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Blog 2- Questions We Ask

This week in class, Dr. Steinberg guided us through an examination of television and film trailers to consider how media are constructed and the ways in which we might respond to them. What was abundantly clear at the conclusion of the lecture was that media are never simply transparent or obvious, and that we must come to the same conclusion as Jeff Share when he states that “Media are thus not neutral disseminators of information because the nature of the construction and interpretation processes entail bias and social influence.” (Share, “Media Literacy is Elementary”, p. 18) Media intends to construct a response in us and we in turn respond to media as individuals.

In Chapter Two, Share mentions several conceptual frameworks or core concepts for understanding media, including his own (see Appendix B). His framework provides the critical observer with some key questions (or prompts) that should be asked whenever they are presented with some form of media.

Share presents six prompts to consider:
1. What contexts affect the message of the media text?
2. How is the media text put together?
3. What are the different ways the media text could be understood?
4. What are the different messages, either obvious or subtle, that can be read in the media text?
5. Why was the media text created and why was it sent?
6. Who or what group is benefiting and who or what group is suffering from this media text?
(Share, “Media Literacy is Elementary”, p. 144-145)

In light of this week’s lecture, your first task is to find a film trailer that appeals to you. Secondly, select ONE of Share’s core questions and apply it to the trailer.

Clearly state which of Share’s questions you are using. Begin by describing the trailer so that we are clear about “what is happening?” in the thirty or so seconds you are examining. Then, simply answer the question in response to the trailer. Think about how the trailer is put together and what kinds of images and emotions it is trying to elicit in the audience. Media, we have seen, is never transparent.

Documentary on The Simpsons and the twentieth anniversary. How much have The Simpsonsimpacted our society?

Hi all, make sure you blog before 5pm tomorrow (Sunday)–I am really enjoying reading them. There will be NO LABS on Monday, we will start on the 18th. There will be a new syllabus calendar posted this week. Make sure you are checking your webct. shirley

Blog 1- Media Memory

Because this is the first blog of the semester, consider this a chance to stretch your proverbial legs and get used to the idea of having a publically-mediated discussion. Engage. Consider. Enjoy.

Dr. Steinberg raised a number of interesting issues in class this week, notably the impact media has on youth and the development of stereotypes. For example, her discussion of the portrayal of African-American women in hip hop and the depiction of their bodies leads us to think about how these images drive our thinking about race, sexuality, and the role of women in an industry dominated by men. In short, media helps pattern what we think.

Think back to your earliest media memory again. What was the impact of that media on you as a child? Discuss here how you think that media may have impacted you as a child or may indeed still be impacting you today.

Finally, if you’d like, feel free to include any other thoughts you may have had on the first class or any of the items we discussed this week. What struck you about any of the ideas raised in this week’s lecture?

PS. Be sure to read what your classmates have written here too. Engage the prompt but feel free to comment on other people’s commentary.

Following up on Nas’s video on FOX, comes these two clips on a America’s Next Top Model contestant born a man, now a woman,

check it out:

MyDeath Space Video

Check it out:  http://www.cbs.com/latenight/lateshow/live/index/php/963405.phtml?play=1

New song by NAS, talks about the Fox channel in “Sly Fox” and the fact that media is “misleading ya…” interesting to see and hear hip hop culture which usually has the pulse of youth and music…warning listeners to beware of the media and hype….

Media literacy comes in all forms

Remember that line from Twilight Zone: The Movie? I was reading blogs and news items on the net today and came across this video: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/02/palins-church-may-have-sh_n_123205.html

It is beyond my comprehension that this woman has been nominated to fill McCain’s shoes if he drops dead in the next 4 years. The Republicans are screaming the media is left wing, the Democrats are screaming it is right wing…but the reality is that a world power, to have this type of person represent it…wow.

This does affect Canada and the rest of the world. This woman exemplifies smoke and mirrors politics at its best. The media obsessed on her daughter’s pregnancy…this is not the obsession it should have.

The woman has a bachelor’s degree, has never traveled, and is declaring that she answers not to her family, herself, or even to her job as governor of Alaska…but to jesus. This frightens me…the turn to fundamentalism of any time is a turn back to pre-modern times.

Looking at all the signifiers of media from the Canadian venue…mostly American…reporters covering the DNC, now the non-RNC, Hurricane Gustav…wondering where Canada comes in?  As much as the Southerners affect the lives of Canadians, I am concerned that we continue to loose the maple leaf within the larger behemoth which has led much of the world into war, economic depression, and anger.

And looking up…will it come to pass that a Black man will become President of the US?  I am not convinced that the Americans are indeed openminded enough to truly consider this leap into the postmodern era, and that somehow, the senile old man the Republicans have trotted out will actually win–accompanied by the pitchy voiced, screaming, gun-toting, anti-feminist candidate from the far North.

Images, signs, sounds…all mediated for us by biased news media–a media who determins just “what we should need to know” and “how we should know it.”  The hegemonic forces of the North American (mostly US) news envelope us into an audience compliance which is seriously disturbing…Followed along by the “entertainment” images of Hannah Montana modelling just how little girls should be, and the Jonas Brothers and their faux-chastity vibes.  Do kids have any chance of making up their own minds?

What do you think?

so, great class…fun, open, informed, and participatory…very cool for a summer class.  it is amazing how much media is in our veins…our students’ veins…our consciousness and formation of our knowledges.  it is hegemonically in the dominant culture’s interest to keep us media illiterate…perhaps that is why media literacy is not on education syllabii, in core curricula, and on our radar.  how different would a critical media curriculum be?  we would not have to alter our content, merely add another lens in which to read media. Freire advocates us to teach our children and youth to read the world–that reading the word is not enough–being functionally literate is still being culturally illiterate.

and so we begin two weeks exploring the effects of media, and critically understanding the multiple meanings in a mediated society.  i am looking out the window at a large Chevron filling station in the middle of the bay…a signifier of corporate consumerism even in the water…that is a symbol i remember from my childhood, laden with red, white, and blue, the gas company remains an american icon–i am interested in your symbols, the symbols of our students…what do these symbols mean?  how do they inform our consciousness?

in the language of Mike Myer’s Linda Richmond….discuss