Media literacy through collaborative production

Media Literacy

Media literacy provides a framework to access, analyze, evaluate and create messages in a variety of forms — from print to video to the Internet. It builds an understanding of the role of media in society as well as essential skills of inquiry and self-expression necessary for citizens of a democracy.

We use the following 5 key concepts of critical media analysis to guide our approach to media education, and refer to them in the design of each TMS collaborative production.

5 key concepts of critical media analysis:

Informed by long-standing curricula in Canada, England, and Australia, U.S. educators at the 1993 Media Literacy National Leadership Conference agreed upon the following concepts that should be included in the analysis of media messages (Hobbs):

  1. media messages are constructed
  2. media messages are produced within economic, social, political, historical and aesthetic contexts
  3. the interpretative meaning-making processes involved in message reception consists of an interaction between the reader, the text and the culture
  4. media have unique 'languages,' characteristics which typify various forms, genres and symbol systems of communication
  5. media representations play a role in people's understanding of social reality

Considerations of the Media Literate Producer

We've used the concepts above to create the following list that we encourage youth to consider when producing their own messages.

  1. Media messages are constructed: Just as any media message is created by someone, YOU are creating a unique message represented by what you choose to include;

  2. Every author is unique: Who you are, where you come from, what and who you know will affect makes your 'point of view' different from someone else somewhere else;

  3. Every audience is unique: Your message will mean different things to different people in the audience because of who they are, where they come from, and what and who they know;

  4. Each medium has its own unique language: A sequence of moving images on a screen requires different skills from a person to understand than a group of written words on a piece of paper; choosing to communicate with a video, for example, will affect 1) where (in a theater, on their computer, etc.) and 2) how (watching and listening to objects, people, music, graphics or words on a screen) people can recieve your message;

  5. Media messages can change how people see the real world: Watching what you choose to show them (from your 'point of view') can change how they look at your subject when they encounter it again in the real world; what you show them about a subject also might change how they look at YOU;

other resources for understanding media literacy:

For a broader definition of media literacy, the Alliance for a Media Literate America's media literacy page does a great job of defining emerging terms, and giving an overview of the rationale behind the media literacy movement. The Media Education Lab's video "What is Media Literacy?"(requires Flash) frames the key ideas nicely as well.

See also "Five Key Questions that can Change the World", online at the Center for Media Literacy