"It's worth reflecting on just how deep and profound our dependence on others really is. There are many things that I claim to 'know' that I know only from mediated experience. In fact, most of what I know about the world comes from media sources--from stories people have told me or from reading and viewing."
This quote really jumped out at me, and caused me to reflect on the fact that my entire chosen profession is dependent on mediated experience. As a social studies teacher, nearly all of the content I will be teaching will be knowledge I've acquired from reading, viewing, or other secondary sources. Obviously, there are many events that are covered in history that I was not alive for and therefore could not have experience firsthand.
My PSA appeals to parents and teachers alike to educate their children and students on responsible and safe online behavior, especially in regard to social networking, and also to provide a safe and judgment-free environment for teens to turn to with any problems they may experience in their lives online. I will predominantly use emotional appeals to tug at the heartstrings of readers, which will hopefully serve as a call to action for them.
"...The whole class then had a robust discussion about advertising claims and their potentially positive or negative impact on the beauty ideal and self-esteem. They actively debated whether commercials are designed to make people feel inadequate in order for the company to profit. They talked about male and female gender stereotypes in advertising. When the teacher asked students to spend the last 10 minutes of class in an informal writing activity to reflect on key ideas, the room fell quiet as students began to write." This excerpt from the chapter caught my attention for two reasons. First, it seems that students in this age group (freshmen in high school, 14 or 15 years old) have a lot to say about issues such as self-esteem and how that can be affected by perceptions of personal appearance, grooming, and what they and others consider beautiful. In my personal opinion, this is the perfect time to use such issues to engage students, because for many it's the first time in their lives that these things have held such value for them. Second, I found myself once again reassured that if students are interested in the topic being discussed, they will be more engaged and more likely to participate in class discussions and assignments.
This commercial for AXE hair products features Eric Decker, a wide receiver for the New York Jets. Other than being a football player in the NFL, Eric Decker is probably best known for his role in the reality show Eric & Jessie: Game On, which he starred in with his wife, country singer Jessie James Decker. To many, Eric Decker is seen as just another famous athlete with a pretty face and good hair, and this ad perpetuates that belief. Decker is portrayed as someone whose unfortunate childhood hairstyles held him back from his full potential to be the "cool guy" we see in this ad today. Now, thanks to AXE hair products, he is able to live a lifestyle complete with flashing lights, upbeat music, and fancy clothing. The purpose of this ad is to show you how you too can achieve cool hair like Decker's (and even get beautiful women to want to do your hair for you) simply by using AXE products. The target audience is men, probably aimed more specifically at young men aged 15-30. Decker's actions in the commercial, such as smiling, winking at the camera, and raking his hands through his hair, are used to make him appear even more attractive and cool. The way he speaks, however, makes him seem daft and unintelligent ("Hey, that was almost a haiku!" *wink*). His use of the phrase "I was hopeless" in reference to his younger self gives the impression that good hair, and more importantly, good looks in general, are of utmost importance in a man's life, and it wasn't until he discovered AXE hair products that he was able to find happiness and contentment in his life.
This photo of Eric Decker and the accompanying caption were included in a slideshow on NewYorkJets.com titled "10 Interesting Facts About Eric Decker". Given what we've seen and discussed so far, it might surprise you to discover that Decker is in fact quite intelligent. Incase the text is too small for you to see clearly, the caption under this photo reads, "Smarter than the Rest: No one could match Eric Decker's 43 on the Wonderlic test in 2010, designed to measure intelligence and problem-solving skills." According to Wikipedia.org, "The Wonderlic Cognitive Ability Test (formerly known as the Wonderlic Personnel Test) is a popular group intelligence test used to assess the aptitude of prospective employees for learning and problem-solving in a range of occupations. It consists of 50 multiple choice questions to be answered in 12 minutes. A score of 20 is intended to indicate average intelligence, corresponding to an IQ of 100." The highest one can score on the test is a 50. Given this information, a score of 43 is extremely impressive. There is an excerpt from Chapter 3 that reads, "Stereotype alert offers a warning when people, events, or characters are presented in ways that are so typical that they seem ordinary or even banal, as when we see politicians represented in ways that make them seem phony, or blondes and athletes that are depicted as dumb." The AXE commercial lends credibility to his stereotype. However, this slide proves that stereotypes hold no merit when it comes to what a person is truly capable of.
For my PSA, I have chosen to focus on the topic of students
posting and engaging in risky or unhealthy behaviors online. My target audience
will be teachers or parents of teenagers.
In researching this topic, I have discovered a few startling
facts. According to InternetSafety101.org, In 82% of online sex crimes
against minors, the offender used the victim's social networking site to gain
information about the victim's likes and dislikes. This is especially scary
considering 95% of people age 12-17 are online, and 81% of those teens use some
form of social networking. (Pew Research Center)
Just as disturbing are the facts that 12% of teens say they have witnessed cruel
behavior "frequently" on social networking sites, and 15% of social
media-using teens say they have been the target of online meanness. (Pew
Research Center)
Teenagers
need to feel safe and confident to be able to talk to a trusted adult, be it a
parent, teacher, or some other adult figure in their lives. It’s our jobs as
teachers and parents to give them a safe place to come and voice their concerns
or fears about their lives online.
"We live now in a time where social networking software explicitly encourages people to share every quiver and shiver of their lives, where the very words "participation" and "connection" are automatically magical, it seems. As a result, when inappropriate sharing or relational aggression happens on Facebook and MySpace, its impact can reverberate across many aspects of school life."
Since I started teaching in a high school setting a few weeks ago, I've noticed this to be true with my own students. Facebook is blocked on the school server, but students have discovered that they can download apps on their devices to assist them in getting around these blockades and accessing any site they choose. The fact that they will openly share this information with a teacher just goes to show that they care more about using social media than they do about the possible repercussions they could face for breaking rules. Social networking has 100% worked its way into nearly every aspect of school life, in my experience. Many students are more concerned with taking selfies and sending them to each other on SnapChat than they are with completing their assignments. What they don't quite realize yet though is that once you put something out there, it's in cyberspace forever. One inappropriate picture or post, however private they meant for it to be, can be screen captured and forwarded to hundreds of people in an instant. We need to find ways to make students aware of the dangers of posting too much online, without making them feel that we are trying to stifle their creativity or sense of expression.
"Many parents and teachers feel like children and young people are the experts when it comes to online media. That's one reason why teachers and parents are unlikely to initiate conversations about controversial online content in part because of ignorance and in part because of confusion about how to talk about it."
In the world we live in today, it is quite possible (maybe even probable) that your children know more about social media and the world online than you do. This can be a scary fact for a parent or teacher, because society says that you gain wisdom with age. Conversations about online behavior are extremely important to have with your children, but it can be tricky to approach this topic for those who feel that their children are more well-versed in the social networking and online world than they are.
"Videos may feature Holocaust deniers, exhibitionists, or dangerous drivers. You can learn cutting and other forms of self-mutilation by watching online videos. And fight videos are popular online entertainment, which feature children, teenagers, or young adults engaging in real or staged fighting."
To me, this is horrifying. In a world where shock value is looked upon favorably, and television shows portraying people performing dangerous stunts are increasing in popularity, it's hard to distinguish where we should draw the line between controversial entertainment and just plain destructive.
After watching these ads and analyzing the accompanying deconstructions, I have to say that I agree with them for the most part. In both the CenturyLink and Alltel ads, we see mostly middle-class individuals, nicely dressed, in fancy office buildings in large cities or suburban areas with attractive homes. The folks that fall into this category and have achieved these sorts of status levels are clearly the targeted audience. In the CenturyLink ad, the message that the viewer is supposed to take away is that by using their products and services, everyone of various ethnicities from different places all around the world can easily stay connected, therefore simplifying your life. However, what is being portrayed is that as long as you live in an urban or suburban area you can use these services, but no rural areas are ever shown in this ad. And for good reason, considering CenturyLink's history of less than desirable service in such states as Kentucky and West Virginia, where a large portion of the population lives in a rural setting. It is evident to me that this company is more concerned with profitability and marketing to potential new customers than with the satisfaction of their existing customers. In the Alltel ad, the text is that if you use any other cell phone carrier except Alltel, you will be unable to afford it and have to resort to putting up renters in your home for extra income. But with Alltel, you can kick those dancing ethnic men with their loud instruments and pet chicken to the curb. The subtext portrays these dancing men (meant to represent immigrants) as lower class citizens who are not well-off like the white suburban family, so they can't afford things like cell phone plans or even their own room in an apartment. I believe this ad does contain elements of racism.
I came across this ad for Daddy's Money shoes on the Media Literacy Project website (medialiteracyproject.org). What is being shown are three happy teenage girls, who are excited about their vibrantly-colored new shoes that they clearly purchased using their father's earnings. They don't have a care in the world, and if you use "Daddy's money" to buy yourself a pair, you can be happy and fashionable too. The bright colors and animal print used as the backdrop for the ad represent youth and style. The dollar sign in place of the "S" is just another way to show the reader that they can achieve this look with a little pocket change from Dad. What the ad fails to mention is just how much of Daddy's money will be needed to purchase a pair of these shoes. This implies that daddy's little girl can have anything she wants from her father, regardless of the price, and that she isn't expected to do anything to earn these shoes for herself. This also implies that men are the ones going to work, not women, as the company doesn't mention anything about mothers purchasing these shoes for their children. The girls featured in this ad are white, thin, scantily-clad, with dark hair, flawless skin, and long tan legs. The target audience of this ad are teenage girls, and the message being sent to them is that they are entitled to the money their fathers work for, and they should spend that money on a pair of these very ugly fashionable shoes. I had a strong reaction to this ad, because I feel that it's important to empower girls and teach them that they can be or do anything in the world that they wish. They do not need to rely on anyone else for things that they want. Ads like this are harmful to girls and young women in my opinion, because it teaches them that instead of working for something, they can just rely on their looks or the fact that they are female to obtain things from males.
"With user-created encyclopedias, university-sponsored websites, bloggers, news aggregators, and other new forms of content online, there's easy access to a wide range of information, assertions, gossip, rumors, and opinions. Not only is it important to be able to identify the source of information, we must also examine the quality of information we encounter." To me, this is exactly what this course, and this M. Ed. program as a whole, is all about. As educators, we need to ensure that we are equipped with the knowledge and experience to be able to share with our students strategies that can help them be successful in questioning and critiquing the information they encounter in the digital world in which we live. They need to realize that asking questions is always encouraged, and just because you find something on the Internet or see it on TV doesn't make it true.
"We assess quality, credibility, and reliability by considering social characteristics of network environments. A person who has 5,000 Twitter followers is someone we assume is more credible than one with 12 followers. When Amazon or Netflix ratings show that a book or movie is highly rated, this is another type of social cue that serves as an aid to making decisions." I relate to this quote because this is one of the ways I make decisions as a consumer when deciding which television series to watch on Netflix or which item to purchase on Amazon. I had never before considered that is was a type of social cue. "Because the research questions were authentic and meaningful to them, students had fun with this project." This is the simplest statement, but a very powerful one. As teachers our goal is to make learning fun for our students. It is a possible goal to achieve, and all it requires is taking the time to get to know your students and find out what sort of things they care about, and then planning lessons and projects around that information to foster meaningful learning.
I believe that memes support authentic inquiry and critical media literacy because typically, a meme is actually being used to question something (such as an ideal, a fad, or a social norm). They use sarcasm and clever images to inquire about things with an interesting twist.
What I learned from reading through my peers' postings of their love/hate relationships with various forms of media is that many of us are actually pretty similar. A lot of us seem to like, and dislike, the same things regarding print, sound, visual, and digital media. For example, the majority of my peers mentioned that they like the way it feels to hold a book in your hand and physically turn the pages, as opposed to scrolling on a screen. It appears that the main thing people dislike about print media is how wasteful it can be. With visual media, I noticed that most of my peers seem to enjoy taking and viewing photographs. It is interesting to me, given all of the animated visual media available today, that people still love inanimate photos. It seems that what many of my peers dislike about visual media is when it is used in a way that is harmful to others, such as reality TV shows that feature yelling, fighting, etc., or when it is used to try to bring another person down. Most people mentioned that they love music most when it comes to sound media, but many dislike the radio, with all of its commercials, repetition, and tendency to lose signal. An overwhelming number of people voiced their admiration for the ease of use when it comes to digital media. However, they dislike that not everyone has access to the information, and that it can be unreliable.
For me personally, I think that my favorite form of media is print media. There's just something about the way words look when written or typed on paper that you don't get with other media forms. I like that you can see the way print media ages, and when you read an old book, there's an endless number of people who might have held and read the same book before you. It's fun to wonder about who those people might have been. Print media can be passed down through generations, and can hold tons of history. I also like that print media forces you to use your imagination. When you're reading a novel and don't have any accompanying images, you are free to completely recreate the scenes being described in your own head. Print media is the most cumbersome and takes up the most room of all media forms, and it was particularly interesting to me that so many of my peers are concerned with the wastefulness that comes with print media and how books are disposed of. I always make a point to donate any books that I need to get rid of.
My magazine cover features a cover story on Common Core state standards, and promises to discuss the controversial viewpoints on both sides of the issue, and also tell the reader what they can expect in education in the future as a result. To be honest, I have not yet taught in a school setting, so I am not well-versed in Common Core. What I do know about it is this -- there is always controversy involved when this topic is brought up. So I decided to delve into the issues and discuss them in detail for my cover story. As a secondary story in my magazine, there will be facts presented regarding why we view the same thing, but can see it very differently from someone else. I believe this goes hand-in-hand with the issues surrounding Common Core. For the final stories in my magazine, I chose two things that will be important to me to implement in my future classroom when I begin teaching. I want to guide my students into becoming "digitally responsible citizens", and I also want to design lessons and build my curriculum around things that they are interested in, to help foster meaningful learning.
I believe that my magazine cover has a more newsletter-y feel than a magazine. I chose to use illustrations rather than photographs. I feel that this helps bring a little humor into a magazine cover that otherwise might have felt too stale and serious. I also used glittering generalities, by using terms such as "participate responsibly" and "teaching in the 21st century", implying that these very broad topics mean virtually the same thing to everyone and can be covered in a single magazine story or issue. Finally, I used loaded language; words like "values", "controversy", "future", and "citizenship" are used to pull the reader in, play on their emotions, and make them want to read more.
