Media Literacy ParadigmParadigm: a philosophical and theoretical

framework of a discipline within which theories, laws, and generalizations and the experiments performed in support of them

are formulated

Or it is a specific way of looking at something

Step 1: Classify the ProductConcept: All media messages have some basic

identifiable properties

Step 1: Classify the Product

Questions: What medium is used? the genre? Is it part of a whole or complete by itself?

Comics

Step 2: Examine its originsConcept: All media messages are constructed by

someone.

Step 2: Examine its origins

Questions: Who is the sender of the message? Who

paid for the message? How many people actually put it together and what did each do?

What is the content based on? an actual event? an idea? whose idea?

What is the purpose or intent of the message? Is it clear or hidden?

Step 3: Analyze its mediationConcept: Media messages are constructed

using a creative language with its own rules.

Step 3: Analyze its mediation

Questions: What techniques are used to attract my attention?

colors, shapes; sounds or silence; movement, symbols; props, settings, clothing; words – written or spoken

Conventions of presentation: routines or patterns, traditions, stereotypes, narrative

formulas, camera angles and point of view, use of graphics and layouts

What is emphasized and what is left out?

Step 3: Analyze its mediationConcept: Language of Comics, McCloud’s

Undestanding Comics

Step 4: Investigate its consumptionConcepts Different people experience the same

message differently.

Step 4: Investigate its consumption

Questions: Who is the intended audience and why? What is the motivation for consuming the product? Who has access to it? Is anything needed to

consume the product? How many ways might you interpret this message? How might background (gender, ethnicity, age,

religion, economic status, familiarity with product, etc.) influence one’s reaction?

Step 5: Perceive its impactConcept Media have embedded values and

points of view.

Step 5: Perceive its impactQuestions: What lifestyles, values, and points of view are

represented in or omitted from this message? What judgments are made about personal or social

relationships? about political, economic, or moral values?

What is the cultural context? What Ideas are being sold?

Step 5: Perceive its impactQuestions: What type of person is the consumer asked to

identify with? What kinds of behaviors and consequences are

shown? Who or what is left out? What are personal/societal effects of consuming

this? the effects on your time /money? the effects on future experiences with the media?

Apply the Paradigm: Classify the

Product Examine its origins Analyze its

mediation Investigate its

consumption Perceive its impact

Apply the Paradigm: Classify the

Product Examine its origins Analyze its

mediation Investigate its

consumption Perceive its impact

Apply the Paradigm: Classify the

Product Examine its origins Analyze its

mediation Investigate its

consumption Perceive its impact

Apply the Paradigm: Classify the

Product Examine its origins Analyze its

mediation Investigate its

consumption Perceive its impact

Apply the Paradigm: Classify the

Product Examine its origins Analyze its

mediation Investigate its

consumption Perceive its impact

Apply the Paradigm: Classify the

Product Examine its origins Analyze its

mediation Investigate its

consumption Perceive its impact

Apply the Paradigm: Classify the

Product Examine its origins Analyze its

mediation Investigate its

consumption Perceive its impact