Media Literacy

Facades is the term Robert Cottingham uses for his pictures in which signs predominate. In these works, letters and words operate on more than one level.

facade US [fəˈsɑd] UK [fəˈsɑːd] 1, the front of a building, especially one that is large or impressive 外表,外观 2. a false appearance or way of behaving that hides what someone or something is really like 虚伪,浮面,(掩饰真相的)门面

The effort and techniques Cottingham describes are not limited to commercial signs. Mass media in general promote consumption.

Why does an evening news broadcast include mostly negative stories? Why do cigarette commercials depict young people enjoying a healthy lifestyle? Why do political campaign messages show candidates next to the flag? Answering these and similar questions requires the ability to analyze, not just absorb, mass media. To be media literate, analysis must go beyond content and address issues of form and sponsorship.

Given the significance of the visual component of mass media, art can serve as a useful resource in development of media literacy skills. In particular, the art of Robert Cottingham can introduce a discussion of media literacy in these areas:

• Gender Stereotypes
• News
• Spin

Although Robert Cottingham used a Tom McAn shoe store sign to inspire Women-Girls (below left), when you see the word "women" in neon lights, what is your first thought? Exotic dancers? Pornography? These notions may come to mind because of pervasive use of gender stereotypes in mass media. Stereotypes are generalizations, often exaggerations, that characterize all members of a group with common characteristics.

Compare this work with Cottingham's original photography (below right). Just as Women-Girls, when taken out of context, does not reflect the reality of the situation, stereotypes deny the individuality of the depicted person.

Advertisements often promote gender stereotypes. What products are advertised in magazines or during television programs aimed at women? At men? Does this suggest that women make purchasing decisions about household products and men make decisions about automobiles? By using the human body as a billboard for advertisement slogans, showing only pieces of a body or subliminally suggesting sex acts, gender stereotypes also can dehumanize.

Look at the poster Jobs for Girls & Women. What does this poster say about the context in which it was created?

Compare Robert Cottingham's Barrera-Rosa's (above) with his Don't Walk (below). Barrera-Rosa's depicts an urban street scene vibrant with multicultural imagery. Don't Walk is an accurate detail of the larger scene. Does each image convey the same meaning? Cottingham has chosen different frames of reference for the same subject.

Given the constraints of the medium and program format, television news stories generally consist of brief narratives that are read to the viewer along with short video clips. In addition to a brief presentation of content, news stories influence our thinking by their omissions. Since news programs are supported by advertising revenues that depend on viewer ratings, what frame of reference is generally selected?

It is natural to believe your own eyes and ears; however, don't walk into the trap of assuming that what is presented on a televised news show is the whole story.

What is "spin"? Commonly associated with political public relations, spin can be characterized as presenting an issue in a perspective most favorable to a given point of view. It can be created by presenting information favorable to the perspective and by omiting or rebutting unfavorable information. It can also be enhanced through the use of images. Visual media use color, shape, lighting, and size to evoke emotional responses and convey latent messages by arousing an emotional response in the viewer.

Consider the Cottingham's lithograph Art (below). How does it make you feel?

Warm colors such as red, orange, and yellow tend to make us feel positive and secure. Cool colors like blue and violet make us feel calm. Gray and black make us feel sad and uncomfortable. Similarly, a bright image evokes feelings of security and happiness, while a dark image arouses fear and apprehension.

Positive feelings of progress and enlightenment can be created by diagonal lines running from bottom-left to top-right. Left to right movements are perceived as natural and harmonious. Conversely, diagonals from top-left to bottom-right induce feelings of failure and descent, and movements from right to left increase tension. Camera angle is particularly important in portrayal of people. A person filmed from low angle appears larger, more important and powerful, while a person filmed from a high angle looks small, weak, and vulnerable.

The connotative meaning of props such as flags, balloons, jelly beans, and religious icons are symbols reinforcing the latent message in an image.

Cottingham describes the circumstances that lead to the creation of Art:

In the summer of 1970, I was wandering around Los Angeles photographing movie marquees. Downtown, on a forgotten back street, I discovered the Art Theater, a small run-down movie house. Its ticket-taker was standing outside in black jeans and a T-shirt. He gave me permission to change the film in my camera inside the theater, away from the afternoon glare. I came out and took one photograph of the first three letters of the marquee. This was the basis of my 1971 painting, and my 1992 lithograph.

If you were to write a paragraph with a spin consistent with the visual messages in Art, would it mention forgotten back streets or a run-down movie house?

Propaganda can be considered an extreme form of spin. Propaganda posters, like This Is the Enemy (below), were widely used during World Wars I and II.

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Smithsonian Institute. Robert Cottingham / American Art. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://2.americanart.si.edu/exhibitions/online/cottingham/tour-noframe.html?/exhibitions/online/cottingham/more-intro.html

Source: https://www.coursera.org/learn/media/supplement/7k17H/supplemental-reading-more-to-it-media-literacy

English for Media Literacy

Welcome to English for Media Literacy,  a course created by the University of Pennsylvania, and funded by the U.S. Department of State Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, Office of English Language Programs. 

https://www.coursera.org/learn/media

This course is designed for non-native English speakers who are interested in learning more about U.S. media literacy.  In this course, you will explore different types of mass media, such as newspapers, magazines, television, and social media. This course will also give you the opportunity to develop a broader understanding of the role media plays in our lives, while building your vocabulary and giving you the language skills needed to analyze what you read and watch. 

• The first unit in this course will provide an introduction to media literacy and give you an opportunity to evaluate your own media literacy level. 
• In unit 2, you will learn how to identify facts versus opinions in the media. 
• The next unit in the course will focus on the differences between social media and traditional media, while 
• unit 4 will look at how gender and identity are covered in the media. 
• In the final unit of the course, you will demonstrate your increased media literacy by through a culminating final project on social media.  

• Week 1: Introduction to Media Literacy

Our language goals are previewing text, skimming (to get summary) and scanning (scan for particular info)

• Week 2:  Types of Media: Traditional vs. Social
• Week 3: Advertising
• Week 4: Bias in the Media

expressing opinions and connotation versus denotation.

Our content goals are recognizing bias by omission, bias by placement, and bias by spin.

• Week 5: Diversity and the Media

Week 1  Introduction to Media Literacy

acts like a singular noun.what is media? And media is everywhere. In the past, the word media was considered a plural noun.

Mass media is media that reaches a large number of people.

message saturation 

Previewing is a really great way to prepare yourself to learn something new.We'll preview a text in four steps, looking at the title, the pictures and captions, subheadings, and the first paragraph.

Literacy is the ability to read, understand, analyze, and create with a written language. Someone who has literacy is a literate person. 

A point of view is the way in which a person sees the world.It is based on the person's beliefs and life experiences.A value is something that a person or organization thinks is very important. Values guide the decisions that people make. Values guide the decisions that people make.

It is important to understand who is getting the money and power from sending the messages we receive.Having this information helps us make informed decisions about what information to believe and what opinions we have.

Freedom of the press is the right of the media to print and state their opinions without restrictions from the government.

When we skim, we're going to read only the title, first paragraph, first sentences of other paragraphs and sometimes the last paragraph.

Scanning is reading quickly to find some specific information. 

Week 2   Types of Media: Traditional vs. Social

traditional media is all of the forms of mass media. That have been around since before digital technology became popular. Traditional media includes television, radio, print such as newspapers or magazines, mail, and outdoor messages.

Social Media is the websites and applications, or apps, that allow you to create and share media messages with other people.

user(s) – n. a person or thing that uses something

a point of view is the way a person sees the world. Based on that person's beliefs and life experiences

A cause is an idea or belief that people work to support. Another name for a cause is a movement. Raising awareness means showing your support in public so that other people will learn about the cause and decide to help.A donation is money that you can give to support a cause.

Social medial can be used to support a cause through spreading awareness, collecting donations and organizing volunteers or events.

abbreviation is a shortened form of a word or phrase.

LOL: laughing out loud

SMH  shaking my head.

YOLO: you only live once  (less popular)

FOMO: fear of missing out (more popular)

USA, US for the United States of America.

social media messages have a different format compared to other types of writing. You can tag other people, groups, or ideas, and there is a limit on how much text you can write. Also, in the language of social media, it's popular to use abbreviations.

Information that spreads very quickly through social media is called viral.

Often the information is reliable, but if it isn't reliable and people act on that information there can be serious problems.

Credibility means the ability to trust that something is true.

Tagging is the use of a special link to connect a social media message to other things such as people, or groups, places, or even ideas.

hashtags. These are used to show that the message is related to a group or an idea. A post related to the English language programs at the University of Pennsylvania could include #pennelp

Week 3  Advertising   

 

Advertising is creating messages to tell people about a product or service, and to convince them to buy it. The message that is created about a product for sale is called an advertisement, or ad for short.

In advertising, to target means to aim or direct something towards a certain group of people.An audience is the group of people that are going to buy the product or service being sold.So targeting an audience means finding ways to direct advertisement to a specific group of people.

• How old is the audience? 
• Are they mostly male or female? 
• What interests or hobbies do they have?
• What do these people need? What media do they use most often?
• where their audience lives.
• the values and culture of the people

a value is something that a person or organization thinks is very important.The word culture means the beliefs and customs of a specific group of people, often from the same country.

Appeal means to be very interesting or attractive.

Slogans are meant to stick in people's minds. If people remember the slogan, they will remember the product. 

Nike's slogan is, "Just Do it.". McDonald's slogan was, "I'm lovin' it.". 

Nike's logo is called the swoosh. It looks like a check mark. McDonald's logo is often called the golden arches. It looks like a large yellow m.

advertisers use different features when creating print advertisements. Such features include color choices, certain images, a logo, and a slogan.

Sound effects are noises, other than music or voices, that are used when telling a story or making a point.

advertisements played on the radio or television are called commercials.( 电台或电视播放的）广告

A jingle 短曲 is a short song used in advertising to discuss a product or company.

advertisements are created for two reasons. First, to inform consumers about the product, and second, to try to convince them to buy it.

Because they are trying to sell something, advertisers often include exaggerations or leave out some information.  

 

Week 4 Bias in the Media  

• Being objective means being fair and based on facts instead of opinions. When we talk about media, a conflict of interest is a situation where there might be biased coverage due to business or political reasons.
• bias by omission

focus on two types, avoiding coverage of a story and presenting a one-sided story. Coverage of a story means publishing media messages about an event.

• bias by placement

Bias by placement happens when stories that are important for our daily lives don't receive important placement in media messages. It can also happen when unimportant stories get important placement in media messages. important placement means that something is at the top of a page or at the beginning of a video or radio broadcast. 

The second type of bias by placement that we're going to discuss comes from consuming news as entertainment. Another word for this is sensationalism. Sensationalism means, using news media messages to entertain people, instead of informing them about events that are important to their daily lives. we've talked about two possible sources of bias by placement, the role of editors and sensationalism.  

 In media, an echo chamber is a situation where all the media you consume has that the same point of view.   (my comment: information bubble)

 

• bias by spin.  

Spin means giving a positive or negative point of view about a subject in order to change the opinion of the audience.  

Week 5 Diversity and the Media

dominant group is the group of people that has the power and status in a society, as well as the minority groups, or the groups of people in society that have less power and opportunity.

Minority groups are often determined by a person's race, culture, or gender. For example, in many countries, women have less power or opportunities than men.

race as a group of people who have similar physical features, such as skin color, or hair color.

ethnicity as a group of people who shares similar physical features and culture. However, some people define ethnicity only in terms of culture. 

culture is the beliefs, customs, arts, language and other aspects of a particular group of people.

Your identity is who you are and how you think about yourself.Your identity is connected to your beliefs, values, race, ethnicity, culture and much more. For example you might identify as a woman or a man or Brazilian or a Muslim. The list goes on and on.

Your goal should be to recognize what is a fact and what is an opinion. With this information, you can make better decisions about how to act in the world.