Media Literacy essay

Background: According to Wally Bowen, Citizens for Media Literacy “Media literacy seeks to empower citizens and to transform their passive relationship to media into an active, critical engagement— capable of challenging the traditions and structures of a privatized, commercial media culture, and finding new avenues of citizen speech and discourse.”

Method of Development: This assignment relies heavily on the skills we used for the midterm: Critical Analysis. However, this time, instead of deconstructing a visual argument (a magazine ad), you will be reversing the process and actually constructing an argument relying mostly on visual imagery. Think about and choose from all the same tools you used to support your interpretation on the midterm: design elements such as model choice, photography, text, color, composition, symbolism, setting, or how the ad conveys tone, emotion or concept through the use of copy, product names, tag lines, etc. You may definitely use a combination of imagery and words (sound, music, and action as well if you are creating a video), but be sure the majority of the argument occurs predominately as a result of visual images working in conjunction with these other elements. Think of it as packing a whole lot of symbolic meaning into one or several images. People should get your message the second they see it. Also, parody, satire, or hyperbole work wonders in getting people to take notice and think about issues. However, please keep tact as well as social etiquette and standards in mind, as you want people to get the message more than you want to gross them out or in any way offend or upset them. Strike a balance.

Assignment: Flex your media savvy and your creative skills by using pens, paper, crayons, computer software, pictures from magazines pasted together, or any other artistic tools at your disposal to produce a media literacy POSTER or VIDEO that does ONE of the following:

1) Dispels a myth existing today about or within the media

2) Uncovers and reveals a truth about the mismanagement, misuse or abuse of the media

3) Seeks to promote awareness about harmful or stereotypical messages conveyed through the various media (i.e.: magazines, radio, TV, film, music, books, etc.).

Specifics: There are so many areas where media literacy is absolutely necessary, and just by thinking back through all the Signs of Life readings you’ve read, movies you’ve watched, or VoiceThreads you’ve participated in during this course, you should be able to shed some needed awareness ON ONE SPECIFIC AREA OF THE MEDIA. Videos over FIVE minutes long will not be accepted. You may create a video that you upload to YouTube or Vimeo, or an Animoto (the tool we used at the beginning of the semester for introductions) or any other media using any web tool. No PowerPoints or Prezis allowed as those tend to work against this quick visual format (if you think you can make it work, run it by me first). Be as creative as you can be, but please do your best to stay within the parameters of the assignment (video length, etc.) in order to receive full credit and possibly earn a few extra credit points along the way.

CAUTION: While you may use elements of images you’ve found from other sources, you must use those elements only in conjunction with your own elements and ideas in order to construct an ORIGINAL ARGUMENT. Remember, while part of the content of your poster or video may not be yours originally (spoof print ads or videos where you alter an existing image or video, etc.), your concept needs to be. Be thoughtful, creative AND original!!! In order to avoid plagiarism or theft of other’s ideas, do not search the internet and find someone else’s work and then turn it in as your own in order to fulfill the assignment. See the student versions of Media Literacy Posters/Visual Arguments in the Essay 5 Module for examples of combining different elements in an ORIGINAL way and to help you see the benefit of combining text and images to create very powerful messages!!!