Media

- is the different channels, or ways, in which news, 

entertainment, marketing messages or other information is spread.
- In the past, the word media was considered a plural noun.
- It was plural because it does not just refer to the one way that information is spread. 
- It refers to several different ways. 

Types
Old Media – print media
o Newspaper
o Magazine
o Billboards
New Media – technology
o Radio
o Television
o Internet

Mass Media – media that reaches a large number of people

Media is everywhere

Media Literacy
Cognitive dissonance - the state of having inconsistent thoughts, beliefs, or attitudes, especially as relating
to behavioral decisions and attitude change.

Negatice effects
- Issue of oversaturation of messaging
- Misinformation
Delivery mechanism has changes over time. It’s gotten quicker, faster and instantaneous.
The intent of media is always the same – to inform.
use the media as a tool for information and not a basis to make decisions specifically on somebody else’s
thoughts.
Use your own mind and have it better your own world and your own life.

Preview a text
1. Title
- Assess first what do you already know about the topic
- By looking at the title, we’re learning about the article and preparing to understand it better.
 2. Pictures & captions
- A caption is the words or sentences right below a picture that give more information about the
picture.
- Predicting - this process, using small pieces of information from previewing to make a guess
about something in the whole text,
3. Subheadings
- Subheadings are the small titles that introduce different sections of the text.
4. First paragraph
- The main idea is the overall general message of the text

Literacy is the ability to read, understand, analyze, and create with a written language.
Analyzing means looking at something carefully to understand it.
To really have literacy, we need to be able to read, understand, analyze, and create writing.

Someone who is media literate, can read, understand, analyze and create media.
This means understanding, not only the text in a media message, but also other pieces of the message,
such as pictures or data.
media literacy means the ability to understand, analyze and create media messages.

Media lit is about asking the rights questions . . .

It starts with asking the right questions: Who created this message? What words or images are used in this
message and why? How is this message supposed to make me feel?

The Center for Media Literacy has identified five more reasons to understand today’s media-soaked
environment:

1. You need two skills to be engaged citizens of a democracy: critical thinking and self-expression.
Media literacy instills both.
2. You are exposed to more media messages in one day than previous generations were exposed to
in a year. Media literacy teaches you the skills to navigate safely through these messages.
3. Media exerts a significant impact on the way we understand, interpret and act. Media literacy
helps you understand outside influences and empowers you to make better decisions.
4. The world is increasingly influenced by visual images. Learning how to “read” through layers of
image-based communication is just as necessary as learning to analyze text-based
communication.
5. Media literacy helps you understand where information comes from, whose interests may be
being served and how to find alternative views.
Questions to ask in order to analyze media

analyzing means looking at something carefully to understand it.

5 specific questions made by the center for media literacy

1. Who created the message that is being sent?
- All media messages are created by people.
- Those people make choices about what to include and what not to.
- The images and videos we see, and the words that we read, tell us a story. It is important to think
about what choices were made and how it affects or changes the story we are told.
2. What techniques were used to attract my attention?
- A technique is the manner or method in which something is done.
- When the media creates a message, they use certain techniques to capture the attention of their
audience.
- The goal is for you as a viewer to continue to read or watch the media message.
3. How might other people understand or interpret this message differently from me?
- People understand messages differently because each person interprets messages based on age,
culture, gender, and beliefs.
4. What points of view and values are included or omitted from this message?
- Values guide the decisions that people make.
- The message being sent may be very different depending on its beliefs and values.
- It is especially important to think about religious or political beliefs.
- It's important that the media includes information from people with different ideas, opinions, and
backgrounds.
- The media is also sending the message that the ideas or views that are omitted are not important.
5. Why was this message sent?
- The media most often sends messages to give the audience information to convince them to buy a
product or to simply entertain them.
- For all media messages, the larger purpose is usually to make money or gain power.

Skimming and Scanning

Skimming is reading quickly for the main idea.

When we skim, we're going to read only the title, first paragraph, first sentences of other paragraphs and
sometimes the last paragraph.
Skim
1. Title
2. First paragraph
 3. First sentences of other paragraphs
- Writers often introduce the main idea of each paragraph in the first sentence.
4. Last paragraph

Scanning is reading quickly to find some specific information.

1. Think about the information we want
2. Where in the text can we find what we’re looking for; pictures and subheadings help.

Traditional Media
traditional media is the types of media that have been used since before the Internet and mobile phone
technology were developed.

Types
- Television
- Radio
- Print
o Newspaper and magazines
o Mail
o Outdoor messages
Differences
- Speed of information
o How fast
- Amount of information
o How much is there
- Audience
o Who uses
o What their reason
Cost
- Expensive
- Complicated

Advertising
- Messages that are created about products for sale

Who produced them

Why do they produce it
It is important because the content affects the message

Social Media
Social Media is the websites and applications, or apps, that allow you to create and share media messages
with other people.
These sites, or apps, allow users to create content,
What makes this media social is that users can then publish their own content so it can be shared with
other people.

Important Characteristic
- User-created content
o All of the text and picture and video messages in social media are created by the users
- Two-way communication
o Users of social media can send messages directly to each other to have conversations
about issues.
- Online social network
o A social network is all of the people you know and interact with.

UNIT 2
Comparative Adjectives
An adjective is a word that describes a noun.

Comparative adjectives describe the differences between things.

What to do with adjectives that have more than two syllables?
We add the word more or less in front of adjectives with more than two syllables, and we don't add to the
end.
Overcoming Bias: The Power of Social Media
Bias means showing an opinion about something that is not based on all of the facts.
- Bias in Traditional
- Overcoming Bias with Social Media
o One way social media can help overcome bias is by making it easy to share different
points of view.
o The ability to ask questions and have a public discussion.
o Public discussion about issues is important, because it can help you discover bias and
find your own point of view about how to act in the world.
o Different points of view
o Public discussions

Using Social Media to Support Causes

1. Raising awareness
2. Collecting donations
3. Organizing volunteers
A cause is an idea or belief that people work to support.
Raising awareness means showing your support in public so that other people will learn about the cause
and decide to help.

Reductions - words that are formed by combining other words and leaving out some of the sounds.
- Formed
o All reductions are simply faster and easier ways to say a frequently used word or phrase.
o One way to do this is by leaving out some of the middle sounds of a phrase
o We can take a phrase that people use a lot, such as give me, and omit one of the middle
sounds.
o Two more common reductions are formed by leaving out a sound at the end of a phrase,
kind of and lotta.
o Reductions are almost always spoken though and not ran. You may see reduction only in
the most informal situations such as a text message.
Two more common reductions are formed by leaving out a sound at the end of a phrase, kind of and lotta.

The Reliability of Social Media (Editing/Doctoring Content)

- How quick info spread

o Information that spreads very quickly through social media is called viral,
- What happens when info is unreliable
- How can media literacy help
Credibility of sources
Media lit skills to check reliability
- The first thing you can do is ask yourself where the information is coming from.
- make sure that the source is credible
- The second way to check for reliability is to try to find evidence
- Remember this rule, If you see a big claim in social media, then you should ask for big evidence.
- Third, when you're trying to find out whether something is reliable, you should consider bias.

Language of New Media

Format of a social media message
- Tagging – use of a special link to connect a social media message to other
- Hashtags – messages related to a group or idea
- Limit of texts to write
Types of language used
- Use of abbreviations

UNIT 3
Advertising

Advertising is creating messages to tell people about a product or service, and to convince them to buy it.
The message that is created about a product for sale is called an advertisement, or ad for short.

The goal with any advertisement is to get as many people to see it as possible. If many people see an ad,
then many people will know about the product or service.
If many people know about the product or service, hopefully, many people will buy it.
People who buy products or services are called consumers.

Advertisers:
1. Create messages to inform and convince consumers
2. Use media to spread messages
3. Spend huge amounts of money for people to see their ads
Thinking Critically about Advertisements
1. Why think critically about ads
- Make good decisions
2. Consumers should look for in an ad
a. Ask the 5 questions
b. Look for exaggerations
c. Look for not stated facts

5 questions to analyze a media message

1. Who created the message being sent
2. Techniques used to attract my attention
3. How might other people understand or interpret this message differently from me?
4. What points of view or values are included or omitted from this message?
5. Why was this message sent?
2 reasons to create ads
1. Inform
2. Convince people to buy the product
As a consumer, one thing you should look for are exaggerations
Targeting an audience
- Who they created the product to

- How old
- Mostly m or f
- Interest and hobby
- Needs
- Media often used
- Location
- Values and culture of the people
Knowing and understanding the target audience
- Helps reach them and appeal to them
- Audience will determine what ad looks and where to place the ad
Importance for consumers
- Understand the choices that advertises made

Order of Adjectives
8 categories of adjectives
1. Quantity
 2. Opinion
3. Size
4. Age
5. Shape
6. Color
7. Nationality
8. Material

Features of a Print Advertisement

Different parts of print ad
- Color
o Warm – positive, safe
o Cooler – calm, relaxed
- Images
o Product
o Famous person
- Logo
- Slogan
Visually appealing to audience
Features of Radio and Television Advertisements
- Radio can only be heard
- television can be seen and heard.
Radio ads
- Music
- Different voices
- jingle
- sound effects
television ads
- video
- show / explain the product
- tell a story

Language Focus - Intensifiers (Normal vs. Strong Adjectives)

Intensifiers are words that are used to make adjectives stronger

intensifier comes before an adjective.
the word enough is an intensifier that follows an irregular form. (adj. + enough)

Strong adjectives include words like enormous, tiny, amazing, and awful.
Using the Internet to Advertise

- online advertising
o when advertisers create online ads they can use people's online search histories and
customer feedback.
- search histories
o search you did influenced what ads you see later on these other websites.
- customer feedback
o customers state what they like or do not like about a product.
o Customer feedback is helpful to advertisers because if the feedback is good, the company
can use those comments to advertise the product. If the feedback is not very good the
company can use those comments to improve the product.
o It makes you as the consumer an active participant in the advertising process.
Analyzing Advertisements