This activity was submitted by Andres Cediel andres@eastbaycenter.org
East Bay Center for the Performing Arts
339 11th St.
Richmond, CA 94801
510/ 234-5624 x 25
www.eastbaycenter.org and used here with his permission.

MEDIA LITERACY: Race and Representation

CONTENT THEME AREA:

MEDIA LITERACY PRINCIPLES:

SKILLS DEVELOPMENT:

• State academic standards
• VAPA standards

OVERVIEW:

In this lesson, students explore the topic of race in popular culture

LENGTH:          one hour

OBJECTIVE:

MATERIALS: magazines, butcher paper, glue, scissors

ADDITIONAL TEACHER PREPARATION:

Write down the names of different ethnic groups on pieces of paper making sure that there are equal numbers of each group.

Gather magazines which can be cut up. Choose mostly well-known mainstream distributions. Optionally, you may choose magazines targeted at specific ethnic groups but be aware that this will add a different element to the process.

VOCABULARY

ACTIVITY:

Prior to the activity, have students draw from a hat folded pieces of paper with the name of the ethnic group they will search for in the magazines. There should be equal numbers of students in each of the following ethnic groups: White or European American, Black or African American, Latino or Hispanic, Asian or Oriental, Arab or Middle Easterner, Native American or Indian. Note: including alternative names for the different groups should lead to a discussion about which names are appropriate, and which are no longer used and why. This pre-discussion is important to stimulate the students prior to the activity.

1. Have the students break into small groups with all members of the same selected ethnic group together. Each group receives a piece of blank butcher paper, scissors and glue.
2. Students begin searching through the magazines looking for people or imagery which represents the ethnic group.
3. As students finish with a particular magazine they should return it to the center pile so that other groups may look through them.
4. Refrain from explaining too much about what they should or shouldn’t do, or answering questions such as “does this person look Latino?” The idea is for the students to come to their own conclusions. Likewise, the final collage should take whatever form the students choose, and could include text or images drawn by the students themselves.
5. Once students have finished their collages, they will present them to the group and field questions and comments about their work and their process.
6. Questions for the students should include:
• Was it hard to find images of your ethnic group? Why do you think this was?
• Did most of your images come from certain types of magazines?
• What are the people doing in your images? Are they professionals? Are they advertising specific products?
• Are there more men or women on your collage? Are they doing similar or different activities (cleaning, recreational, white-collar job, service industry)?
• What other patterns can you see with your images?
7. Wrap up with a group discussion about the process as a whole and what similarities and patterns the students in the representations of different racial group.

This very simple exercise can lead to many different discussions about race and representation and will most likely present more questions than answers. Additionally, it will reveal not only stereotypes present in mass media, but also pre-conceived notions the students have about different ethnic groups. For instance, the Latino group may select people who resemble Jennifer Lopez, Ricky Martin, or anybody with brown hair and eyes. However, there are more Latinos of African descent, than there are African Americans in the U.S. Likewise, there are many Latinos of East Asian descent as well as every shade from European blond and blue eyed to black hair, brown skinned indigenous people. This can lead to the discussion of why would one image of a diverse group be chosen over another image (another example would be the image of an “American”). How students choose to categorize the term Asian and Middle Eastern can be equally revealing.

Alerting the students to the notions that they have internalized, and how these notions have been perpetuated by mass media, is an important lesson to begin a section on race and representation. In much the same way that no individual admits to being affected by commercials, no one feels that they are prejudiced or have stereotypical notions of other groups. By exposing the pervasive power of mass media images on the own lives, students can begin to view media in a compelling and critical way.

Related Activities:

TV TALLY:

Have students create a log sheet to use while watching television at home. Students will spend their evening watching television and keep a tally of the ethnicity of the characters the see. In addition, students will make note as to what time and on which channel each tally was taken. Compare student results with the findings of the report put out by Children Now “Fall Colors”.