WCC COMM 101 chapter 5-MAGAZINES (part #1)-LUTHER

1. Chapter 5 (part #1):
Magazines

2. Developing Media Literacy Skills
•There is no shortage of research about, and
importance put on the power of media images
•MAGAZINE-style images are a great place to
start when considering how MASS MEDIA:
•produces, maintains, repairs and/or
transforms reality
AND
•shapes and creates our CULTURE, the
learned behavior of members of a social
group

3. Developing Media Literacy Skills
•Recognizing the Power of Graphics in
Magazines and Beyond…
Graphics and other artwork provide the
background for interpreting
stories…and interpreting reality as
graphics can play a large part in
CREATING REALITY via Mass Media
Let’s take Body Image as an example…

4. IN-CLASS MEDIA PRESENTATION:
•EMBRACE is a “social
impact: documentary
about one woman’s
dissatisfaction with the
“reality” being created,
in part, by mass media.
•It’s all about body image
and concerns topics like
plastic surgery and
eating disorders which
some may find
upsetting.

5. IN-CLASS MEDIA PRESENTATION:

6. IN-CLASS MEDIA PRESENTATION:
•EMBRACE is a good
example of MASS
MEDIA being used as a
society/culture’s
nervous system –
carrying messages to
and from people to
others about important
issues that also happen
to revolve around mass
media itself.

7. REFLECTIVE PROJECT #2: Mass Media
Representation Evaluation
• Find one example of your own personal
dissatisfaction with the way in which people (women
and/or men and/or children and/or any
cultural/ethnic/religious/etc. group) are represented
in one of the following mass media messages:
magazine, song, book, movie, television show, music
video, video game, or any mass media advertisement.
Remember that your dissatisfaction can come from
seeing how others are represented, not just people
like yourself. Also, "dissatisfaction" does NOT have to
mean the portrayal is a "negative" one, but rather a
portrayal which you are personally dissatisfied with
for whatever reason.

8. REFLECTIVE PROJECT #2: Mass Media
Representation Evaluation
• My intent is not for you all to showcase media you want to “cancel”,
as much as it is for you all to be aware and involved in the media you
consume.
• Without social media, “cancel culture” as we know it now would
most likely not be an issue – it’s this relatively free and open
communication (via mass media) that social media offers which
makes large-scale “real-time” cultural conversations about mass
media “reality” even possible and we have to reckon with that.
• One can argue that Social Media is, in essence, a new tool exposing
long-standing dissatisfactions people have with mass media
representation.
• These discussions/debates/“controversies” are another example of
how a society/culture uses mass media as its “nervous system”,
delivering messages from one part of itself to another.

9. REFLECTIVE PROJECT #2: Mass Media
Representation Evaluation
•GO TO THIS WEEK’S WORK IN
BLACKBOARD TO SEE AN
EXAMPLE OF AND MORE
DETAILS ABOUT REFLECTIVE
PROJECT #2 EMBEDDED IN
THE ASSIGNMENT LISTING