Today's Schedule

• Attendence checking

• Introduce Media Placement Exam

• A short quiz (not scored, just for fun)

• Review previous classes

• Discuss media journal assignment (if time allows)

• What's Next

Let's begin with roll call

Media Placement Exam

• Time: Next Friday (Jan. 31st, 2020) Discussion Session

• Place: Here

• Study resources:

  1. MPE study info

  2. J200 AP Basics

Quiz Time! 5 mins

Pin: 2913500

Let's review previous classes

1st week, Wednesday (Class)

Key Point 1.1: Some wrong comments:

• Media is biased

• Too much violence in the media

• Too much media usage make people anti-social

• ...

• All in all, technology is not the problem. It is how people use it that causes problems.

Key Point 1.2: "media" and "the media"

Difference between "media" and "the media":

• The media: people will associate negative things with "the media"

• Media is a plural of medium. It is wrong to term the "media" so broadly. We should be more specific in identifying type of media:

  1. News or information media

  2. Entertainment media

  3. Social media

  4. ...

• We should know that these categories are based on their purpose.

Key Point 1.3: profiting or informing

• The primary goal of media companies is to make profits.

• For journalists, there is a clash between making money and informing the public.

2st week, Wednesday (Class)

Key Point 2.1: Definition of Media Literacy

Media Literacy is the ability to access, analyze, evaluate, create, and act using all forms of communication.¹

Key point 2.2: Different interpretations

• Once you post your material, audiences will interpret in their own ways.

Key point 2.3: Key terms of media literacy

• Media literary: transforming information into knowledge

• Some key terms:

  1. Law of closure;

  2. Filter buble;

  3. Confirmation bias;

  4. Information satisficing

Key point 2.3.1 Law of closure

Key point 2.3.1 Law of closure, continued

Key point 2.3.2 Filter bubble

It refers to the results of the algorithms that dictate what we encounter online.¹

It is the media world we create where we only see and interact with things and people we already like. With or without our knowledge.²

Key point 2.3.3 Confirmation bias

the tendency to gather evidence that confirms preexisting expectations, typically by emphasizing or pursuing supporting evidence while dismissing or failing to seek contradictory evidence.¹

Key point 2.3.4 Information satisficing

satisficing: sufficing + satisfying

Satisficing describes a decision-making strategy where individuals only search for possible solutions until they find an acceptable option. ... do not go through all information on webpages and other products. Rather, they stop reading once they believe they have found enough information for their purpose.¹

Key point 2.4 Definition-Access

• Old times: access or lack of access to radio, newspaper, TV sets, ...

• Now: digital divide

Key point 2.5 Definition-Analyze

The foundation of media analysis is acknowledging that all media is constructed with a purpose and a particular point of view ¹.

Steps of analysis²:

1. who created this message and what is the purpose?

2. What techniques does it use to attract and hold attention?

3. what lifestyles, values and points of view does it depict?

4. How might different people interpret this message?

5. What is omitted, or left out?

Key point 2.6 Definition-Evaluate

Evaluation: Quality & Credibility

1. Relevance (Revevant to what you are looking for?)

2. Accuracy (What is the source? citing scientists? or any authority?)

3. Bias (some one's perspective)

4. Reliability (How trustworthy a publisher or author is based on the entirety of their work)

Key point 2.7 skepticism not cynicism

• Towards media, have skepticism but not cynicism

• Being Skeptical means approaching everything by questionning its truth. Every ad, every song, every book, every article. Everything. (from Material)

• Follow your perpection of bias and textual analysis skills, rather than your "gut". (from Material)

Key point 2.8 media literacy in the future (from Material)

• Data literacy

• Algorithmic literacy

Key point 2.8 media literacy in the future (continued)

• Data literacy deals with understanding and analyzing data.

• What is data: Information about the world that is stored in a specific format.

• Algorithmic literacy is knowing that any information you see online is only one slice of the pie, and one that's been cut specifically for you.

• Data literacy and algorithmic literacy often go hand in hand.

Discuss media journal assignment

What's next

• Monday (1/27) class theme: Media use, ownership, economy

• Wednesday (1/29) guest speaker: Dean James Shanahan

• Read McChesney: "Policing the Unthinkable" before Monday class

• Take Media Placement Exam next Friday (1/31) here.