Much of the information that the public receives about issues and events is received through media messages – in newspapers and magazines, on television and radio, and on the Internet. Analysis of media messages is a valuable component of...(insert course name), and allows students to think critically and independently about issues that affect them.
The following concepts of media education are examples of the ways in which teachers and students can examine a range of media messages relevant to ...(insert course name)
• Purpose: People use media messages to inform, entertain, and/or persuade for political, commercial, educational, artistic, moral, and/or other purposes.
• Values: Media messages communicate explicit and implicit values.
• Representation: Media messages are constructed; they are only representations of real or imaginary worlds.
• Codes, Conventions, and Characteristics:
Each medium has its own set of codes, conventions, and characteristics
that affect the way messages are transmitted and understood.
• Production: People who understand the media are better able to make purposeful media messages.
• Interpretation: Audience
members bring their knowledge, experience, and values to their
interpretation of and emotional response to media messages.
• Influence of Media on Audience: Media messages can influence people’s attitudes, behaviours, and values.
• Influence of Audience on Media: People can influence media institutions and the messages they produce and transmit.
• Control:
People who control a society’s dominant institutions have
disproportionate influence on the construction and distribution of
media messages and the values they contain.
• Scope: Media technologies influence and are influenced by the political, economic, social, and intellectual dimensions of societies.
