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Goals | Activities | Discussion Starters | Glossary | Resources | CSAP | Fast Facts
Skills for Critical Thinking About TV, Radio, Print, Videos and Movies
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The student will learn how to analyze and critique advertising. |
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The student will be able to identify racial and gender issues in news and entertainment. |
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The student will observe the media's role in politics and how polls reflect and shape public opinion. |
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The students will be able to analyze film, video, television, and print for effects created through production and editing techniques. |
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The student will become aware of what the news includes, what it leaves out, and why those decisions are made. |
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The student will begin to recognize point of view and balance in reporting. |
| 1. | The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution guarantees free speech. Free speech is the "right to express any opinion in public without censorship or restraint by the government." (The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language). Have students debate whether this means the media can create and distribute "anything" they choose. |
| 2. | Have students go to the Web sites below. Ask them to
compare and contrast the point of view, sponsorship, target audience, and
reliability of each site.
· School Uniforms: Panacea or Band-Aid?: http://www.education-world.com/a_admin/admin130.shtml |
| 3. | Ask students to locate, bookmark, and share with the class Web sites that represent each of these areas: entertainment, education, job searches, advertising, shopping, news, research, finance, communication, and medical information. |
| 4. | Some say the Internet will save our democracy; some say the Internet will be democracy's demise. Have students take a stand on this debate and write a persuasive paragraph to defend their position. |
| 5. | Divide the class into two groups, and pose the question "On what date did Neil Armstrong walk on the moon?" Ask one group to find the answer in an encyclopedia, and have the others use the Internet. When the answer is found, have students stop their searching and discuss whether the Internet is the best reference tool in every situation. Ask them to list examples of times when the Internet is not the best tool. |
| 6. | Have students find and read newspaper or magazine articles about the Internet. Ask them to categorize the described Internet use into "the good, the bad, and the ugly" regarding its impact on society. |
| 7. | Ask each student to think of a medical condition or disease that affects someone they know. Have them use the Internet to get information that could help that |
DISCUSSION STARTERS
| 1. | Discuss the word "media". List types of print and electronic media. |
| 2. | Think about your daily "media diet". Which form of media is the most important in your life? How do you use computers in your daily life? |
| 3. | Who holds the media accountable? |
| 4. | Discuss distance learning (TV and online classes). List the benefits and disadvantages. Would you like to be involved in this type of learning? |
| 5. | Describe how interactive media will impact your home and classrooms in the future. |
| 6. | How many different ways are computers used in our society? |
| 7. | How do you think interactive media might affect your relationships with others in the future? (Think about both positive and negative implications). |
| 8. | Discuss the statement "all people are equal online." |
| 9. | Does everyone have equal access to the Internet? Find out the definition of "digital divide." |
| 10. | Describe how you think the Internet will affect campaigns and elections in the future. |
| 11. | There’s a lot of controversy about privacy versus security. Discuss your opinion about this issue. |
| 12. | Do you think e-commerce will change the way shoppers use the malls? |
| 13. | What role could the Internet play in easing such modern problems as traffic congestion, limited parking, time constraints, pollution...? |
| 14. | Would you like to have your own personal web page? What would it look like if you could design it just the way you wanted it? |
Media history website:
News websites:
Books & Kits:
Changing the World through Media Education by Rosen, Quesada, & Summers
Is Seeing Believing? (video, workbook, & poster)
Mass Media and Popular Culture by Barry Duncan
Media Alert! by Sue Lockwood Summers
Media Wizards by Catherine Gourley
Rich Media, Poor Democracy by Robert McChesney
(All of these resources are available from the Center for Media Literacy,
1-800-226-9494 for catalog or www.medialit.org)
Colorado Model Content Standard Specific to Media Literacy
Reading & Writing
Standard 4. Students apply thinking skills to their reading, writing,
speaking, listening, and viewing.
Standard 5. Students read to locate, select, and make use ofrelevant
information from a variety pf media, reference, and technological
sources.
Media Literacy Skills Related to CSAP Tests
Concepts:
ï fact vs. opinion
ï predict what happens next
ï what happened first, second...? (sequencing)
ï vocabulary improvement
ï comprehension of ideas
ï writing strategies
ï organizational skills
ï evaluation of photos, graphs, etc.
ï analysis and synthesis of ideas
ï reasoning
ï personalization of facts (reflection)
ï summarization skills
ï persuasive writing
ï relevance of information
ï judge reliability of source
ï fact vs. fantasy
ï develop questions for research (Big 6)
ï critical thinking
*The Federal Communication Commission (FCC), established by the Communications Act of 1934, has regulatory power over all forms of non-federal wire and wireless communication.
*In 1950, only 10% of homes in America had a television. 99% percent of homes have at least one today. (Nielson Media Research)
*The radio was first a maritime communication device for ship-to-ship and ship-to-shore messages. (J. Dominick, B.L. Sherman & G. Copeland, "Broadcasting/Cable & Beyond," 1990)
* The Sony Beta Max VCR hit the market in 1975 at a cost of over $1,000.
* The immediacy of radio news coverage killed off newspapers extra (PM) edition. A 1939 survey in Fortune Magazine indicated that 70% of the respondents relied on radio for their news and 58% thought the radio news was more accurate than newspaper news. (J. Dominick, B.L. Sherman & G. Copeland, "Broadcasting/Cable & Beyond," 1990)
* The United States has about 1,800 daily and 9,700 weekly and semiweekly newspapers. The total circulation of daily papers in the U.S. is about 60 million copies. (World Book Encyclopedia)
* More than 1,100 local commercial TV stations operate in the U.S. About three-fourths of them are affiliates of the 4 major networks. The rest operate independently or as affiliates of smaller networks. (World Book Encyclopedia)
* 33% of U.S. households currently have a personal computer. (The Internet Business Center)
* The Internet is growing between 6 to 10 percent per month. (The Internet Business Center)
* Google.com (the 2nd largest search engine) monitors 1,326,920,000 web pages.
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