A Media Literacy Study for Hatoum and Belle

Although the same media evaluation lessons—regarding advertisers’ use of computer-modified or -generated images and their intent to persuade people to buy products to fulfill emotions—could apply if Hatoum and Belle were to turn their study into a media literacy program for men, the media participants evaluated would have to be different. The researchers could use their data on the men’s magazines that each participant selected as an initial resource for advertisements to be analyzed in a media literacy program. Although it would have been helpful for the researchers to have also asked participants to provide shows that they watched and music that they listened to in addition to the amount of media consumed, the researchers could use previous research regarding media stereotypes of the male body to find television, film, and music video artifacts for the program as well.

The researchers could then use these artifacts to have the participants consider advertisers’ intent and persuasive appeals by educating them on use of computer-modified images to create the media messages that consumers see. Then, the researchers could talk about the reality of what body types most men have, like Jean Kilbourne did in the video we watched in class, as well as the problems that arise from unhealthy habits such as skipping meals when people skip the gym and taking dietary supplements to reduce weight or build muscle. This combination of media literacy and health education lessons will help participants learn that media representations are not reality but that the reality behind some of their habits is dangerous.

The final part of the study could then explore the importance of maintaining a positive body image and self-esteem in spite of the misrepresentations they will encounter through their media consumption. The men in Hatoum and Belle’s study reported that they were unsatisfied with numerous parts of their bodies, some of which correlated to the body parts they noticed first when looking at pictures of male models. This data reinforces the benefits of not only educating the participants on advertisers’ constructions of negative body image but also reinforcing within the participants a positive body image, as other researchers have done in their media literacy programs about body image.

New Appeals Needed: Veggie Crisis in U.S.

After reading this news article my first thoughts were that advertisers weren’t making the correct appeals to influence people’s vegetable consumption. The article primarily covers adults’ reasoning behind not eating vegetables: expense, lack of convenience, and confusion over how to prepare produce such as zucchini. Yet the marketing appeals in the article’s introduction are geared toward very specific audiences—children, young adults, and wealthy adults—not the everyday people whose voices appear throughout the remainder of the article.

Moreover, the everyday people featured throughout the article aren’t looking for vegetables to be more exciting and fun. They’re simply looking for ways to cut down on preparation time when cooking vegetables and for preparation techniques to help them consume a wider variety of vegetables. If the health organizations and pediatricians listed in the article want more Americans to consume their vegetables, then ads should reflect and answer their specific concerns regarding preparation and convenience. Ads could promote cookbooks or television shows that teach people how to cook quick and healthy meals, or ads that promote convenient vegetables and compare them to other convenient foods. There’s little correlation between the reasons that people provide in the article and the appeals (heavy metal music, violence, and phone applications) that the baby carrot industry is using to attract consumers. If vegetable industries and health organizations want to appeal to Americans who aren’t eating nearly enough vegetables then they need to reflect and resolve those people’s concerns regarding vegetable consumption.

Here's link to the Kool Aid commercial where the soda bottle and the Kool Aid pitcher are challenging each other to a log rolling contest to determine which beverage is better cost-wise.

Pizza, Ice Cream, and Box Tops: Advertising and Brand Loyalty in Elementary School

When I first considered advertising in my schools, my first memory was of the vending machines in my junior and senior high schools. But as I thought more about my time in elementary school I realized that the most prevalent forms of advertising related to food. Every Friday Jacksonwald Elementary served Domino’s pizza for lunch. And every early dismissal before a holiday, when our teachers used class time for movies, the school brought in dixie cups of Dairy Queen vanilla ice cream as movie treats. These two examples stand out in my mind because both were associating food—pizza and ice cream—with fun—celebrating the weekend or a break from school. Because these were traditions, students looked forward to them during the week or school year. Although the school served pizza on other days of the week it reserved Domino’s for Fridays. Similarly, although students could buy ice cream in the cafeteria, it reserved Dairy Queen for special pre-holiday celebrations.

In her article for Tes Magazine, Clark writes about schools collecting box tops or labels for Box Tops for Education. Jacksonwald had collection boxes set up in the school office for people to drop off the labels and tops for points. After reading this article, I checked the Box Tops for Education website and Jacksonwald, in addition to many other schools from my district, still participate in this collection. The site even gives a product list so that people know which products will provide them with labels for collection. You can find the site with the link to the product list here. It makes me wonder if some people are loyal to the brands on this list because they see that those companies support schools through this program.

California's English and Language Arts SOLs

Grades 1-3

For these first grades, students explored narrative through basic character, plot, and purpose analyses.  These exercises seemed much like the exercises listed in Approaches to Media Literacy, specifically the narrative analysis and moving up to the narrative forecasting in the third grade.  In second and third grades, students begin to look at cultural narratives to compare and contrast these stories.  And beginning in third grade, students have to start comparing ideas presented in broadcast and print media to differentiate between opinions and facts.

Grades 4-6

Throughout these grades, students continue to compare and contrast stories with different cultural backgrounds, moving beyond just narrative comparisons to explore myths and symbols presented through the stories.  Additionally, students begin to study authors’ techniques to influence readers’ perspectives as well as the media’s different purposes and interpretation of current events and cultures.

Students also begin to consider how the media can serve a negative persuasive function through presenting propaganda.  These are also the first grades where students are required to use computer technology to create documents.

Grades 7-8

Here, students move beyond print media to consider how visual media and the ways in which photojournalism influence readers.  Other than photojournalism and examining speaker credibility, students continue to use computers to generate documents and explore the different purposes that media serve.

Grades 9-10

For the first time, students are asked to move beyond culturally significant texts to those with “universal themes” to compare and contrast these texts.  Students also begin to study oral communication, in terms of speaker credibility, language, delivery and rhetorical techniques.

Grades 11-12

Surprisingly, this is the first time that students need to use computer technology during presentations in class.  Until now, students have just given oral presentations without any type of technological help.  As in other grades, students continue to use computers to generate and publish documents and study speakers’ rhetorical devices and oral communication’s purposes.

Reflections on my Media Consumption

11:05-11:30 a.m. Checked my webmail and responded to students and professors.

Although I consumed messages that others sent me, I also created my own messages during this time.  It makes me wonder about how convergence not only changes how and what we consume in terms of media but also expands the roles that we play in communication.

I question how often I’m just a consumer anymore and if the role a person assumes while interacting with media is contingent upon medium, channel, or artifact (television show, movie, music).  I’m also curious to see if the end that I’m trying to achieve through my media consumption or use makes me a consumer at some points and a creator at others.  Since I know that I’ll check my e-mail several more times today I know I’ll have more opportunities to consider when I assume these different roles through my media use.

11:50 a.m.-12:10 p.m. Made e-mail groups in Scholar’s mailtool resource for the Maroon and Orange students in my Monday/Wednesday section.

During this time, I wasn’t consuming messages or creating my own, but I was building channels through which I can eventually disseminate my messages.  Often, the Maroons and Oranges require different previews of their weeks in class because they’re on different schedules.  Creating mail groups enables me to address just one group when my message is only applicable to that group of students.  These mail groups not only help me tailor my message to a specific audience but also help the students by providing them just with the information that they need, not any extra that might confuse them.

12:15-12:20 p.m. Checked my Gmail account, read an eblast from NCA, and e-mails from the CRTNET (Communication Research and Theory Network) listserve.

Unlike when I checked my webmail this morning, I only consumed media messages during this time and didn’t create my own.  Now I’m beginning to think that although convergence provides some of us with opportunities to assume various roles when we interact with media, those roles are contingent upon the end that we’re trying to achieve and what motivates us to achieve that end.

I consumed media messages both times that I checked my e-mails today and I checked my e-mails because I needed to see if people had tried to reach me.  The first time at 11 a.m. I was motivated to respond to students who had e-mailed me with questions.  In order to answer those questions, I had to assume the role of creator, not just consumer, of media messages.  But when I checked my e-mail this afternoon, I didn’t need to respond to anyone who had sent me an e-mail because it wasn’t my responsibility to do so and because I didn’t have any questions of my own that needed answering; I wasn’t motivated or required to create media messages.

1 p.m.  After trying to help Phil figure out why Scholar wouldn’t let him download Monday’s readings, I e-mailed them to him so he didn’t have to worry about it.

I hate Scholar, not from an instructor’s perspective because I know how all of its tools are supposed to function, but from a student’s perspective because I know that sometimes it just doesn’t work how it’s supposed to because of browser issues and whatnot.  I haven’t had trouble with Scholar as a student yet, but I know that my students have because they tell me that they have trouble navigating through the different folders in the public speaking site and remembering where to go for what type of information.  I wonder if the people who created Scholar considered the student’s perspective when designing this course management system because both students and professors need to be comfortable with the interface and its function in order to reap its benefits in the classroom.  Students expect Internet-based tools to be convenient and easy to use, but that’s not always the case with Scholar.  Sometimes I think that Betsy put it best when she wrote “Scholar: four extra steps to do less than what you want.”

2:15-3:15 p.m.  Created e-mail groups for my Tuesday/Thursday section, typed up and posted speech 1 reminders for students, e-mailed students through Scholar to let them know that reminders are up, traded e-mails with Brandi about a student who was accidentally dropped from my course.

Again I made more media channels to help me effectively communicate with my students throughout the semester.  I also created several messages that I sent them through Scholar to help prepare them for the following week’s quiz, speech, and essay.  Although my message is complete and clear, I know that I will receive e-mails from my students like I did this morning asking me for information that I just sent them.

I tell myself that these e-mails are the result of the students adjusting to the course rhythm, Scholar, and their semester in general.  But I’m not convinced.  Sometimes I wonder if the selectivity that is abundant through the Internet—evidenced by our ability to search for and consume information that interests us without having to comb through that which doesn’t—affects our ability to consume messages that are pertinent to us.  Even though I’m sending out e-mails just to my Maroon students with information that just applies to the Maroon students, I know that some of them will ignore the important reminders about what e-mail address they send their essays to, the essay’s page limit, and how big their note cards need to be.

5-5:05 p.m. Checked e-mails to see if students had any questions about my previous e-mail or the Scholar posts that I’d made.

Nothing to report here because there weren’t any e-mails to respond to.

5:05-6 p.m.  Read Rich’s article for Monday’s class meeting.

I feel like it’s going to take me a little longer to read this article because it’s packed with information, much like a lit review and historical timeline that explores the history and beginning of media literacy with television and children’s health.  It’s funny that I’m writing about reading this chapter for my consumption log and the chapter explores organizations’ efforts to curb children’s media consumption.  I think back to my childhood and wonder if there was more programming available to children during the 1980s than there was during the 1950s.  But despite available programming, my parents monitored what and how much television my brother and I watched.  They also didn’t just encourage us to go outside and play, but joined us in this fun.

7:15 Checked webmail.

Still nothing.  Although I’m relieved, I’m concerned at the same time because this first week I’m used to receiving numerous e-mails from students.

7:15-8 p.m. Finished reading Rich, moved onto chapter 3 for Monday’s class.

Although I’m trying to consider the different experiences that come from reading print articles versus books, I’m at a loss.  I think that as long as the article or chapter is in tangible print form, then my experiences interacting with that medium are the same.  I enjoy this first book chapter because it provides a great foundational understanding of media literacy.  It’s also interesting to consider how media literacy functions and succeeds in other countries.  I think that these comparisons are what I’ll most look forward to in the readings because of the different perspectives they allow me to explore.

8-8:30 p.m. Called home to talk with my parents.

This is easily one of my favorite parts of the day because I call home every night to talk with my parents.  Most nights I can spend a good half hour to an hour sharing what we’ve done that day and previewing the next day.  As I consider how often I e-mail, and usually text, each day I realize that I always prefer phone calls to the former.  Listening to my dad laugh is better than seeing “lol” on my phone, and I like that when my mom and I talk the background sounds tell me what room of our home she’s in.  I miss not being there with them and when we talk on the phone I often close my eyes and picture them moving around the house.  I can’t do that when we text.

8:30-9:40 p.m.  Read chapter 6 for Monday’s class.

What I appreciated most about Hobbs’ chapter were the examples she provided to show how media literacy initiatives could be applied in a classroom.  Those examples helped me understand how media literacy is student-centered; focused on the interaction among production, text, and audience; and the different perspectives that branch off from the general field.  Like chapter 3 in the book, chapter 6 will also serve as a great foundation for this week’s readings and my understanding of them.

9:40-9:55 p.m. Checked Facebook, wrote on Kathy’s wall, read a message from Fatima and responded with one of my own.

Reading about V-Chips in Rich’s chapter reminded me of Kathy and led me to post on her wall when I checked Facebook tonight.  (Little did the V-Chip creators know that one day a group of passive-aggressive college juniors would use the tool to prevent one of their roommates from watching “Hannah Montana.”)  I appreciate any time I see something in one of my readings that reminds me of my friends and leads me to start a wall chat regarding some of our good times together.

Although nothing beats a phone conversation for me, Kathy doesn’t like to talk on the phone.  She says that she feels uncomfortable because it’s direct communication but it’s not done face to face.  Facebook is a great alternative because we can post on each other’s walls, chat, and send messages and free gifts all from one site.  Facebook is also great because then Fatima, a great mutual friend and former roommate (who helped us enable the V-Chip) can also see our posts and join our Facebook conversation even though we weren’t directly communicating with her.

Fatima and I talk every week or two weeks for three hours at a time, but we still like to Facebook outside of those phone marathons primarily through messages but also random wall posts.  It’s a great way for us to keep in touch day-to-day and it allows us to involve Kathy in the conversation.

10-11 p.m.  Figured out how to work the annotation tool in Preview, read Semali for Monday’s class from the computer screen, and used the annotation tool to make my highlights and notes.

I don’t typically read from a computer screen and whenever I did I’d always take notes in a notebook as I went.  I honestly can’t remember if my Dell’s Adobe reader had an annotation tool; I only ever printed articles to physically highlight and mark up my margins so I could have just been ignorant to it.  Either way, using the highlighter and comment tools for the first time together is definitely a different way to consume this article than it would have been to print it out, read, highlight, and make handwritten notes.  It’s the same information, just a different interface.  Although it feels like it made the reading go faster, it didn’t.  Maybe it’s just that it took fewer steps (printing out the article, finding my pens and highlighters) that made it seem faster.  Regardless, I’m excited about this new way to read for class and briefly consider how much money I’ll save on ink until I remember that I like to have hard copies of the articles to take to class.

11-11:15 p.m.  Listened to music as I created critique groups for the Maroons in both my MW and TR sections.

Since I only started using my iPod two weeks ago, most of my songs are still on CDs.  This is the case for my favorite songs from “The Essential Billy Joel,” which I listened to for this period.  And because I reluctantly have an iPod, I left my discman at home and have to listen to the CD through my computer.  I chose Billy Joel tonight because he’s easily my favorite singer and I like how different some of his songs are even when they appear on the same CD.

I don’t see any difference in listening to music on my computer, with my discman, via YouTube, or with an iPod.  It all sounds the same, and it’s all music that I like because I’m selecting it.  I do see transferring my CDs to my iTunes as an inconvenience probably because I’m used to just using my discman and iPod technology is still unfamiliar to me.

11:15-12:15  Read Hobbs for Monday’s class meeting

Even though I have gone tonight from reading hard copy print articles and book chapters, to reading from the computer screen, back to print articles I’m still not sure why the computer interface seemed like such a different experience to me.  The more I think about it, the more it seems like it’s just the convenience of sitting down at my computer, opening up a document, and reading as opposed to downloading, printing, and reading with three pens in hand.  But I know that these few extra steps don’t really take that long.  As I continue through the semester, I’ll have to keep switching between both interfaces to see how my consumption experience differs with each.  It’s possible that I just need more time to evaluate how each contributes differently to my reading process.

Regardless, I realize now how much of a consumer I’ve become this evening as opposed to the creator I was this morning.   The change seems to coincide with the work I was doing: this morning I was focusing on my teaching responsibilities a large part of which is creating and disseminating information to keep my students on track.  This evening, I was focusing on my student responsibilities and although I will eventually create a message in the form of a reaction paper to this week’s readings, I have to consume the readings before I can take this next step.  It seems as though as my responsibilities for teaching require me to be a creator, whereas my responsibilities as a student require me to be a consumer more often than a creator, or at least a consumer first and creator second.  I’ll have to keep watch over these responsibilities, the roles that I can assume through media, and their relationship as I go through the semester.

12:15-1  a.m.  Listened to music as I created critique groups for the Oranges in my MW and TR sections and continued to listen to music until I went to bed.

Facebooking Kathy and Fatima earlier made me miss them and led me to listen to the semester soundtrack that Kathy gave us for Christmas last year.  It’s a CD filled with songs that relate to the names we gave our apartments junior and senior years of college (The Brick House and Love Train), Halloween adventures (once we dressed up as the Village People), and songs that Kathy liked about friendship.  It was also the first CD that I put on my iPod, so that’s how I listened to it.  Again, I see no difference between interfaces when listening to music via an iPod versus computer tonight.  But since I haven’t used the iPod much, maybe I’ll see the benefits as I have more interaction with it.