MEDIA LITERACY

Americans: 4 hours of TV per day 2 million commercials by age 65 American youth spend 900 hours in school and 1,023 hours watching TV each year

Information overload?

spend 6.5 8 hours/day interacting with media

63 percent have cellphones

55 percent belong to social networking site 59 percent create online content 57 percent watch YouTube

Around the world, youth today ...

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http://www.medialit.org/pdf/mlk/34_globallocalvideo.ppt

video games

+ magazines

+ newspapers

+ cell phones

+ web sites

+ radio

+ movies

thousands of media messages each day

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medium: a mode of sending information

And don't forget ...

Media is a plural for medium, the body by which messages and information is packaged

What media messages have you consumed today? What were the purposes of these messages?

Advertisements? Tv shows?

More media messages = more information to decipher

Where's it all coming from?

Media giants!

Since the 1990s, media companies have been merging, creating complex - and powerful -- business relationships.

Companies that originally focused on one type of media (news), merged with other types of media companies (movies).

8 giant media companies dominating the US media from which most people get their news and information:

* Disney (market value: $72.8 billion) * AOL-Time Warner (market value: $90.7 billion) * Viacom (market value: $53.9 billion) * General Electric (owner of NBC, market value: $390.6 billion) * News Corporation (market value: $56.7 billion) * Yahoo! (market value: $40.1 billion) * Microsoft (market value: $306.8 billion) * Google (market value: $154.6 billion)

http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2007/03/and_then_there_were_eight.pdf

Media giants!

Today, the majority of news and information we consume is created by one of eight companies:

Disney (market value: $72.8 billion)AOL-Time Warner ($90.7 billion)Viacom ($53.9 billion)General Electric (owner of NBC, $390.6 billion)News Corporation ($56.7 billion)Yahoo! ($40.1 billion)Microsoft ($306.8 billion)Google ($154.6 billion)

8 giant media companies dominating the US media from which most people get their news and information:

* Disney (market value: $72.8 billion) * AOL-Time Warner (market value: $90.7 billion) * Viacom (market value: $53.9 billion) * General Electric (owner of NBC, market value: $390.6 billion) * News Corporation (market value: $56.7 billion) * Yahoo! (market value: $40.1 billion) * Microsoft (market value: $306.8 billion) * Google (market value: $154.6 billion)

http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2007/03/and_then_there_were_eight.pdf

Really?

8

media companies

8 giant media companies dominating the US media from which most people get their news and information:

* Disney (market value: $72.8 billion) * AOL-Time Warner (market value: $90.7 billion) * Viacom (market value: $53.9 billion) * General Electric (owner of NBC, market value: $390.6 billion) * News Corporation (market value: $56.7 billion) * Yahoo! (market value: $40.1 billion) * Microsoft (market value: $306.8 billion) * Google (market value: $154.6 billion)

http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2007/03/and_then_there_were_eight.pdf

Really?

304,000,00+

U.S. consumers

8 giant media companies dominating the US media from which most people get their news and information:

* Disney (market value: $72.8 billion) * AOL-Time Warner (market value: $90.7 billion) * Viacom (market value: $53.9 billion) * General Electric (owner of NBC, market value: $390.6 billion) * News Corporation (market value: $56.7 billion) * Yahoo! (market value: $40.1 billion) * Microsoft (market value: $306.8 billion) * Google (market value: $154.6 billion)

http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2007/03/and_then_there_were_eight.pdf

Media giants: (NewsCorp)

Ownership in full or part by

But, wait! There's MORE:

Fox", can now be picked up in over 96% of U.S. households.

Media giants: (Disney)

Ownership in full or part by

But, wait! There's MORE:

Media Executives

Robert IgerJeff ZuckerEric SchmidtPhilippe Dauman

Carol BartzJeffery BewkesRupert MurdochSteve Ballmer

So, what?

Fewer media owners means content conforms to the agenda of fewer people.

Fewer people in charge limits the amount of diversity in media, which limits the number of underrepresented voices.

What can you do to beat the media giants?

Media literacy can affect

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G

health

possessions

education

reputation

education and career

community

politics

What media messages have you consumed today? What were the purposes of these messages?

Advertisements? Tv shows?

access media

analyze media

evaluate media

respond to mediacommunicate using media

Learn to:

These skills are called media literacy.

In today's age, they are becoming increasingly important to get into college, find a job and get hired, access community resources and political information.

1

All media messages are constructed.

Asking the question of who created the message will help you realized that media texts are not natural although they look real.

just as buildings and highways are put together: a plan is made, the building blocks are gathered and ordinary people get paid to do various jobs.

genre? Which technologies are used in its creation? choices are made. If some words are spoken; others are edited out; if one picture is selected, dozens may have been rejected; if an ending to a story is written one way; other endings may not have been explored. However as the audience, we dont get to see or hear the words, pictures or endings that were rejected.

2

Media messages are constructed using a creative language with its own rules.

3

Different people experience willthe same media message differently.

4

Media have embedded values and points of view.

5

Most media messages are organized to gain profit and /or power.