According to Wally Bowen, Citizens for Media Literacy “Media literacy seeks to empower citizens and to transform their passive relationship to media into an active, critical engagement— capable of challenging the traditions and structures of a privatized, commercial media culture, and finding new avenues of citizen speech and discourse.”
Method of Development: This assignment relies heavily on the skills we used for the midterm: Critical Analysis. However, this time, instead of deconstructing a visual argument (a magazine ad), you will be reversing the process and actually constructing an argument relying mostly on visual imagery. Think about and choose from all the same tools you used to support your interpretation on the midterm: design elements such as model choice, photography, text, color, composition, symbolism, setting, or how the ad conveys tone, emotion or concept through the use of copy, product names, tag lines, etc. You may definitely use a combination of imagery and words (sound, music, and action as well if you are creating a video), but be sure the majority of the argument occurs predominately as a result of visual images working in conjunction with these other elements. Think of it as packing a whole lot of symbolic meaning into one or several images. People should get your message the second they see it. Also, parody, satire, or hyperbole work wonders in getting people to take notice and think about issues. However, please keep tact as well as social etiquette and standards in mind, as you want people to get the message more than you want to gross them out or in any way offend or upset them. Strike a balance.
Assignment: Flex your media savvy and your creative skills by using pens, paper, crayons, computer software, pictures from magazines pasted together, or any other artistic tools at your disposal to produce a media literacy POSTER or VIDEO that does ONE of the following:
1) Dispels a myth existing today about or within the media
2) Uncovers and reveals a truth about the mismanagement, misuse or abuse of the media
3) Seeks to promote awareness about harmful or stereotypical messages conveyed through the various media (i.e.: magazines, radio, TV, film, music, books, etc.).