Media Awareness Network

Vivian Lee

Part 1: About the Association

Name of Professional Association:

·         Media Awareness Network

·         I found this organization through internet searches on various K-12 subject areas

·         http://www.media-awareness.ca/english/corporate/about_us/index.cfm

Mandate/Mission statement:

·         “In executing our mission, we are guided by our underlying philosophy of educating, not advocating, and  by our fundamental goals to:

1.       Develop and deliver high-quality Canadian-based media education resources.

2.       Provide leadership in advancing media literacy and contributing to the development of public policy on issues related to the media.

3.       Build broad public support for media education.”

(http://www.media-awareness.ca/english/corporate/about_us/mission.cfm)

Current Projects:

·       Informs public about media education initiatives/research through News Releases published several

times a year.

·       Develops media literacy/education resources for teachers and parents.

·       Collaborates with Canadian Teachers’ Federation to organize and host Media Literacy Week.

Funders/Benefactors:

·         For Media Literacy Week: CTV, Canwest, Telus, Canadian Internet Registration Authority, National Film Board of Canada, and Bell.

Association’s Link to Teaching:

·         Media awareness/literacy is a prevalent and rising topic in education.  We are constantly bombarded by media influences all around us, from advertisements on bus stops to our cereal boxes.  Teaching students to be aware of media practices, purposes, and representations allows students to view media content with a more critical and evaluative eye.

·         The Media Awareness Network if an information source for keeping informed on emerging issues in media literacy education.  The Network also provides a range of educational resources such as lesson plan ideas and tool kits.

·         Media awareness/literacy can be incorporated to meet Prescribed Learning Outcomes:

Examples from Grade 4 English Language Arts Integrated Resource Package:

·         A3 listen purposefully to understand ideas and information (eg. summarizing main ideas and supporting details, generating questions, identifying opinions or viewpoints).

·         B4 view and demonstrate comprehension of visual texts (e.g. cartoons, illustrations, diagrams, posters, photographs, advertising).

·         B9 read and view to improve and extend thinking (eg.  predicting and explaining, distinguishing between fact and opinion).

(http://www.bced.gov.bc.ca/irp/pdfs/english_language_arts/2006ela_k7_4.pdf)

Other Collaborative Organizations:

·         Canadian Teachers’ Federation and National Film Board of Canada

Part 2:  Social Issue, Resource, and Education

A publication by Media Awareness Network titled `Media Education: Make it Happen’  defines media education as `the process through which individuals become media literate – able to critically understand the nature, techniques and impact of media messages and productions.’  Media literacy is a social issue as our modern world inundates young children with media messages from early childhood.  This broad social issue may further influence other social issues such as gender, cultural, and socio-economic stereotypes, to name a few and teachers should be aware of how they might incorporate or highlight different social issues that may be addressed in learning about media literacy.  For instance, the publication also notes how ‘ideological messages underpin all media: explicitly or implicitly the mainstream media convey ideological messages and notions of value power and authority.  In media literacy, what or who is absent may be more important that what or who is included.’ Given these statements, it is important that students be educated to be aware of the influential power of media content and that its messages, representations, misrepresentations, stereotypes, and omissions, are not to be absorbed unquestioned by the viewer. 

The publication also notes: `media education helps children critique media representations, teaching them to distinguish between reality and fantasy as they compare media violence and real-life violence, media heroes and real-life heroes.’  In other words, through media education, children need to understand that the media is not an absolute reflection of reality but a manipulated representation, carefully construed and structured to convey purposeful and intended messages with commercial implications. According to the Media Literacy Network, ‘research findings support the notion that media literacy needs to begin at the very early stages of learning’ and that ‘although it is a mandated curriculum area, teacher at the elementary level have very few resources available to them and very little in the way of professional development to support them.’  This suggests media literacy not only needs to incorporated into the curriculum from a primary level but that teachers also require resources and teaching support in educating on the issue.

(http://www.mediaeducationweek.ca/downloads/Media_Education.pdf)

Part 3: Pedagogical Strategy

Grade Level: 4/5

PLO’s:    

·         A3 listen purposefully to understand ideas and information.

·         B4 view and demonstrate comprehension of visual texts.

·         B9 read and view to improve and extend thinking.

Objective:

·         To raise awareness of the purpose and meaning of media by deciphering many messages contained in advertisement, identifying the purpose of the messages, recognizing different representations (eg. lifestyles, people, and values), comparing similarities and differences between different brands of the same type of product, and describing methods/tactics for conveying messages.

 Lesson:

·         Start with a pre-lesson discussion on TV commercials to get a general sense of how students view and interpret advertisements.

·         For instance: Brainstorm some favourite TV commercials as a class (eg. why students like it and their general thoughts and opinions on it), the most frequently seen commercials on TV, etc.

·         Students can from groups of 4-5 students and each group can choose a product area to focus on (eg. soft drink, alcoholic drink, car, home cleaning product, personal hygiene product, tools, etc.).

·         Each group can watch 3 different commercials for 3 product brands (eg. Coca-Cola, Silk soy milk, and Tropicana Orange Juice or Lysol, Windex, Pinesol).

·         Groups should watch each commercial several times without any information or prompting questions provided to them beforehand.

·         Groups should brainstorm their initial thoughts and reactions to the commercials.

·         Groups are provided with a list of questions and prompted to watch out for key features of the commercial.

Example:

o        What product is being sold? What are some key messages of the commercial? What are some differences in the messages of each of the three product brands? Who is the target audience? What kind of value/lifestyle is being represented? How might the representations in the commercial be different from reality? How does the commercial make you feel?

·         Equipped with the list of questions, the groups watch the commercial several more times.

·         Each group will develop an information board answering some key questions.

·         The information board will also examine similarities and differences between the 3 product brands.

·         Each group will present their observations to the class.