Lesson helps students understand how media influence their decisions.
Popular media influence the development of self in young people. Teenagers view commercials and popular shows as models of behavior and fashion. This four-step lesson helps students learn more about how the media influence their life choices.
Step One: Students define media. Have students discuss the vehicles used by media to feed images to consumers. Possible answers: commercials on television, radio advertisements, magazines, billboards, newspapers, junk mail, computer images, television shows, movies, music videos and lyrics.
Step Two: In small groups, students are given magazines and asked to pick out the ads that appeal to them. They write responses to the questions:
- Why do you like this ad?
- Does it make you want to purchase the product?
- Is the ad fair to the people pictured in it? Are they depicted as real-looking, or are they too skinny or muscular? Are they posed in natural ways or in strange positions?
- Is this image positive, negative or neutral? Why?
Step Three: The whole class analyzes the ads of each group. What are they selling? Who is the target audience? Are the images real-looking or obviously posed?
Step Four: Making the Portfolio
For the next two days, have students gather samples of the ways media depict people in advertising. Students may focus on one type of person (gender or race) or gather a variety of samples. Students will analyze each sample and write a letter to someone in the future reflecting on the samples. Each portfolio must contain:
- A decorative cover.
- Fifteen samples: five from television or movies, five from radio or music and five from magazines.
- A response for each sample. Include the title of the sample, the date it was released and between three and seven sentences describing it. Does it depict gender or race in positive or negative ways? Is it neutral? Who might see it? Who might be influenced? What does this sample "say" about media?
- A reflection letter, which should discuss the media and the images you've collected. Letters should be one page, double-spaced. They may be addressed to anyone in the future (e.g., a future grandchild or the next president of the United States).
For more on media literacy, see Teaching Youth Media: A Critical Guide to Literacy, Video Production and Social Change ($18.95) at www.tcpress.com. (ISBN# 0-8077-4288-0)
Melissa Cameron
Casa Roble High School
Orangevale, Calif.
