Principles of Media Literacy applied to this week’s
events: Questions for discussion
Author: Rick Seifert, Chair, Northwest Media Literacy Center, 1509 SW
Sunset Boulevard, Ste 2D, Portland, Or 97201, phone 503 244-7109, e-mail
wfs12@columbia.edu
1. All media messages are constructions
Who is constructing the messages? (Politicians, terrorists, journalists, people in the street, others?) To whom do the constructors answer? Employers? Stockholders? Osama bin Laden? The public? Their own professional standards?
What is included and what is excluded in the messages?
What about censorship? What might be being censored under these circumstances? Have the parameters of censorship been made clear? Is censorship being treated as an event? Is it being reported on?
What labels are being constructed and attached to events? "Attack on America," "America United" etc.
What music is being used?
What symbols are being selected? The flag; the burning, collapsing WTC etc.
What stories are being chosen to be produced and aired?
Is there bias? In the selection of stories, in the reporting, in the selection of images?
What "experts" are being interviewed? Who is missing?
2. Messages are representations
What about stereotypes? Stereotypes about Islamic people, Arabs etc. Stereotypes about Americans and elected officials? About rescuers? About heroism? How is this heroism different from "sports heroism"? Do we make a distinction? Do we have to?
Are the representations informative, enlightening, emotional, misleading? If so, how?
How is America (the society, the country, the government?) being represented in the media? Is the representation accurate?
How is the distinction between government policy and American public opinion being represented? What about polls? What about those with minority opinions?
How is the rest of the world being represented? The Islamic world?
Is the international context adequately and accurately being presented?
What about "good" and "evil"? Is this a "battle between good and evil" as the president has described it? What are the consequences of using these labels?
3. Messages have economic purposes
To what extent is the coverage intended to "preserve a way of life"?
To what extent is the "American way of life" an economic concept? To what extent is it something else? Personal freedom, democracy etc?
Who has the most at stake economically in this "way of life" and the portrayal of the messages?
Is there an economic link between our "way of life" and the medium’s economic interests?
Are the media (radio, TV, newspapers etc) competing?
Are competitors within a medium (like television) competing? Are the ratings important when there is no advertising? What is the basis of the competition? Are television outlets segmenting the audience? By ideology?
The networks have been said to be losing hundreds of millions of dollars because of their commercial-free coverage. Why can they justify or afford to take such losses?
To what extent is there pandering to perceived or real public opinion? Is such pandering, if it exists, economically motivated? Politically motivated? What power does the government have over the press? What power does the public have over the press?
Who, if anyone, is shaping public opinion and to what purpose? Have they been successful? Do they have an economic purpose?
4. Each of us interpret messages differently
What shapes our interpretation? Experience? Greed? Grief? Compassion? Reason?
Is there something that approaches a consensus interpretation?
How might displaying the flag be interpreted differently? How about lighting a candle?
What might affect how we interpret these simple acts? How accurate are symbols in conveying messages? Do they help or harm?
How much of our interpretation of events depends on the messages selected and their juxtaposition?
Public relations practitioners know they can "manufacture consent" through the construction or manipulation of images. Is that being done now? If so, what seems to be the consent or consensus being manufactured? Does it simply reflect a "natural" consensus? How is a "natural" (as opposed to a manufactured) consensus formed? How is any consensus accurately measured? Are polls accurate? To what extent does the wording of poll questions, prompt particular responses? Pose a question that you believe is unbiased. Is it? Examples: "Is America under attack?" "Is this a battle between good and evil?"
5. Media have unique characteristics
Which of the major media have your found to be most informative? Enlightening? Biased?
Which medium respects and calls upon your intellect the most?
Which medium stimulates the most visceral response?
Which medium gives you the opportunity to reflect?
Which medium best allows you to communicate with others?
Which medium is "the most powerful"?
What do we mean by "powerful"?
Consider:
Radio
Personal conversation
Television visual symbols
Internet