Discussion Group Assignment 1

"We really need to be bothered once and a while. How long is it since you were really bothered? About something important, about something real." —Montag, p.53 FAHRENHEIT 451

"You know the law," said Beatty. "Where's your common sense?"

—Beatty to the woman about to be burned with her books, p. 38 FAHRENHEIT 451

Media Literacy is Not... (from Wikiversity: http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Media_literacy)

Thoman and Jolls (2005) note that, because the definition of media literacy can be so vast, it is almost easier to define what is not media literacy. For instance, they state that media literacy is not media bashing, but involves critically analyzing media messages and institutions. It is not just producing media, although production skills should be included. Media literacy is not simply teaching with videos, the Internet, or other technologies, but it is teaching about the media in society. It is not just looking for stereotypes or negative representations, but exploring how these representations are normalized in society. It's not just based on one perspective, rather, it encourages multiple perspectives and various viewpoints. Finally, media literacy is not an effort to restrict media use, but to encourage mindful and critical media consumption.

Your first discussion group assignment is a fifteen-twenty minute freewrite responding to the quotes above; "being bothered" and the normalization of ideals into a cultural "common sense".

What bothers you enough to refute bits of ideology which are billed as "common sense?" by the media and subsequently society? Take the advice of the Media Literacy quote and once you have identified an ideal that is promoted through media that bothers you, look for a way through to suggest a solution. A helpful way to start is to identify something that occurs in our society that you disagree with but there seems to be a conventional consensus around as being "normal" or OK. (let's say, racial profiling, violence in video games, hostility towards undocumented workers "they take our jobs", as some examples).