Defining Media Literacy Three building blocks 01 21 2015 Personal Locus goals and drives Goals determine what gets filtered in and ignored Stronger drives for info mean we put in more effort Knowledge structures Helps us understand and organize new messages They develop with direct and vicarious experiences Should become more complex over time o Wider range of experience better knowledge structures Includes knowledge of media content media industries real world and ourselves Potter s seven skills of media literacy 1 Analysis i Breaking down a message to meaningful elements to search for deeper meaning 1 Example break down a news report into who what when where why how ii 5 categories of elements well use in fictional media a exposition rising action climax falling action 1 plot line resolution 2 characters a names appearance dress role occupations social class explicit personality traits a description of places relevant to the show as a whole individual scenes in the show 3 settings 4 production a distinctive camera editing or other visual techniques hand held cameras style of music 5 themes or morals a what are the underlying moral themes 2 Evaluation i Judging the value of an element by comparing it to some standard 1 Ex compare crimes in TV shows to the way crime plays out in the real world i Comparing contrasting different elements of messages or 3 Grouping media outlets 4 Induction i Inferring patterns across a small set of elements then generalizing it to all of them 1 Ex crime dominates local news coverage so crime must be a problem 5 Deduction i Using general principals to explain particular evidence and then determine a conclusion 1 Ex putting condom ads on TV will give kids ideas 6 Synthesis i Assembling elements into existing knowledge structures or establishing new structures 1 Ex you see new info about climate change How does that compare with your views about global warming Do you change your opinion or reinforce it 7 Abstracting i Creating a brief clear and accurate summary 1 Ex explain a daytime soap s plot to a friend Growing Up in a Media Saturated World 01 21 2015 Media Ecology Media are environmental technology controls all of life o Places and spaces within social worlds o Impact individual and communal health o We move through and live in these places Medium is the Message McLuhan Media message a medium is not neutral Media work as environments Content of a medium blinds us to its character Media 1 Extends our senses radio extends our ears 2 They also amputate writing decreases memory Media Exposure and Attention Dill Young brains o Develop rapidly o Are profoundly influenced by daily experiences 1 TV viewing between the ages of 1 and 3 associated with attentional problems at 7 2 For every hour per day of TV a preschooler watches the risk of attentional problems increases by 10 If we always consume media what are we not experiencing What is the ideal media diet What would you choose Social Learning theory Bobo Doll o Wanted to test if people could learn from film o And recreate learned behaviors 1 Observational learning people learn by behavior by witnessing it even in media 2 Inhibitory effect behavior is less likely repeated if not rewarded or punished behavior 3 Disinhibitory effect behavior is more likely repeated if rewarded 4 Vicarious reinforcement people may learn what is socially acceptable and rewarded through media 5 Behavioral repertoire learned responses available to a person 6 Behavioral hierarchy likelihood that an individual chooses a McLuhan the medium is the message media become part of us Bandura media become part of our social fiber o Media retrain our brains then they retrain our culture Who are WE Community Gemeinschaff o Strong personal relationships strong families simple social Society Gesellschaft secondary relationships rather than familial or institutions community ties o Less individual loyalty to society o External source tells you what goes on in the collective and how you should behave Storytelling A fundamental element of society A way to share experience vicariously Way to control behaviors social learning o Parables teach morals o Fables teach through metaphor RELATABLE Media are storytellers Media choose stories that get attention Stories move through culture and across platform We choose media stories as material for our own stories Our stories If storytelling is innate in humans where do you get your stories from o Tv shows Movies Webisodes Blogs News Books Magazines Why these sources and stories Parasocial relationships Media become agents in our social worlds Pseudo relationships with media figures o As biological organisms we make social ties o But were not designed for mediated intimacy What are the consequences of replacing in person relationships with pseudo social interactions Remember the limits Media are neither uniform nor all powerful We balance mediated messages about values with messages received through other means and channels 01 21 2015