Analyzing Media Messages

As you can see Media Information Literacy can take many forms. Regardless of the subject and grade level you teach, a critical pedagogy of media and information literacy education is analyzing and evaluating media messages. Developing a criteria with guiding questions to prompt student thinking is an effective method to scaffold this process for students.

The Center for Media Literacy suggests Five Core Concepts as a starting point.
  1. All Media Messages Are “Constructed”
    Whether it’s the morning newspaper, a hip-hop video, or the image of a young woman on a magazine cover: they’re all constructed.
  2. Media Messages Are Constructed Using a Creative Language with Its Own Rules
    Each new medium or technology brings a new vocabulary, for example the language of film.
  3. Different People Experience the Same Media Message Differently
    The headline “Paris Liberated” might be interpreted by an older person to mean World War II, but might also mean “Paris Hilton getting out of jail” to someone younger.
  4. Media Have Embedded Values and Points of View
    The image of President Bush with a dunce cap, sitting on a stool in the corner of the room (on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine) reveals much about the point of view of the publication.
  5. Most Media Messages Are Organized to Gain Profit and/or Power
    In 1983, fifty corporations controlled the majority of American media; by 2004 that number was four. What are the ramifications if only four companies control much of what you see, read and hear?
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    (Thoman & Jolls, 2003, p. 18)
Explore some of the evaluation resources provided below. What ideas are repeated throughout these resources? How might you adapt these resources based on the needs of your students and the subject matter you teach?
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 ​Thinking Critically About Media Messages
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A Model for Analyzing Media Messages