Media studies course outline (draft - in progress)
  syllabus

Start with the role of the storyteller in traditional cultures

Streaming video: the persuaders: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/persuaders/view/
Merchants of Cool: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/cool/view/
Killing us softly: http://www.mediaed.org/videos/MediaGenderAndDiversity/KillingUsSoftly3/#
Our ideas of beauty http://www.frankwbaker.com/cosmetics.htm

Media Literacy Kit http://www.medialit.org/pdf/mlk/01_MLKorientation.pdf
5 key questions, 5 core concepts
Classroom guide
Articles
Media literacy clearinghouse http://www.frankwbaker.com/

5 key questions pdf

Lesson Plans from NYT (good)

Week One: how we are influenced by mass meda? What is a brand? What is an identity?

Use “I am” poem template

I will use transparencies on the overhead projector of photographs of people and ask the students what they think about the images and what does the photograph tell them about who the people are without any other information provided. For example, to define and explore the term stereotype, I might put a photograph of a young Latina female inside a home cooking, cleaning surrounded by five children. I would then ask the students to describe what they see in the image and what does this image tell us about the person illustrated in the picture and how society represents the woman presented. This probing of questions will result in a list of student responses that I will chart on the board as a method of defining the term. Also, students will receive a copy of the Power of Reading written by Colleen Connell which is a wonderful excerpt that defines stereotyping and sparks discussion on the concept. I will use the same strategies noted above to define four more terms for the day. source

Brand sirens: statistics

Week Two: Who owns the media? What is their mission?

As a balmy October turned into a frigid November, 12-year-old Tamara’s mother repeatedly suggested to her daughter that they go shopping to replace Tamara ‘s outgrown winter jacket. Tamara refused. She said she wasn’t sure what sort of jacket she wanted, admitting that it depended on what the other girls in her class would be wearing. As yet, the key girls had not yet worn jackets to school, despite the cold. They, too, were waiting and watching! Finally, in mid-December, one popular girl in the seventh-grade class capitulated to her mother’s demands and made a jacket choice. Tamara and her classmates at last knew what to wear.  Adolescent Identity

Five multimedia conglomerates—Viacom, Disney, News Corporation, Vivendi Universal and AOL Time Warner - exert unprecedented power in marketing messages and products to young people.

Here are some statements by media critics about this power.

Where are the adults?

What is it doing to kids?

How does media coarsen the culture?

Does media replace reality? An interview with Mark Crispin Miller

Does media marketing undermine freedom and democracy? Interview with Robert McChesney

Handout: what is a corporation?

Children of the Brand
Media and Family

Television Series focusing on Families:

I Love Lucy
All in the Family
Leave it to Beaver
The Waltons
Father Knows Best
My Three Sons
The Simpsons
The Cosby Show
Sanford and Son
Rosanne
Dick Van Dyke
Home Improvement
The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet
Andy Griffith

Themes:
The Home vs the Workplace
Gender Roles

Questions:
Should art influence reality or reflect it?
Most popular shows 1960s (Andy Griffith Show, My Three Sons)
Most popular shows 1970s
Most popular shows of 1989: Cosby Show Cheers Roseanne A Different World America’s Funniest Home Videos
Golden Girls The Wonder Years Empty Nest 60 Minutes Unsolved Mysteries