{"id":25315,"date":"2020-02-03T08:35:42","date_gmt":"2020-02-03T13:35:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.frankwbaker.com\/mlc\/?page_id=25315"},"modified":"2023-12-07T10:07:52","modified_gmt":"2023-12-07T15:07:52","slug":"media-literacy-learning-from-the-oscars-revised","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.frankwbaker.com\/mlc\/media-literacy-learning-from-the-oscars-revised\/","title":{"rendered":"Media Literacy Learning from the Oscars (revised)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Media Literacy: Learning from the Oscars<\/strong><\/p>\n

Revised February 7, 2020<\/p>\n

Media literacy educator Frank Baker shares ideas about how to leverage student interest in movies and filmmaking into useful learning experiences.
\n<\/em>By Frank W. Baker<\/strong><\/p>\n

After the Super Bowl, the Oscars ceremony is the most \u201cappointment-viewed\u201d television program, watched by a huge audience in the United States (and around the world). Many of us stop what we\u2019re doing to watch it \u201clive,\u201d often with other movie and celebrity buffs. Last year\u2019s telecast was seen by more than 34 million viewers.<\/p>\n

New and novel advertising won\u2019t be the big audience draw at the 92th Oscars. Hollywood is. While ads at Super Bowl LIV went for $5.6 million apiece, advertisers will pay about half that for the same 30 seconds on the Oscar telecast<\/a>\u00a0(Sunday, February 9: 7 Eastern, 4 Pacific<\/strong>) with ABC receiving approximately $2.8 million<\/a> per 30 second spot. (The Academy also benefits from the domestic and international rights to the \u201clive\u201d broadcast.)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Diversity and the Academy Awards<\/strong><\/p>\n

The film industry made news in 2017 not only for its lack of diversity in many areas but also for the disclosure of sexual misconduct on the part of many involved in the business. The backlash from those disclosures led to the #MeToo movement\u00a0and promises of change.<\/p>\n

This\u00a0interactive timeline showing African American achievements in film and television<\/a>\u00a0over the past century and more will be interesting to students and offers teachers a way to tie this entertainment history to other aspects of Black and civil rights history.<\/p>\n

The Bunche Center for African American Studies at UCLA<\/a>\u00a0is a prime source for news and research about race and Hollywood. The center\u2019s\u00a0fifth annual\u00a0Hollywood Diversity Report<\/a>, \u201ctaking into account the five years data have been collected and evaluated, presents an image of only slight improvement in representation for women and people of color. Much of that development has centered on black talent, with other communities of color experiencing very little increases.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nSource:\u00a0<\/em>https:\/\/www.nywift.org\/ucla-releases-2019-hollywood-diversity-report\/<\/a><\/p>\n

A different kind of buzz<\/strong><\/p>\n

The buzz about the 2020 awards ceremony started well before\u00a0the nominations\u00a0<\/a>were announced January 13, but the heavy push starts in the week running up to the telecast.<\/p>\n

If you follow the trades (Variety<\/a>,\u00a0Hollywood Reporter<\/a>,\u00a0The Wrap<\/a>, et al.) then you will have seen the \u201cFor Your Consideration\u201d full-page advertisements promoting the nominated films, directors, actors and other\u00a0categories.<\/p>\n

The FYC ads, which also appear in both The New York Times and The Los Angeles Times, aim to influence the approximate 9,000+ voting members<\/a> of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences<\/a>\u00a0and are created by the studios to promote their movies. (See\u00a0my\u00a0website<\/a>\u00a0for ideas on teaching with these ads.)<\/p>\n

Hollywood agents are working overtime now\u2014making sure that any nominated client\u2019s name gets out there. That person might be scheduled to appear on a syndicated talk show (e.g., Ellen, the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel LIVE) or profiled in a magazine (such as\u00a0Entertainment Weekly<\/a>, The WRAP<\/a>,\u00a0 Film Comment<\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0EMPIRE<\/a>) or on nationally broadcast programs such as The Today Show or CBS Sunday Morning. Already, news articles featuring many of the nominees have appeared in the mainstream press and on popular culture blogs and websites.<\/p>\n

WHO MAKES UP THE ACADEMY OF MOTION PICTURE ARTS & SCIENCES?<\/strong>
\n\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

And it\u2019s not just the well-known actors who get publicity; directors, art directors, costume designers and even\u00a0foley artists<\/a>\u00a0will be featured because\u00a0every Academy category<\/a>\u00a0(and nomination) is important.<\/p>\n

~~\u2022~~<\/strong><\/p>\n

Frank Baker suggests teaching resources related to CCSS\/ELA Standard\u00a0RL.8.7<\/a>\u00a0\u201cIntegration of Knowledge and Ideas\u201d (8th grade) in this download \u2013\u00a0Hollywood Vs. the Truth: Comparing Books, Films & Reality.<\/a><\/p>\n

~~\u2022~~<\/strong><\/p>\n

Teaching the Academy Awards<\/p>\n

For years, the\u00a0National Council of Teachers of English<\/a>\u00a0(NCTE) has advocated for the teaching of \u201cnon-print texts,\u201d and motion pictures fall into this category. Although many teachers teach with film, not many have been trained to teach\u00a0about\u00a0<\/em>film.<\/p>\n

In addition, most of our students view movies passively: they have not been trained how to view such carefully constructed, motion-oriented media critically. Film and media literacy education demonstrate exactly how to help students \u201cread\u201d the screen and understand the various tools and techniques used by filmmakers.\u00a0In its online store<\/a>, NCTE offers several excellent texts which include lists of recommended films and how to teach them, as well as\u00a0movie-oriented lesson plans<\/a>\u00a0at ReadWriteThink. Also see my MiddleWeb articles on\u00a0visual literacy and film<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0teaching film literacy without the film<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Going deeper into filmmaking<\/p>\n

Art and film.\u00a0<\/em>Many of those in Hollywood who make movies consider themselves artists. Many arts educators can also engage students by having them study film critically: examining animation, lighting, sound & music, art direction, costumes & makeup and more, \u00a0using guides found\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Art would also come into play when studying the design of the movie poster. Teachers might ask students to brainstorm answers to the question: what are the quintessential elements that must be in every motion picture poster? Students could also use\u00a0Glogster<\/a>\u00a0or similar software to create their own marketing posters.
\n<\/u>
\nTeacher guides.<\/em>\u00a0The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences (AMPAS) has produced an excellent series of teacher guides designed to help introduce the Oscar categories (including\u00a0documentaries<\/a>) as well as the language of film. Its\u00a0Teacher Guide Series<\/a>\u00a0can be downloaded individually at the Education\/Outreach section of its website.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nScreenplays Online.<\/em>\u00a0Another promotional push by the film studios is to give voting members, and now the public, access to the nominated-films\u2019 scripts.\u00a0This page<\/a>\u00a0lists several\u00a0of those screenplays, which could be downloaded and studied in English language arts, history, and film studies.<\/p>\n

Movie trailers.<\/em>\u00a0Even though many students may not have seen all of the Oscar-nominated films, they can still view the trailers for the films and read about them online. (The\u00a0nominees page<\/a>\u00a0at the Oscars website includes links to trailers.)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Click to see\u00a0trailers<\/a>\u00a0 for 1917 and other Best Picture nominees.<\/em><\/p>\n

Trailers are considered persuasive texts because they are designed to pique the interest of the audience, sometimes months ahead of a film\u2019s release date. Teachers may wish to consider having students create their own trailers (using free software such as iMovie, PhotoStory 3, or Windows Movie Maker).\u00a0For more on trailers as persuasive texts, see\u00a0my web page<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Writing about films<\/p>\n

If your students have seen any of the nominated titles, they can be tasked with writing reviews which could be posted online. If students have never written a film review, then this is a perfect opportunity to expose them to sample reviews written by film critics. They can also consider whether or not a particular review helps or hurts a film\u2019s attendance. Students could also look for excerpts from published reviews which have now been incorporated into the marketing poster or commercial for a nominated film.<\/p>\n

Before starting a unit on film, teachers might wish to use these research questions with their students:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. What are the Academy Awards?<\/li>\n
  2. What organization disseminates them?<\/li>\n
  3. Who selects which movies get nominated?<\/li>\n
  4. What are the specific categories of nominated films?<\/li>\n
  5. \u00a0Which genres are represented the most? The least?<\/li>\n
  6. Who gets to vote for the nominated films?<\/li>\n
  7. \u00a0How do film studios promote their film(s) to the voting members of the Academy?<\/li>\n
  8. Does box office revenue have any role in nominated films\u2014in other words: do movies with large audiences have any better chances of getting recognized than films with smaller audiences?<\/li>\n
  9. \u00a0Does box office increase after a film wins an Academy Award?<\/li>\n
  10. Who gets to attend the annual Academy Awards ceremony?<\/li>\n
  11. Why does this annual film rite get so much attention?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    I\u2019ve recently created two web sites which might be useful here. The\u00a0Teacher\u2019s Guide to the Academy Awards<\/a>\u00a0and the\u00a0Language of Film web page<\/a>\u00a0both offer educators lesson plans, readings and recommended texts and videos.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Media Literacy: Learning from the Oscars Revised February 7, 2020…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25315","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.frankwbaker.com\/mlc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25315","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.frankwbaker.com\/mlc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.frankwbaker.com\/mlc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.frankwbaker.com\/mlc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.frankwbaker.com\/mlc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25315"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.frankwbaker.com\/mlc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25315\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25390,"href":"https:\/\/www.frankwbaker.com\/mlc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25315\/revisions\/25390"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.frankwbaker.com\/mlc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25315"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.frankwbaker.com\/mlc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25315"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.frankwbaker.com\/mlc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}