Media Literacy

by Potter, W. James

• ISBN13: 9780761909262
• ISBN10: 0761909265
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1998-02-01
• Publisher: Sage Pubns

Summary

Media Literacy introduces students to the fascinating world that operates behind media messages. Examples and exercises are used to support the key ideas, while students are invited to analyze media from the points of view of a psychologist, an economist, an advertiser, a journalist, a media critic, a producer and a policymaker. This approach enables them to establish knowledge structures from which they can discern between the media effects which are positive - and have value as instruction or entertainment - and those which are negative.

Table of Contents

Preface for Faculty	ix	(10)
Preface for Students	xix	(6)
Acknowledgments	xxv	(2)
Media Literacy Quiz	xxvii
PART I Introduction	3	(42)
1. What Is Media Literacy?	3	(18)
What Is Media Literacy?	4	(6)
Building Strong Knowledge Structures	10	(3)
Putting It All Together	13	(3)
Summary	16	(3)
Exercise 1.1 Analyzing Your Degree of Literacy in Reading a Magazine Article	19	(2)
2. The Importance of Media Literacy	21	(24)
Message Saturation	23	(4)
Faulty Beliefs	27	(9)
Why the Faulty Beliefs?	36	(2)
Summary	38	(3)
Exercise 2.1 Becoming Sensitized to Media Message Saturation	41	(4)
PART II Skills	45	(64)
3. How Does the Human Mind Work?	45	(19)
Changes in Thinking About Thinking	46	(5)
Schemas	51	(8)
Media Alter the Human Mind	59	(1)
Summary	60	(3)
Exercise 3.1 Examining How People Make Sense of Their World	63	(1)
4. The Skills of Media Literacy	64	(22)
Rudimentary Skills	66	(6)
Advanced Skills	72	(9)
Summary	81	(2)
Exercise 4.1 Becoming Sensitive to Rudimentary Skills	83	(2)
Exercise 4.2 Exercising Advanced Skills	85	(1)
5. The Developmental Perspective	86	(23)
Cognitive Development	89	(8)
Emotional Development	97	(3)
Moral Development	100	(2)
Summary	102	(3)
Exercise 5.1 Being Aware of Your Development	105	(4)
PART III Knowledge	109	(234)
6. What Is News?	109	(28)
Is News a Reflection or a Construction?	111	(7)
The Issue of Bias	118	(3)
Exposure and Learning	121	(1)
Criticisms of News	122	(4)
Becoming Literate About News	126	(3)
Summary	129	(5)
Exercise 6.1 Practicing Analyzing the News	134	(1)
Exercise 6.2 Inferring News Workers' Decisions	135	(1)
Exercise 6.3 Exercising Higher Order Skills	136	(1)
7. Commercial Advertising	137	(24)
Advertising Is Pervasive	139	(1)
The Business of Advertising	139	(6)
Social Criticisms	145	(5)
Economic Effects of Advertising	150	(3)
Effects on Individuals	153	(5)
Summary	158	(2)
Exercise 7.1 Becoming Sensitized to Advertising	160	(1)
8. What Is Entertainment?	161	(17)
The World of Television Entertainment	162	(7)
Entertainment Conventions	169	(4)
Summary	173	(3)
Quiz Patterns in Television Entertainment	176	(1)
Exercise 8.1 Analyzing the Content of Television Entertainment	177	(1)
9. Development of the Mass Media Industries	178	(21)
Patterns of Development	179	(2)
The Mass Media Profiled	181	(14)
General Employment Trends	195	(2)
Summary	197	(2)
10. Economic Perspective	199	(22)
Basic Terms and Concepts	200	(3)
Key Economic Characteristics	203	(5)
How Profitable Are the Individual Media?	208	(9)
Summary	217	(2)
Exercise 10.1 Estimating Your Personal Media Expenditures	219	(1)
Exercise 10.2 Financial Analysis	220	(1)
11. Who Owns and Controls the Mass Media?	221	(22)
Competing Forces	222	(5)
Concentration Within Media	227	(7)
Cross-Media Ownership and Control	234	(5)
Summary	239	(3)
Exercise 11.1 What Is the Concentration of Media Ownership in Your Local Market?	242	(1)
12. What Is an Audience?	243	(14)
Mass Audience?	244	(3)
Conceptions of Segmented Audiences	247	(4)
Media Exposure	251	(2)
Summary	253	(3)
Exercise 12.1 Segmentation	256	(1)
13. Broadening Our Perspective on Media Effects	257	(24)
Three-Dimensional Perspective on Media Effects	259	(5)
A Broad Listing of Media Effects	264	(11)
Summary	275	(4)
Exercise 13.1 Broadening Your View on Media Effects	279	(1)
Exercise 13.2 What Have You Internalized From the Media Culture?	280	(1)
14. HOW Do the Effect Processes Work?	281	(16)
Cause and Effect	282	(6)
Other Issues of Effect	288	(6)
Summary	294	(2)
Exercise 14.1 Profiling the Probability of an Effect	296	(1)
15. Media Influence on Institutions	297	(26)
Family	299	(4)
Politics	303	(5)
Religion	308	(4)
Sports	312	(4)
Society	316	(2)
Summary	318	(4)
Exercise 15.1 Becoming Sensitive to Changes in Institutions	322	(1)
16. The Importance of Real-World Knowledge	323	(20)
Importance of Information	324	(4)
Types of Information	328	(2)
Examples of Mis-Inferences	330	(5)
Summary	335	(3)
Exercise 16.1 Thinking About a Plan for Real-World Knowledge	338	(5)
PART IV Putting It All Together	343	(36)
17. The Media Literacy Perspective	343	(23)
Awareness of Your Knowledge Structures	345	(1)
Awareness of How Your Mind Works	346	(2)
Awareness of Effects Processes	348	(5)
Illustrations	353	(6)
Summary	359	(2)
Exercise 17.1 Awareness of Your Knowledge Structures	361	(2)
Exercise 17.2 Awareness of How Your Mind Works	363	(2)
Exercise 17.3 Awareness of Key Factors in Effects Processes	365	(1)
18. Postscript to Students: Strategies for Increasing Media Literacy	366	(13)
Personal Strategies	367	(5)
Interpersonal Strategies	372	(2)
Societal Strategies	374	(2)
Summary	376	(3)
Appendix: Answers for Media Literacy Quiz	379	(6)
Index	385