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Unit 3: Defining Our Communities

Exploring Media Messages and Ourselves

Before We Start - Unit Activity

Media messages are all around us. They come in obvious forms like advertisements and news broadcasts; but, they also provide other messages that communicate other messages related to ideas from our beauty standards to popular technologies to influencing feelings on other events or people. This activity explores media messages and how we see ourselves within those media messages. 

MATERIALS NEEDED

  • Chromebook

  • Writing utensil/Paper (optional for planning purposes)

  • Various images from media (magazines, websites, social media, etc.)

  • Scissors

  • Glue

  • Construction paper

  • Student blog page

"As we increasingly move toward an environment of instant and infinite information, it becomes less important for us to know, memorize, or recall information, and more important for us to be able to find, sort, analyze, share, discuss, critique, and create information. We need to move from being simply knowledgeable to being knowledge-able."
 

- Dr. Michael Wesch
American anthropologist

Check out this short TED Talk about decoding images and messages to better understand the decision making behind today’s media. 

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Questions to think about:

  • What are you thinking about after reviewing this short clip? 

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  • What questions are coming to mind? 

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  • What media do you come in contact with on a regular basis?

In your Writer's Notebook (in the "Notes" section), â€‹take time to make a list of ALL of the media you interact with regularly. Create a series of charts that look similar to the example provided. 

 

From your charts, explore that media for its imagery.  What images do you see on a constant basis? What words/adjectives do you think about when you view these images? 

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Create a collage that represents these images. Collect your images (like on a Google Doc) so that they may be printed - color and/or black. *Share your document with Mrs. Bonner (bonners@husd4.org) for JHColorCopier access.

 

Use the supplies in the classroom to construct your images into a collage (construction paper, glue, scissors). 

 

In the center of your collage, print a one-word adjective to describe your connection to the imagery you selected to yourself. This adjective should be powerful and telling - it could also push against the images you collected/selected from your chosen media (see a few examples below)

BLOG POST: Take a photo of your collage and upload it to a new blog post using the title "Unit 3 Before We Start Activity." Along with your collage, construct a reflection answering the following questions:

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  1. What are your epiphanies (or new ideas) as a result of this experience?

  2. How might your epiphanies connect to our upcoming unit related to media literacy?

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