Media Literacy
2006
End products for curricular units
Think about the end products you
use for a language arts or social
studies unit.
Let’s brainstorm a list of products.
Products
What do our students do
when they go home?
Home
How does that correlate to their school day?
Strategies for Media
Education
 All media messages are constructed. (made by
someone)
 Media messages are constructed using a creative
language with its own rules.
 Different people experience the same media message
differently.
 Media are primarily businesses driven by a profit
motive.
 Media have embedded values and points of view. (bias)
 Adapted from: Toman,
Elizabeth.http://www.medialiit.or/ReadingRoom/keyarticles/skillsandstrat.htm
The principles of media
literacy
Who?
Says what?
To Whom?
In what way?
With what effect?
Why?
Visual Devices
Posture
(body language: gestures,facial expression,
posture)
Point of view
(camera angle)
Position
(location of a person or object in a picture)
Prop
(a physical object used as a symbol)
Point of view
(camera angle)
What’s happening
in this picture?
How does the
camera angle
affect this image?
Inform
Entertain
Persuade
Endangered Ecosystems
Inform, Persuade or entertain?
Inform, persuade or
entertain?
?
Inform, persuade or
entertain?
Advertising
Body chopping
This is Martha
Stewart’s head but
not her body. A
model was used for
the body and the
photo was digitally
altered.
What is product
placement?
PRODUCT PLACEMENT is the process which integrates an advertiser's
product into movies and TV shows for clear, on-screen visibility. It is
part of the rapidly expanding entertainment industry reaching millions
of people daily through movies, television, and video. (Source: MMI
Product Placement)
With the advent of new technologies, which allow home TV viewers, to
zap (erase) commercials, advertisers have invented new ways of
integrating their product into the plot of programs.
Product placement is a big business. Although it is rumored that
product placement began in 1982 with Reese's Pieces in E.T., the truth
is that it had been a growing practice decades before. The film ET with
all its product placements, almost 2 dozen different brands in all,
helped bring awareness and discussion of the practice to the public.
There are many companies whose sole responsibility it is to link
products with TV and films.
Product Placement
What product do you notice?
This product was not in the
original show. It was digitally
placed for reruns.
Product placement
What product could ET phone home
about?
Let’s
brainstorm
Product placement
Celebrity Endorsements
Who is this?
Virtual ads
This is what people
see in the
ballpark
What’s the difference?
This is what people
see on TV
Emotional Advertising
Red
Red is the color of fire and blood, so
it is associated with energy, war,
danger, strength, power,
determination as well as passion,
desire, and love.
Orange
Orange combines the energy of red and
the happiness of yellow. It is associated
with joy, sunshine, and the tropics.
Orange represents enthusiasm,
fascination, happiness, creativity,
determination, attraction, success,
encouragement, and stimulation.
Yellow
Yellow is the color of sunshine. It's
associated with joy, happiness,
intellect, and energy.
Green

Green is the color of nature. It
symbolizes growth, harmony,
freshness, and fertility. Green has
strong emotional correspondence
with safety. Dark green is also
commonly associated with money.
Blue
Blue is the color of the sky and
sea. It is often associated with
depth and stability. It symbolizes
trust, loyalty, wisdom, confidence,
intelligence, faith, truth, and
heaven.
Purple

Purple combines the stability of blue
and the energy of red. Purple is
associated with royalty. It symbolizes
power, nobility, luxury, and ambition. It
conveys wealth and extravagance.
Purple is associated with wisdom,
dignity, independence, creativity,
mystery, and magic.
White
White is associated with light,
goodness, innocence, purity, and
virginity. It is considered to be the
color of perfection.
Black
Black is associated with power,
elegance, formality, death, evil,
and mystery.
Digital
Enhancement
These are changes
that the photographer
must make
graphically (on the
computer) before the
photo is used on a
magazine cover
Humor in Advertising
What is this an ad for?
This is an ad that
looks like another
form of media. It
looks like a movie
poster.
Ducks in Boone
Advertising from the 1950’s