Technology Integration: A Lesson in Media Literacy

What follows is a rough outline for a lesson entitled "Media Literacy and Alcohol Advertising," intended for Grade 6-8 Social Studies students.

In class, students are shown, via LCD projector, examples of alcohol advertisements. White (2004) offers a good selection of video advertisements online, while Sells & Gonzalez (2002) have provided a fair selection of applicable print advertisements. (Of course, the teacher must first screen the advertisements to ensure that they are appropriate for the students to view.) The teacher then leads a class discussion centering around the ads and commercials, with a focus on the following questions: What are alcohol companies trying to accomplish and why? What techniques are they using to accomplish their goals? Who are they targeting with their advertisements? Why might their methods be effective (or ineffective)? Following the discussion, students must use computers (either at home or at school) to access The Target is You!: Alcohol Advertising Quiz (Media Awareness Network, 2007) and complete the quiz online. Finally, they must post, on the class blog or discussion board, a minimum 100-word response to the videos, the discussion, and the quiz, including mention of at least one thing they learned during the quiz.


This is, as noted, a Social Studies lesson, and it is designed to develop the requisite Communication Skills (particularly Media Literacy), as defined in the Alberta Education Social Studies Program of Studies. More specifically, it is geared towards the following Skills and Processes, as outlined in the aforementioned Program of Studies: detection of bias on issues presented in the media (6.S.9, 7.S.9); examination of techniques used to enhance the authority and authenticity of media messages (7.S.9, 8.S.9); examination of the values, lifestyles, and points of view represented in a media message (7.S.9; 8.S.9).

At the same time, the lesson provides students with an opportunity to meet the following ICT Outcomes: access and retrieve appropriate information from the internet by using a specific search path or from given URLs (C.1.2.1); discuss how technology can be used to create special effects and/or to manipulate intent through the use of images and sound (F.4.2.3); understand the nature of various media and how they are consciously used to influence an audience (F.4.3.2); identify specific techniques used by the media to elicit particular responses from an audience (F.4.3.3); recognize that the ability of technology to manipulate images and sound can alter the meaning of a communication (F.4.3.4).

This is a fairly modest application of technology. Standard technology (in this case, an LCD projector connected to an internet-enabled computer) allows the teacher to share with his or her class a number of different media messages, both in video and print formats. This provides students with an opportunity to subject media messages to serious scrutiny in an open class discussion. Without the integration of this simple technology, such a discussion would not be possible (or, at the very least, it would be much less focused). The online quiz is simply an interesting and engaging way (complete with upbeat music and sharp graphics) of presenting a wealth of information about alcohol advertisements to the students, with a specific focus on Canadian youth. The blog (or discussion board) posts provide students with an opportunity to extend their discussion beyond the classroom, or at least an opportunity to read and consider their classmates’ thoughts on the subject. This further sharpens their critical thinking skills, without consuming any more class time.

References

Media Awareness Network (2007). The target is you!: Alcohol advertising quiz. Retrieved September 27, 2007, from http://www.media-awareness.ca/english/games/alcohol_quiz/.

White, A. M. (2004). College drinking. Retrieved September 27, 2007, from http://www.duke.edu/~amwhite/College/college6.htm.

Sells, P., and Gonzalez, S. (2002). The language of advertising. Retrieved September 27, 2007, from http://www.stanford.edu/class/linguist34/advertisements/alcohol%20ads/index.htm.