Browsing by Subject "Media literacy"

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3

Commodification and consciousness
(2009-12) Wallace, Sarah Melissa; Williams, Jerome D., 1947-
The United Colors of Benetton is a high-end clothing company that has been deemed as an iconic brand because of their non-traditional print advertisements. From the late 1980s to the early 1990s, the Benetton campaign used photographic images to symbolize social (and sometimes controversial) messages pertaining to race, gender, religion, sexuality and multiculturalism. Benetton claims that their advertising campaign sought to promote diversity, worldwide. However, others believed that their true motive was to gain revenue by placing sensitive social, political cultural issues and messages into an exchange system. The varieties in opinions about Benetton’s motives are highly dependent on how consumers interpret their advertisements. This paper will not only examine the ways in which consumers encode and decode social messages in Benetton’s print advertisements, but will also attempt to understand the process of attitudinal change through a theoretical approach by using discourse analysis. Further recommendations will be given that detail the importance of how consumers can become more active in their participation of encoding and decoding messages by the use of media literacy.
Producing media knowledge : an exploration of the instructional landscape in Austin High School media production classes
(2010-05) Darland, Daniel Charles; Schatz, Thomas, 1948-; Staiger, Janet
This thesis is an exploratory study of media production classes in Austin, Texas. Through examination of Texas state standards, lesson plans, and interviews with educators, I construct a picture of the content and trajectories of media production education in Austin public high schools. The standards, teachers, production tools, and end products structure the classes toward vocational training, industrial practices, and discourses of digitality and newness. The structures avoid more traditional media study areas, such as history, criticism, and analysis. Despite some concerns about student’s vulnerability and desires to empower them, the teachers also largely avoid discourses of media literacy. This study lays a foundation for further exploration of the ways in which media production education structures students’ understanding of media, as well as for reflection on the necessity of more direct media education and media literacy intervention in young people’s highly productive and media-rich lives.
Seriously social : crafting opinion leaders to spur a two-step flow of news
(2011-05) Kaufhold, William Thomas; Lasorsa, Dominic L.
Since the 1960s, the United States has experienced steady declines in news consumption and commensurate attrition in civic engagement and political participation. Americans read newspapers at less than one fourth the rate of 60 years ago; voter turnout has fallen to the point where the U.S. ranks 23 out of 24 established democracies; signing petitions, volunteering for a civic organization like the PTA and political party affiliation are all at contemporary lows. But these indicators only tell half the story…the younger half. Because among Americans over age 50, attrition in all these areas is much milder; among those under age 30 they are much steeper. So do young adults get news? If so, how do they get news? If not, how do they find out about things? A 21-year old journalism student reported that: “I usually just hear it from friends, when I talk to friends.” The present study employed four methods: Secondary analysis of longitudinal Pew data; interviews and focus groups about news consumption and media use habits, including social media and wireless devices; a survey on social media use and its relationship to news and news knowledge; and an experiment testing a novel game as a way to convey news and civics knowledge, all involving students at three large state universities. Findings include the following: students often rank social media use, like Facebook, as their most important and most-used media; social media are negatively related with traditional news use and with news knowledge; students draw clear and important distinctions between news and information; one method of teaching (direct instruction) works well while another (a news game) works, but not as well. Of particular interest is the role of opinion leaders in the two-step flow of news, and the role of relevance and need for orientation in agenda setting. Novel contributions include a clearer definition of students’ distinction between news and important information as they define it, a framework by which to experiment with creating an interactive game using news to promote news seeking, and some provocative recommendations for future research.