This is the storyboard for a short 3-4 minute video overview of media literacy.

1. STORYBOARD: (BRIEF) OVERVIEW OF MEDIA LITERACY
Audience: Potential class students Key Concepts:
Goals: • All media are constructed by someone for the purpose
1. Introduce the concept of Media Literacy of creating a specific view of reality.
2. Peak the interest of potential students • Knowledge of how media is used to construct a view of
reality allows individuals to become critical media
consumers and creators and act more effectively in
their own best interests.

2. Image or Video Graphics Notes and Text on Screen
PREVALENCE OF MEDIA
A Vision of Students Today: Use a short excerpt from this clip to
set some context about how media is used by youth.
Consuming Kids: The Commercialization of Childhood, Media
Education Foundation: Additional context from this. Use one short
segment on media usage.
Generation M2: Media in the Lives of 8- to 18-Year-Olds, Kaiser
Family Foundation. Graphic only.
Media Files Audio and Narration
In a recent study by the Kaiser Family Foundation , children as
young a 8 years old and ranging on up to 18 are using media at a
remarkable rate. The study showed that this age group in
particular is using media on average more than 7 ½ hours a day
and are multi-tasking with media while engage in other activities
(including school) for more almost 11 hours per day.
There is little doubt that electronic media in all its forms is
becoming the hub for most of our daily activities including social
activities, learning, as well as for entertainment. To become
literate with media is not to place a value judgment on its use or
determine if it is a good or bad trend that has future implication
for our culture and society, instead, media literacy is about
understanding how media encodes and transmits values to us on
behalf of a producer so that we as individuals can make our own
determinations as to its value and meaning.

3. Image or Video Graphics Notes and Text on Screen
THE CONSTRUCTED NATURE OF MEDIA
Lexus, December to Remember Campaign 2011: This clip allows
people to ask the question, who’s values are represented here?
Media Files Audio and Narration
When you look at images or get information over a television or
computer screen, we often see this viewing as analogous to
viewing the world through a glass window that gives us a view of
reality—of how the world really is. However, this analogy denies
the fact that what we are actually seeing is produced for a
purpose and are selected, edited and packaged to achieve a
specific goal for the producer.
Len Mastermann in his book Teaching Media says that,
the media are actively involved in processes of constructing
or representing
reality rather than simply transmitting or reflecting it. They use
visual and narrative methods that intentionally exploit cognitive
and emotional functions that drive our most basic perceptions and
behaviors.

4. Image or Video Graphics Notes and Text on Screen
INFORMATION FILTERING
The Filter Bubble: What the Internet is Hiding From You
, Eli Pariser: First 20 sec. or so to set context.
Why we know less than ever about the world, Alisa Miller: Short
segment on Anna Nicole Smith as top story in American media.
Napa Valley Register, 2008: For display only.
Media Files Audio and Narration
Part of the process of constructing reality for a consumer society
also means that information needs to be filtered both by us and by
the producers of media so that 1) we are not overwhelmed with
information overload, and 2) we are not distracted by information
not relevant to our concerns. However, this has led our culture to
something of a chicken and egg scenario where we are not always
clear if media is a reflection of our cultural values and norms, or it
is media itself that is shaping and constructing those values and
norms. In a large and diverse country like the United States, it has
often been our mass media channels that have allowed us to feel
like a homogenous society rather than any factual representation
of us as American citizens in the mass media.
New Media has provided a more egalitarian means of
communication in contrast to the tightly owned traditional mass
media. Recently, congress and commercial interests have moved
to regulate Internet media in order to control what information is
accessible to consumers and to control media consumers
experience as they browse the Web.

5. Image or Video Graphics Notes and Text on Screen
MEDIA INFLUENCE
Killing Us Softly 3: Advertisings Image of Women: Short excerpt.
Tough Guise: Violence, Media and the Crisis in Masculinity: Short
excerpt.
The Killing Screens: Media and the Culture of Violence: Short
excerpt.
These clips will run under the narration. Some sound bites used
during narration.
Media Files Audio and Narration
The influence of media on a person’s perceptions of reality and on
fundamental beliefs has been an area of concern and study since
the rise of the first mass media, radio. Mass media is extremely
effective at framing perceptions of the public. Both what is
allowed and what is not allowed into the public discourse is driven
by and drives media content through many channels. The rise of
the Internet as a primary communication channel has shifted
much of this dynamic by allowing for the dissemination of ideas
and beliefs previously ignored or marginalized by traditional
medias. However, even through these expanded channels, the
media itself tends to reinforce and legitimize cultural perceptions
that serve to benefit and enrich the purveyors of media content.
No where is this more pervasive than in images and perceptions of
gender and race as well as in political beliefs.

6. Image or Video Graphics Notes and Text on Screen
THE IMPACT
Killing Us Softly 3: Advertisings Image of Women: Short segment
of self-image and eating disorders.
Consuming Kids: The Commercialization of Childhood, Media
Education Foundation: Short segment on obesity and other health
problems.
Show clips from videos under narration.
Generation M2: Media in the Lives of 8- to 18-Year-Olds, Kaiser
Family Foundation: Graphic only over narration.
Media Files Audio and Narration
While the benefits of mass media are numerous and obviously far
out weigh the negative impacts, there are many problems that
media literacy helps to make explicit. These negative impacts
cover broad areas including social interactions, cognitive
functioning, economic equity, educational outcomes, and
psychological and physical well-being.
Two brief examples that are representative: 1) the kaiser report
that measured media use among 8-18 year olds also shows that
those with heavy media use were twice as likely to do poorly
academically than those with low to moderate use. 2) the rise in
media use among children and adults has been linked to
numerous psychological and physical ailments including obesity
and its plethora of physical dysfunctions.

7. Image or Video Graphics Notes and Text on Screen
GETTING INOCULATED
NAPCAN commercial on child modeling: This clip makes the
connection between mirroring in child development and what
happens (or is thought to happen) when children (and adults) are
influenced through their use of media. 1) Establishment of
authority and dependency, 2) mirroring of role model.
Audio and Narration Audio and Narration
As students of media, we do not just examine the content of media Masternann in his Teaching the Media book asks:
messages, but we also investigate the ways that media texts are constructed by
asking questions such as, Who made this? For what purpose What kind of world “How and why has this information been selected?. . .Against wha
is represented in it? How does the producer hope I will respond to it? t and whom is this knowledge directed?” At the heart of media
literacy is the notion of critical thinking asking questions, making
The emphasis in media literacy education on the constructed nature of media als things that seem obvious problematic. It is trans-
o leads to a changing conception of the role of media audiences. For example, fr
om a media literacy perspective, the purpose of the commercial media is not to s disciplinary, enriching our understanding of any subject matter
ell advertised products to audiences, but rather to sell audiences to advertisers. as we keep asking those questions about how we learn
What does it mean to “sell” the audience? It means that the values embedded in things. Whether you’re looking at a textbook or a YouTube
media content, from news to entertainment, all support the purchase of consum
er goods as a normal and valid pursuit. Media producers work to deliver audienc video, you still need
es to advertisers who are predisposed to buy their products. to ask those basic questions. You have to go on a little bit further.
Media literacy doesn’t just ask, what do we know? But How
In the end, all media texts, including the best journalism available, prime audienc do we know? Media Literacy encourages questions that lead to
es to accept a particular view of the world. For this reason, we must seek to look
critically (and skeptically) at all media messages by teaching and learning personal empowerment as students become aware of medias
about media rather than teaching and learning with media alone. Even as we purpose, analyze its validity, reflect on its influence, and take
learn, we should also ask in whose interest is a critique of any media, including action to make their own experience important sources of
educational media. Schools position themselves as authoritative purveyors of
information, and teachers are licensed to transmit knowledge, but even this long knowledge and insight.
standing dynamic is in question with media learning that is independent or time
or geography.