This site is for all of us to keep a record of our media travels and to post comments, ideas or questions you might have. You also need to use this site to post the assignments that will come up in our discussion group.
In your daily travels through the city and online, please be aware of what you see, how it makes you feel, what it makes you think about. Make connections for yourself and the class and share them here. Illustrate connections you see, photograph ad space that you travel by all the time, jot down an interesting headline you see on the train...you are already deeply entrenched in a media driven (and often produced) world. The images and phrases that surround us not only describe reality for us, but in doing so create a reality if we respond in such a way. To me, one of the main points of this course is to stop the cycle of being only an audience member, demographic and consumer and to start having an active, engaged and creative response mechanism.
Some basic ideas regarding visual literacy, media studies and media awareness:
>>Awareness of media: look around you, pay attention, read between the lines...sensitize yourself to...yourself! and your surroundings.
>>Analysis of content: whatever has stopped you in your walk or train ride is saying something to you. What is it saying on the surface, what is the official message. What are the assumptions of this message? And on a less obvious level? Tune in to how your thinking changes after certain ad and/or image experiences. Who's point of view is this media probably from? What do you base your own assumptions on?
>>Activism: what needs to be altered in the message you are receiving for it to be more honest? What does the message imply about social hierarchies and power structures?
What invisible power structures are being revealed by these images and messages? Alternately is this a message you feel in favor of and would like to spread? Then work to spread it.
>>Advocacy: tell your story, as in, when the media speaks to you, they are assuming they know you. Do they? What are they missing in their world view? Who are they overlooking in their assessments of events and people?
>>Access: pay attention to who has access to what...and how that effects the voice the media takes. A pricey, glossy fashion magazine will have much different ads than an free newspaper...access indicates the audience that is presumed to be consuming the info.
Based on a list found in Rich Media, Poor Democracy by Jeremy Earp
Download it here
In your daily travels through the city and online, please be aware of what you see, how it makes you feel, what it makes you think about. Make connections for yourself and the class and share them here. Illustrate connections you see, photograph ad space that you travel by all the time, jot down an interesting headline you see on the train...you are already deeply entrenched in a media driven (and often produced) world. The images and phrases that surround us not only describe reality for us, but in doing so create a reality if we respond in such a way. To me, one of the main points of this course is to stop the cycle of being only an audience member, demographic and consumer and to start having an active, engaged and creative response mechanism.
Some basic ideas regarding visual literacy, media studies and media awareness:
>>Awareness of media: look around you, pay attention, read between the lines...sensitize yourself to...yourself! and your surroundings.
>>Analysis of content: whatever has stopped you in your walk or train ride is saying something to you. What is it saying on the surface, what is the official message. What are the assumptions of this message? And on a less obvious level? Tune in to how your thinking changes after certain ad and/or image experiences. Who's point of view is this media probably from? What do you base your own assumptions on?
>>Activism: what needs to be altered in the message you are receiving for it to be more honest? What does the message imply about social hierarchies and power structures?
What invisible power structures are being revealed by these images and messages? Alternately is this a message you feel in favor of and would like to spread? Then work to spread it.
>>Advocacy: tell your story, as in, when the media speaks to you, they are assuming they know you. Do they? What are they missing in their world view? Who are they overlooking in their assessments of events and people?
>>Access: pay attention to who has access to what...and how that effects the voice the media takes. A pricey, glossy fashion magazine will have much different ads than an free newspaper...access indicates the audience that is presumed to be consuming the info.
Based on a list found in Rich Media, Poor Democracy by Jeremy Earp
Download it here