This document discusses critical media literacy and how to analyze media messages. It defines media literacy as the ability to access, analyze, evaluate, and create media. Fake news is intentionally false information published as news, whereas mistakes or satire do not qualify. The document outlines five core concepts of critical media literacy: 1) all media messages are constructed, 2) codes and conventions are used, 3) audiences decode messages differently, 4) media has embedded values and points of view, and 5) media is organized for profit and power. It provides questions to analyze any media message based on these concepts, such as who created it and why, and encourages testing these skills.

1. Using Critical Media Literacy to
Read Media
UPB Talk
Dr. Katherin Garland
katherin.garland@sfcollege.edu

2. This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA-NC

3. What is FAKE NEWS?

4. FAKE NEWS
does not
include…
• “unintentional reporting mistakes”;
• “rumors that do not originate from a news
article”;
• “conspiracy theories”;
• “satire”;
• “false statements by politicians”; and
• “reports that are slanted or misleading.” (Allcott
& Gentzkow, 2017, p. 5)

5. FAKE NEWS
includes…
“news articles that are
intentionally and verifiably false,
and could mislead readers”
(Allcott & Gentzkow, 2017, p. 4).

6. Media Literacy
Media Literacy is the
ability to access,
analyze, evaluate and
create media in a
variety of forms
(Aufderheide, 1993
as qtd in Hobbs,
1996, p. 166).

7. Which of these is Fake News?

8. Using Media
Literacy to
Read Fake
News

9. Access a Fact/Bias-Checking Site
• Allslides
• Fact Check
• Media Matters
• News Busters
• Open Secrets
• Politifact
• ProPublica
• Snopes
• The Sunlight Foundation
• Washington Post Fact Checker
(Snelling, 2018, pp.78-79)

10. Critical Media
Literacy
Critical Media Literacy requires that students
• Pay attention to how media is constructed to
perpetuate cultural views;
• View media constructions as a part of pre-
established cultural views;
• Recognize their own and others’ roles as
audience members who consume media; and
• Understand that media is an entertainment
business with the explicit purpose to generate
profit (Kellner & Share, 2005).

11. What is
critical
media
literacy
pedagogy?
“Five Core Concepts of Critical Media Literacy”
(Kellner & Share, 2005, pp. 374-377)
“Five Key Questions”
(Center for Media Literacy)
1. Principle of Non-Transparency: All
media messages are “constructed.”
1. Who created this message?
2. Codes and Conventions: Media
messages are constructed using a
creative language with its own rules.
2. What creative techniques are used to
attract my attention?
3. Audience Decoding: Different people
experience the same media message
differently.
3. How might different people
understand this message differently from
me?
4. Content and Messages: Media have
embedded values and points of view.
4. What lifestyles, values and points of
view are represented in; or omitted from
this message?
5. Motivation: Media are organized to
gain profit and/or power.
5. Why is this message being sent?

12. Principle of Non-Transparency: All media
messages are “constructed.”
Who created this message? Who created this message?

13. Codes and Conventions: Media messages are
constructed using a creative language with its own
rules.
What creative techniques are used to
attract my attention?
What creative techniques are used to
attract my attention?

14. Codes and Conventions: Media messages are
constructed using a creative language with its own
rules.
What creative techniques are used to
attract my attention?
What creative techniques are used to
attract my attention?

15. Content and Messages: Media have
embedded values and points of view.
What lifestyles, values and points of view
are represented in; or omitted from this
message?
What lifestyles, values and points of view
are represented in; or omitted from this
message?

16. Content and Messages: Media have
embedded values and points of view.
What lifestyles, values and points of view
are represented in; or omitted from this
message?
What lifestyles, values and points of view
are represented in; or omitted from this
message?

17. Audience Decoding: Different people experience
the same media message differently.
How might
different people
understand this
message
differently from
me?

18. Motivation: Media are organized to gain
profit and/or power.
“15 Billionaires
Own America’s
News Media
Companies”
(Vinton, 2016)
• Rupert Murdoch: 21st Century Fox
(120 newspapers, across five
countries)
• Cox Family/Cox Enterprises: Atlanta
Journal-Constitution (six other
daily newspapers, more than a
dozen non-daily publications, 14
broadcast TV stations, one local
cable channel, 59 radio stations)
• Amazon founder Jeff Bezos: The
Washington Post

19. Motivation: Media are organized to gain profit and/or power.

20. Motivation:
Media are
organized to
gain profit
and/or
power.

21. What is Popular Media?

22. 1. All media
messages are
constructed.
Who created this message?

23. 1. All media
messages are
constructed.
Who created this message?

24. 1. All media messages are constructed.

25. 2. Codes and
Conventions: Media
messages are constructed
using a creative language
with its own rules.
What creative techniques are
used to attract my attention?

26. 2. What creative techniques are used to attract my attention?

27. 2. What creative techniques are used to attract my attention?

28. 2. Codes and Conventions: Media messages are
constructed using a creative language with its own rules.
FILM LANGUAGE
John Golden (2001) MOST COMMON SHOTS
• Medium
• Close-up
• Long
VARIATIONS OF SHOTS
• Two-shot
• Extreme close-up
• Over-the-shoulder-shot
• Point-of-view shot

29. 2. What creative techniques are used to
attract my attention?
Medium shot Close-up Shot

30. 2. What creative techniques are used to
attract my attention?
Extreme close-up shot Long shot

31. 2. What creative techniques are used to
attract my attention?
Two shot Point of View shot

32. 4. Content and Messages:
Media have embedded values
and points of view.
What lifestyles,
values, and points of
view are represented
in; or omitted from
this message?

33. 3. Audience Decoding:
Different people
experience the same
media message
differently.
How might different
people understand this
message differently than
me?

34. 5. Motivation: Media are
organized to gain profit
and/or power.
Why is this
message being
sent?

35. TEST your
Critical
Media
Literacy
1. Who created this message?
2. What creative techniques
are used to attract my
attention?
3. How might different people
understand this message
differently from me?
4. What lifestyles, values and
points of view are
represented in; or omitted
from this message?
5. Why is this message being
sent?

36. QUESTIONS?
• katherin.garland@sfcollege.edu