Core Concept #4:
Media have embedded values
and points of view.
Media, because they are constructed, carry a subtext of who and what is important ‹ at least to
the person or persons creating the construction. Media are also storytellers (even commercials
tell a quick and simple story) and stories require characters and settings and a plot that has a
beginning, a middle and an end. The choice of a character's age, gender or race mixed in with the
lifestyles, attitudes and behaviors that are portrayed, the selection of a setting (urban? rural?
affluent? poor?), and the actions and re-actions in the plot are just some of the ways that values
become "embedded" in a TV show, a movie or an ad.
It is important to learn how to "read" all kinds of media messages in order to discover the points
of view that are embedded in them and how to assess them as part of the text rather than merely
accepting them as "natural". Only then can we judge whether to accept or reject these messages
as we negotiate our way each day through our mediated environment.
Key Questions #4:
What lifestyles, values and points of view
are represented in, or omitted from, this message?
Guiding Questions:
- What questions come to mind as you watch / read / listen?
- What political or economic values are communicated in the message?
- What judgments or statements are made about personal or social
relationships?
- What is the cultural context or worldview?
- What Ideas or values are being "sold" in this message?
- How is the human person characterized?
- What type of person is the reader / watcher / listener invited to
identify with?
- What kinds of behaviors / consequences are depicted?
- Who or what is left out?
Concept 5
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