Before engaging students in a lesson plan involving media education, it is helpful to define core concepts and some of the most common media terms. The most important concept in any media studies curriculum is to ensure students understanding that all media is profit centered. Media is business. Period. Whether we believe a media product to be purely entertainment, informational or even altruistic in it's intent, the goal of all media is ultimately to make money. This is neither good nor bad. It just is. The method used to generate this profit involves carefully crafted messages delivered to the public through various forms of media products. De-constructing these messages is the heart of media education.
The Five Core Concepts of Media Studies:
- All media messages are constructed.
- Media messages are constructed using a creative language with its own rules.
- Different people experience the same messages differently.
- Media have embedded values and points of view.
- Media messages are constructed to gain profit and/or power.
Five Key Questions to Ask:
- Who created this message?
- What techniques are used to attract my attention?
- How might different people understand this message differently from me?
- What lifestyles, values, and points of view are represented in or omitted from this message?
- Why was this message sent?
A format where students are first asked to express their own understanding of these terms, (Brainstorming), before the definitions are actually revealed usually produces a thought provoking discussion.
Key Terms:
Mass Communication: Communication (Message) sent from a person/group through a transmitting device (A Medium) to a large audience (Market).
Medium: The means by which a message is delivered to an audience. (Singular) – Example - Internet, radio broadcast etc.
Media: Plural form of the word medium.
Mass media Industries: The eight types of media businesses: (Print) Newspapers - Books - Magazines. (Sound) Radio - Recordings. (Visual) Movies - Television - Internet.
Convergence: The combining of the communications, electronics and computer industries. Also, the co-operation of various media companies with each other in order to take advantage (economically) of the newest technology.
Conglomerates: Companies that own media companies as well as unrelated businesses.
Deregulation: The government removal of restrictions on industry and business operations.
Demographics: Consumer characteristics – Age, sex, income, marital status, occupation etc.
Viral Marketing: Creating an online message so entertaining that consumers pass it along like a virus.
Public Relations: Creating an interest, understanding or good will towards a company, product or person.
Disinformation: The intentional planting of false information by government agencies or sources.
Dissident Press: Media that present alternate viewpoints from the mainstream press.
Yellow Journalism: Sensational news that emphasizes sex, crime and violence.
Muckrakers: Investigative journalists who target abuses in government and business.
(Source: Center for Media Literacy (CML).
