Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Communication today: Why we need media literacy

"Media literacy is the ability to access, interpret, analyze, evaluate, and use all forms of media from direct mail pieces to newspaper articles and television advertisements to internet content. Media literacy includes understanding that because different people interpret messages in different ways, the media often change their message about the same product or issue to fit their intended audience." This definition from the National Middle School Association (NMSA) explains what media literacy is, and how messages can be manipulated to appeal to a certain type of audience. Because of the varying types of media messages and the young target audience of these messages, it is crucial to educate children about media literacy at a young age.

People become targets for the media as soon as they are able to watch television or take in an ad. This means that from early on people are exposed to numerous media messages everyday. According to Kaiser Family Foundation (1999), the average American child spends about thirty-eight hours every week engrossed in media entertainment. Despite the fact that this is nearly the same amount of time that the average child spends in school, many schools do not have a media literacy programs to educate children about these messages.

Adding a media literacy class to the curriculum for elementary and middle school children would be a good way to start educating young children about media messages. Since children are often targeted by the media, they should be formally educated on how to interpret and understand different types of media messages. However, if schools are not willing to add a new class to the curriculum, a different approach could be taken. The media does not target a specific topic or subject area; so, it would not be necessary to add an extra class specifically for media literacy. Teachers across disciplines could incorporate educating their students about media literacy in the different subjects they teach.

Currently, there are efforts being made to educate children about media literacy. The Center for Media Literacy (http://www.medialit.org/reading_room/article540.html) provides a short book about the developing media literacy and how to teach it to students. This is a starting point for teachers to discover the different aspects that make up media literacy and how to most effectively communicate to students about media literacy. In addition to educating children early on in schools, it is important to continue this type of education though high school and into college.

Media literacy is a constantly changing and evolving field. With new advances in technology, people need to be constantly educated about how to understand and interpret the media. For this reason, media literacy is a life long process. It is not sufficient to only offer it in middle school and then stop media literacy education when students move onto high school. Media literacy programs need to be incorporated into all subjects across the curriculum, and this process should begin early on in a child’s schooling and continue throughout the education process.

Sunday, April 20, 2008

Feeling the Effects of the Media

While there are numerous types of media effects, five of the most common types are: behavioral, cognitive, attitudinal, emotional, and psychological. Each of these broad categories of effects contains many different factors that influence people. As stated in chapters thirteen and fourteen of Media Literacy, there are many factors that interact to create media effects. The combination of these factors can change and influence people’s set points.

One example of a media effect would be behaving aggressively after viewing a violent movie. First, this is a behavioral effect because it causes a person to act in a certain way. Second, in order for a violent movie to make someone act aggressively, many factors influencing media effects would need to act in combination with one another. Perhaps a person with less developmental maturities, limited knowledge structures, few social interactions and a weak locus of control would be more likely to become aggressive because of a violent movie. This would unlikely be the case if a person had vast knowledge structures, developed cognitive abilities, an active life style and a strong personal locus of control. The different combinations of factors contribute to how people react to media effects.

Like behavioral effects, attitudinal effects are also prevalent when looking at media effects. Just like aggressive behavior can be related to violent movies, the creation of new opinions can be related to the viewing of certain television programs. However, for this to occur, a combination of factors must interact to influence a media viewer. With each example, it becomes more and more clear that the effects of media are not the same for everyone. It is the combination of different factors that influence effects that really makes a difference in how people perceive media messages.

For me personally, I was able to discover some of the factors that influence my set points with exposure to the media. The idea that the state in which a person is in when viewing media affects how he/she perceives messages might seem like common sense to some people; however, this simple idea is extremely important. If a person relates a certain emotional state to a type of media exposure, they might be more influenced by the media effect. For example, if I was watching a sad movie after I had a fight with my best friend, I might be more inclined to cry during scenes in the movie. In addition to states, the degree of identification between a character and a viewer can impact media effects. The more a person relates to a character, the stronger the media effect will likely be.

With this increased knowledge about media effects and factors, I am better able to prepare myself for future media exposures. First, by becoming more aware of media effects, I should be able to control my set points. Second, after learning about the factors that influence media effects, I can try to be more alert and tentative to the type of effects so that I can control how they affect me.

Sunday, April 6, 2008

Dancing With The Stars Ratings


Dancing With The Stars premiered on March 17th with great anticipation from anxious viewers. It currently airs on two consecutive nights. On Monday night all the contestants perform a certain type of dance, and on Tuesday a dancing pair gets voted off the show. The show captures the attention of a diverse audience and sits high in the ratings polls. According Neilson Media (www.nielsenmedia.com), DWTS took the fourth and fifth highest ranking spots for the week of March 24. It is likely that this show does well because it entertains people across generations and it has a good timeslot.

(image fromhttp://images.google.com)
ABC broadcasts Dancing With The Stars on Monday nights at 8:00pm. During this same timeslot, CBS airs The Big Bang Theory, NCS airs My Dad Is Better Than Your Dad, Fox airs House, and the CW airs Gossip girls. While all of these shows are well know and pull in a substantial audience, none of them were ranked on the top 10 Broadcast TV Programs for the week of March 24, 2008. The lowest ranked show on this list had 12.9 million viewers and DWTS had about twenty million viewers during its Monday night airing. This suggests that none of the other networks have shows that can match the popularity of DWTS.


In addition to its high ranking in terms of viewers, DWTS received a Neilsen rating of thirteen. The only show to receive a higher rating was Fox’s American Idol. Each week, the amount of time DWTS is on for varies between one to two hours. This variability each week suggests that even if its Monday night timeslot was changed, its ratings would still remain high. The only exception to this would be if DWTS was aired at the same time as American Idol. Both of these programs have similar concepts and attract similar audiences. If they competed for viewers, the result would likely be that both shows would fall in the ratings.


Dancing With The Stars will likely remain a successful program. Its strategic placement during primetime on Monday nights will ensure that many viewers tune in every week to follow along with their favorite competitor, and audience participation in voting will continue to keep viewers coming back for more.