. Have students include graphic design elements in their written work (headers, sub-headings, sidebars, or photos) and ask them to explain their choices

2. Discuss the strengths and weaknesses of different media to communicate or to reach certain audiences. Give them a chance to practice

3. Have students write two different but factually true versions of the same event

1. Replace generic exercises (story problems or graphing data) with media-related examples (calculating air time given to political incumbents and challengers; graph and analyze the gender of main characters and villains in video games)

2. Present misleading charts, graphs, or ads and encourage students to notice common techniques (x-axis doesn't start at zero, comparisons that don't identify the whole that the example is measured against)

3. Introduce a new science unit by discussing a controversial issue or article (or a pair of pro & con articles). Then frame the unit around confirming or debunking what was discussed

4. Challenge students to identify the differences between science and pseudoscience and find a mainstream media example of each

1. Play a scene from a film or game with sound but no picture and have the students guess about what's happening on screen. Discuss how background music influences viewers' expectations or moods. 

2. Invite students to do voiceovers for a comic strip or graphic novel. Students studying a second language might try it in that language. What factors do they use to determine what the voice will sound like? Are stereotypes at play? Discuss why people use stereotypes and what the effects might be

3. Have students use the Key Questions on this page to analyze paintings of historical events. Who commissioned the work, and how might that affect the depiction? What is the artist trying to say? Whose perspectives are included and whose are left out? How does the painting make them feel and what techniques evoke those feelings? How can the event be depicted differently?

4. Take a scene from a play or movie and stage it in two different ways for two different target audiences. Compare/contrast media versions that do this (i.e. The Wizard of Oz and The Wiz)