Media is an exciting thing to learn about especially for high school aged students because it is information that they are surrounded by constantly and know a great deal about. A typical high school student has a cell phone, watches television on the TV or on their computer thus exposed to blatant or subtle advertisements, and either has a Facebook social networking sight or blog and sometimes even both. They are well versed in the creating and using of media but the question is do they understand how these types of media construct meaning and how to interpret and read these visual images and verbal texts. I want to give my students critical analysis skills to be able to find meaning.
Ways I can use media texts in the classroom is constantly bringing things into class that inspire me or things that can be sources of inspiration for my students. By showing my students the piece of art work, a piece of clothing, a movie, or photograph that inspires creativity they will have a physical example of the step by step analytical process I go through to shape my
thinking. I will challenge my student to practice these skills of thinking in new ways. A possible exercise I could do with them is as follows.
-Hand out a picture of a piece of artwork with a one-line caption underneath. Then challenge the students to write a 10-line story about this picture. During this activity they will be practicing the skills of looking at a visual image and text and taking those observations and creating a new work.
A point made in the reading is different mediums have very similar approaches of analyzing them. This can be difficult and a plus to the students. Show the students how closely the different types of media are to each other and how in the grand scheme of things they all affect one another. Learning how to read one type of media can be beneficial when being exposed to a different media because the basic skills are already present and developed.
1. The first thing I want to teach my students is how to read an image. A way to do this is by determining the inital type of image. Is it a photograph, a piece of art, a still frame of a film. In teaching our students how to understand and find meaning in visual images and texts they first need to know what they are dealing with. Along with identifying the type of media what is this piece of media saying--consider the context and construction of the image.
2. Determine the figure and the background. The figure is the most important thing in the image and the background is the immediate context. The figure is the thing the students need to focus on. It is the main character of the story that a person would follow from beginning middle to end.
3. The piece of media that students are exposed to the most in their interactions are advertisements. A fascinating thing about advertisements is at times they fool you. You think they are selling one thing which they are but are there hidden products being sold. The majority of ads for perfume and jewelry show a sexy young model selling the product but is that the only thing. These ads are selling sex as well. I want my students to understand the power media can have and how it can be a positive and negative thing.
2 comments:
I think when we study different forms of media we train our brains to think and remember certain things. For example, personal photographs tell stories about individual people, their likes and dislikes, and what is important to them. I appreciated in your post, Cali, how you focused on how to read pictures and images. This is something I did not learn how to do until I went to university, and I feel it is important for children and young adults who are so influenced by images in their everyday lives to understand what they mean and why we interpret them the way we do. We have been trained to look at pictures from a young age, and as a result we have a set of preconceived interpretations stored in our brains. We do not necessarily understand how we know them, but because of our natural training we interpret things certain ways.
Some examples of this innate interpretation include the feelings we experience due to color, line, shape, and archetypes. When people see the colors red and yellow together, it can make them feel hungry and like speeding up. As a result, many fast food restaurants use red and yellow as the colors for their logo. Blue can mean calm or sad, red is energetic and sometimes bad, purple is royal, green is peaceful or a symbol of envy. Our eyes naturally follow lines as they scan a picture and allow us to be drawn into focal points of a picture. This is also used liberally in advertising. Advertising companies have gotten very good at directing the focus of individuals to products or to items and people that will promote their product. You mentioned in your post that often advertisers will sell multiple products in an image other than what is actually being sold for profit. Image is essential to drawing the attention of the most possible customers. As you stated, it is important for us to recognize that the advertisers are doing this and that even though their products look a certain way, they don’t necessarily affect a person the way they do in an advertisement. Tied into this is the concept of archetypes. An archetype is a warehoused idea or image that helps people store information and interpret images. Some archetypes include moving water indicating change, Mother and Child symbolizing nurturing and creation, and the Hero which displays strength and valor. All of these are included in modern advertising and other forms of media.
I like your idea to present pictures and have the students write stories about them. I think it is important to have them applying the things that they learn about images to actual pictures. Other ideas of assignments they could do include creating media using what they have learned through photo diaries, drawings, paintings, or other forms of visual media. If you are focusing on advertisement, you could have students create their own advertisements for their own products. With both these projects I think students should present the final product to the class and talk about why they did what they did in the images. Using advertising as a base, these assignments could also be an opportunity for students to work on their persuasive writing, as well.
Cali, I really enjoyed your activity using the pictures of the artwork with the one-line caption below it. Having your students write a ten line story to go with it would be a great activity to engage their minds on how images can create moods, feelings, clues, plot lines and messages. To help them see the principles behind creating these feelings and messages I would suggest teaching them the principles and skills of line, shape, color, texture, contrast, figure and background, shadow and light. After this I wouild write a one line caption on the board and have them create their own pictures using these principles so that they can apply these principles rather than just know about them. It would also help them to internalize and enjoy these principles rather than just learning about them and forgetting about them.
In my blocking in shows I would love to teach these principles and constantly review them so that there is purpose behind every choice made rather than, Mr. Brewster said to go there. By knowing these principles our students will be able to block themselves and follow impulses that both feel right for their characters and also add to the mood, feeling and message of the show.
I really liked the same point you mentioned in your post, that different mediums have very similar approaches of analyzing them. I would love to expose my students to live theatrical mediums, film, pictures, photos, paintings, architecture, set designs, costumes, etc. If they are skilled in this area of thinking they will be better creaters and perceivers. Not only will they be able to create theatre that moves, changes and effects an audience but they will be able to know why other directors and designers made the choices they did and why.
I think it is fascinating that one the first principles the text teaches us is to understand the difference and significance of the figure and the background. In theatre we need to understand this. Not just understanding it is crucial but all of the design elements that go into telling messages using both the main image or images and the background. Color and shape in a set can tell a lot about the feel of the world of the play, whether it is an atmosphere of hope and joy or death and despair. The lines in the costumes and set can tell us whether the show is dealing more with man vs. nature type of show or man vs. God.
It is incredible that theatre and media can teach us so much about ourselves and the world in which we live. As we teach our students how to create, analyze and use these principles we will be able to change lives together and experience change now.
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