Media Questions


Media Literacy Site Map

Core Concept #5: Most media messages are constructed to gain profit and/or power.

Media messages are made for many reasons. One of them is to make money. Newspapers and magazines lay out their pages with ads first; the space remaining is devoted to news. Likewise, commercials are part and parcel of most TV watching. What many people do not know is that what's really being sold through commercial media is not only the advertised products to the audience ‹ but also the audience to the advertisers! The real purpose of the programs on television, or the articles in a magazine, is to create an audience (and put them in a receptive mood) so that the network or publisher can sell time or space to sponsors to advertise products ­ usually in a way that entices us to want what we really donıt need! Sponsors pay for the time based on the number of people the station predicts will be watching. And they get a refund if the number of actual viewers turns out to be lower than promised.

But the issue of message motivation has changed dramatically since the Internet became an international platform through which groups and organizations ­ even individuals ­ can attempt to persuade others to a particular point of view. As an exercise in power unprecedented in human history, the Internet provides numerous reasons for users of all ages to be able to interpret rhetorical devices, verify sources and distinguish legitimate online sources from bogus, hate or "hoax" websites.

Key Question #5:
Why is this message being sent?

Guiding Questions:
  1. Who's in control of the creation and transmission of this message?
  2. What's being sold? Whatıs being told?
  3. Who profits? Who pays?
  4. Who wins? Who loses? Who decides?
  5. Who is served by or benefits from the message? ­ The public?
    Private interests? Individuals? Institutions?
  6. What economic decisions may have influenced the construction or transmission of this message?
  7. Money / sex / power ­ How are each presented?

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