By Renee Hobbs
Media Literacy IN ACTION
Questioning the Media
CHAPTER 2
Why are media important?
Learning Outcomes
1. Define media and understand how and why they have
changed over time
2. Understand how media use is deeply embedded in people’s
daily lives
3. Appreciate five different reasons why people use media
4. Consider media’s role in constructing culture and society
5. Reflect on your own patterns of media use and your reasons
for using them
Media offer a world of ideas, stories, relationships, and opportunities
I'M AN ORIGINAL CATCHPHRASE
CREATE TO LEARN
Infographic on Your Media Life
I’m a paragraph. Double click here or click Edit Text to add some text of your own or to change the font. This is the place for you to tell your site visitors a little bit about you and your services.
Over a 3-day period, monitor your media usage in half-hour increments. From the time you wake up to the time you fall asleep, create a chart that shows how much media use occurs. If possible, make notes to identify your moods and feelings, as well as the context and situation of the use.
If you like, you can use a simple behavior-tracking app to record patterns in your use of media, creating categories that are specifically relevant to you.
Then create an infographic to analyze the patterns and illustrate the variety of media choices you made. Your infographic might use a combination of data, images, and language to show how much time you spend using media, and where and when your media use takes place.
FLIPGRID
INQUIRY
REFLECT ON YOUR LOVE-HATE RELATIONSHIP WITH MEDIA
After charting the media in your daily life, it is time to reflect on some of the pleasures and annoyances they cause.
Compose an informal video response that answers 1 or more of these questions:
• What patterns did you notice when charting your own media use?
• Describe some features of print, visual, sound, or digital media that you really appreciate and value. Explain why
they are important to you.
• Describe some features of the same media that are annoying, troubling, or have negative consequences or
impact on yourself, others, or society.
• How do you balance the positives and the negatives when it comes to the media in your life?
INTELLECTUAL GRANDPARENT:
SONIA LIVINGSTONE
“A more recent concern centers on datafication and digital surveillance, whether by the government or businesses or both, as ever more of of our private lives move online, mediated by proprietary platforms whose activities are far from transparent and whose business interests may be quite different from the interests of children."
--Sonia Livingstone, 2020
Learn more about how Sonia Livingstone influenced media literacy educators, researchers & activists
VIDEO
How Smartphones Sabotage Your Brain's Ability to Focus | WSJ
