Topic 5: Critical Media Literacy
Critical media literacy refers to an approach to the teaching of
media oriented towards developing students’ critical literacy. Influenced by
cultural studies and its emphasis on text, language, representation, power and
social inequalities, a critical literacy approach interrogates the social
context of a text’s construction and consumption. Critical literacy draws attention to the relations of power that shape the production of texts (eg. texts mobilise and reinforce certain world views, values and interests through representations of groups, issues and events, etc.), and the social relations that influence how people read texts and therefore make meaning of the world (eg. people’s commonsense assumptions, values and beliefs influence how they read a text). Topic 5 introduces you to critical media literacy and how this approach can be employed in the media classroom. On successful completion of this topic you should be able to: describe critical media literacy and the kind of approaches it leads to in the high school classroom; read media and media texts critically; and describe examples of critical literacy learning strategies or programs. Student presentation Resources 1. This short film provides a commentary on the influence of corporate culture on our society and identities. 2. Ad reviews and analysis: http://www.ad-review.co.uk/ 3. Ad repository at Ad Access: http://library.duke.edu/digitalcollections/adaccess/ 4. Media Education Foundation: documentaries on the media. 5. ABC-TV News report about media ownership, convergence and regulation: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-12-15/review-recommends-media-shake-up/3732012 6. The Persuaders: A documentary on the power of marketing and new marketing techniques. 7. TV shows: The Gruen Transfer, Frontline (ABC), Media Watch, The Bazura Project 8. Films: The Joneses, The Truman Show, Outfoxed 9. Marketing and media information: mumbrella.com
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Activities Your prac How did your prac go? How would you describe your last prac? Take the following poll: Focus Questions 1. Define critical literacy in a few short sentences. 2. Make a list of questions you might ask your students about the media and media texts from a critical media studies perspective. 3. Do you think Misson is justified in warning teachers about interrogating popular culture texts in the classroom? What issues may arise with the analysis of youth culture? 4. What challenges do you think teachers face with the implementation of critical media literacy? 5. Have you added your program ideas to the shared WORKBOOK? Have you checked out other people's ideas? Activities for External Students 1. Complete the above focus questions.2. Visit and view the homepage of www.havidol.com. a. What are your impressions of the homepage? b. To what extent does the homepage create a sense of credibility? How is this established? c. To what extent is the homepage user-friendly, persuasive and attractive? How is this achieved? 3. View the entire website. a. What does this website and product say about society? b. Search and read about 'Havidol' on Wikipedia. 4. Now visit http://diigo.com/0mdym. Using DIIGO, I have added tags and highlights to the Havidol site. This enables teachers and learners to discuss websites in a structured and meaningful way. Feel free to add comments to those that I have made. 5. Create a list of possible critical literacy activities you could conduct with this website. Your activities could focus on such things as: text construction and consumption, symbolic and written codes, target audience, satire and parody, social norms, etc. 6. You could join DIIGO, follow Brad Gobby. Find websites that you might use in your teaching and use the highlights and notes features to direct your students' learning. Share these with your fellow students. 7. Topic 4 introduced you to the use of digital technologies. Blogs, podcasts and vlogs are examples of some online technologies and texts students can create for media studies. How might you make the creation of any of these texts into a critical literacy program of work? That is, how might you ensure students create such texts from a critical point of view? You may use Knobel’s chapter to give you ideas. Think about the kind of questions a critical approach asks in relation to context, purpose and audience. Activities for Internal Students 1. Individual workshop presentations and discussion. 2. Overview of critical analysis. 3. Visit and view the homepage of www.havidol.com. a. What are your impressions of the homepage?
b. To what extent does the homepage create a sense of credibility? How is this established? c. To what extent is the homepage user-friendly, persuasive and attractive? How is this achieved? 4. View the entire website. a. What does this website and product say about society?
b. Search and read about 'Havidol' on Wikipedia. 5. Now visit http://diigo.com/0mdym. Using DIIGO, I have added tags and highlights to the Havidol site. This enables teachers and learners to discuss websites in a structured and meaningful way. Feel free to add comments to those that I have made. 6. Create a list of possible critical literacy activities you could conduct with this website. Your activities could focus on such things as: text construction and consumption, symbolic and written codes, target audience, satire and parody, social norms, etc. 7. You could join DIIGO. Find websites that you might use in your teaching and use the highlights and notes features to direct your students' learning. Share these with your fellow students 8. Topic 4 introduced you to the use of digital technologies. Blogs, podcasts and vlogs are examples of some online technologies and texts students can create for media studies. How might you make the creation of any of these texts into a critical literacy program of work? That is, how might you ensure students create such texts from a critical point of view? You may use Knobel’s chapter to give you ideas. Think about the kind of questions a critical approach asks in relation to context, purpose and audience. WACE Course of Study Please download and read the upper school Western Australian Certificate of Education (WACE) Media Production and Analysis (MPA) syllabus. This document can be downloaded from the School Curriculum and Standards Authority from HERE. Knowledge of the syllabus will be helpful for next week's presentation by Annette McCubbin (a Media teacher, Head of Arts Learning Area at North Lake Senior Campus, and Chief Examiner of Stage 2 MPA units for SCSA). Readings Feedback Create your free online surveys with SurveyMonkey, the world's leading questionnaire tool.
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