Media literacy has become critical as students spend more time reading print, watching online news, TVs and movies. Teachers can help students develop their media analysis skills.

Have your students compare the same story from three different print sources within the US.  For example, students can take a top headline story such as a bombing and find articles from ABC, MSNBC, Fox, and CNN.  They can explore the Center for Media Literacy's five key questions:

• “Who created the message?”
• “What creative techniques do they use to get my attention?”
•  “How might different people understand this message?”
• What values, lifestyles or viewpoints are included or omitted from this message?”
• “Why is this message being sent?”

Specifically,  they analyze the articles for similarities and differences in the title, in the first sentence, and in the accompanying visuals. In news photos, have the students  identify what is the content of the picture (people crying, a destroyed car, or soldiers) as well as each images’ emotional tone (sad, shock, or  safe). Likewise, students can determine the point of view of the article. Is the article written by someone against a certain group, someone showing patriotism, or  someone against the war? They can find the  precise emotional words and phrases which the writer uses to convey his or her point of view such as “failure,” “mercy mission,” and “forbidden.”

Students can  be guided to better understand the nuances of the media within a structured form that allows the examination of media analysis. For example, when students are comparing news reports, they can identify specific elements. Here’s a partial listing:

• What words are the same in all the headlines?
• What different words does each  headline use?
• What is the emotional tone of each  headline? What words cause those emotions?
• What do you expect the headlines to explain?
• Who or what is in the photo?
• What is the emotion of the photo? What shows it?

By examining international newspapers which cover the same event, students will have a  greater view of how the media transforms the news. Students can access newspapers from around the world in English at World-Newspapers.com and newspapers in languages other than English at Online newspapers.com.

Evaluate TV and Web video news by using those five key questions. Repeat viewing of the same clip allows better analysis.  As students examine the title of the story, the opening visuals, the sequence of the visuals, the music or sound, the actual  narration, the narrator's body language, and the narrator's tone, they come to realize the “real” message in each news broadcast.

Just as students can compare print and news videos, they can compare the message in various TV shows or movies. By comparing several TV shows about the same topic such as the hospital shows (House, Grey's Anatomy, and General Hospital), students spot different interpretations by the directors.  As the students  use the five key questions, they can analyze the topics of each show, the amount of time spent on the various topics, the settings, the characters,  the character's interactions with each other and with patients, the types of people in the show, and the tone of the show to determine each show's message. Likewise, they can compare two movies, the musical, Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, and  the Tim Burton's remake, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. They can see which characters are common to both movies, which are different, the attitude of Willy Wonka, and  what each tells about Willy Wonka  Play the “What is same/different” game, in which student write down as many similarities and differences as they can while they watch the second media. There are many movie versions (and YouTube clips) of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream for students to contrast. If students watch several versions of the same scene, they can decide the message of each scene, which they prefer and why.

Students can develop the life-long skill of media critical analysis.
 

Dr. Harry Grover Tuttle focuses on assessing and improving student learning through low- and high-tech tools.

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