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  • Renee Hobbs

By Renee Hobbs

Media Literacy IN ACTION

 

Questioning the Media

2nd
Edition

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CHAPTER 12

Why do people worry about stereotypes? 

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Learning Outcomes

  1. Examine how stereotypes function in storytelling to create social consensus

  2. Consider how exposure to media during childhood may shape people’s expectations about identity and human behavior

  3. Understand how race, class, and social power are represented in entertainment media

  4. Recognize how self representation in social media enables people to perform identities in order to gain attention and approval

People construct identity by consuming and creating media
MEDIA LITERACY LEARNING MODEL
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KEY IDEAS FROM CHAPTER 12​​​

  1. Stereotypes are generalizations about groups of people in society that are common in storytelling. Authors, filmmakers, and storytellers set up patterns of fulfilling and disrupting the expectations of the reader or viewer in ways that create engagement, surprise, and pleasure.

  2. Reality TV shows have depicted teen mothers for many years, but the depictions have changed over time. Researchers use content analysis and survey research to evaluate the accuracy of media representations. Cultivation theory suggests that people’s understanding of the real world linked to the mediated stories and characters they encounter on television.

  3. Gender norms can be communicated through media and through daily life experiences. Social learning theory posits that people learn through observation and strategic imitation. People are more likely to learn behavior that is reinforced through the display of positive outcomes, but viewers can also learn from observing others’ mistakes and can alter their own actions to avoid negative consequences.

  4.  Conflict entrepreneurs exploit the power of extreme statements and actions that attract the attention of mass audiences. They stir up people’s outrage and take delight in resentments, anger, and insults. Conflict entrepreneurs may also foment and fuel violence as a path for attaining economic and political power.

  5. Stereotypes are deliberately constructed: they are tools for gaining and maintaining power in society. In social media, people vary their self-presentation based on the audience they imagine will read or see their posts. People’s online identity can be perceived as inauthentic and fake by some people and as sincere and real by others.

  6. Self-sexualization and objectification occur when people use social media to represent themselves solely in relation to the appearance of their bodies, and this can lead to reduced self-esteem.

  7. Discrimination and prejudice is baked into the datasets used to train AI because stereotypical depictions of gender, race, body size, attractiveness, intelligence, and age are part of both mass media experience and our everyday interactions via social media.

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DISCLOSURE FILM TRAILER

I'M AN ORIGINAL CATCHPHRASE



Spot the Stereotypes
Image Slideshow

Choose any form of media that interests you and use it for 1 hour, strategically documenting all the examples of stereotypes that you find. For example, while playing a video game, watching a film, or using Instagram, you can capture image screenshots of gender, racial, or occupational stereotypes. While listening to music, you can write down lyrics in order to document stereotypes about sexuality and attractiveness, for example.

After you have collected examples, consider the patterns in the examples you found and

then compose a media literacy image slideshow to document your findings. An image slideshow uses a combination of five or more images, language, and sound to identify patterns in the representation of race, gender, ethnicity, age, or occupation. You may want to refer to one or more concepts from this chapter so as to deepen your image slideshow’s value to potential viewers. Your slideshow should aim to create an “aha!” experience for your viewers. After publishing, share your creative work with others using the #MLAction hashtag.

Spot the Stereotypes Image Slideshow
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VIEW AND DISCUSS

Choose one of the short films from the curated list of short documentaries on race, bias, and identity provided by the New York Times Learning Network’s Film Club.

After viewing, record a brief reflection using these questions as a guide to your response:

• What moments in this film stood out for you?

• What messages, emotions, or ideas will you take away from this film?

• What questions did this film raise for you?

 

After you contribute your ideas in a brief oral presentation, you can view and respond to comments of other people who have offered thoughtful reflections on race, representation, and the media. 

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SPEAK UP ABUT DIGITAL WELLNESS

Use ideas from this chapter and prepare a 3-minute speech for middle school or high school students with specific advice about digital wellness.

 

What advice can you offer to minimize the negative impact of stereotypes that may affect them?

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Learn more about how Stuart Hall influenced media literacy educators, researchers & activists

GRANDPARENTS OF MEDIA LITERACY

STUART HALL 

"Popular culture, commodified and stereotyped as it often is, is not at all, as we sometimes think of it, the arena where we find who we really are, the truth of our experience. It is an arena that is profoundly mythic. It is a theater of popular desires, a theatre of popular fantasies. It is where we discover and play with the identifications of ourselves, where we are imagined, where we are represented, not only to the audiences out there who do not get the message, but to ourselves for the first time."

 

--Stuart Hall,1995

VIDEO

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