ML DISCourse Model

NEW TO THE 2nd EDITION of Media Literacy in Action by Renee Hobbs

The Media Literacy DISCourse Model is a set of nine questions that help you build your critical thinking skills in responding to media texts. These questions also help students explore the connections between "questioning the media" and the deeper theoretical concepts of media literacy. 

Authors and Audiences

1. Authors create media messages for different purposes and target specific audiences. Media and communication are tools for self-expression, sharing information, persuasion, and entertainment. People also create media messages for social influence and/or profit. Authors cannot please everyone: to design effective communication, they mentally visualize a group of individuals with common characteristics, attitudes, or beliefs, targeting that audience with a carefully designed message they hope will grab attention and be perceived as valuable.

2. Context matters in how authors and audiences create and interpret media messages. Media messages are dependent on audience members’ interpretation of their meaning. When you view an old movie, you should consider the time period of its production as you interpret it. But you may also consider its meaning in the present era. If you have ever been in a large group of people where the whole room laughs together at the jokes in a video standup routine, you appreciate how audiences can have a shared understanding. But ask people in the room about the joke, and you may find that different nuances emerge as people interpret the comedy and apply it to their own lives.

3. The economic and political system shapes how authors and audiences create and share media messages. Audience attention is a highly valuable commodity. Knowledge about the political, economic, and business contexts of media industries and institutions can improve your understanding of how and why media messages circulate in culture. Those who are identified as authors may (or may not) receive financial compensation for their creative work. The scale and importance of the media industry in a global economy are undeniable. Your every touch of a digital device, in your capacity as consumer, creator, and citizen, has value in the marketplace.

Messages and Meanings

4. Production techniques are used to construct messages. The sharing of meaning occurs through the creation and interpretation of symbols. Each genre and form of communication uses different production techniques to attract and hold audience attention. For example, in a photo, the use of color, lighting, distance from the lens, and the position of the subject depicted may all be strategic choices deployed by the photographer. In a film, dialogue, characters, plot, action, and special effects are production elements that help the filmmaker accomplish the purpose of narrative storytelling. In writing, an author uses sentence structure, vocabulary, and narrative devices to develop ideas. 

5. The form and content of media messages contains values, ideology, and specific points of view. Every word choice you make as writer suggests what matters to you, what you value. Your point of view is embedded in the works of art, expression, and communication that you create, even when you attempt to be unbiased and adopt a disinterested, neutral tone.

6. Messages affect people’s beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors. Authors invest time and money to create media because they have a particular goal in mind; they know that information, entertainment, and persuasion all have undeniable social influence that affects people in different complex but important ways. Such influence may be an emotional sensation that is momentary and superficial (you laugh or perhaps you cry), or it may be substantial and life changing (a film, song, celebrity, or news event serves as a touchstone for your whole life).

Representations and Realities

7. Messages are selective representations of reality. A famous saying expresses this theoretical idea: “The map is not the territory.” This expression, developed by Alfred Korzybski, the founderof general semantics, encourages people to distinguish between symbols and the things that symbols stand in for. This idea celebrates the need for a heightened awareness of the differences between media representationsand the realities that we inhabit. Because you depend on media representations for many topics (especially when lacking direct experience of the world), it is easy to confuse the map with the territory.

8. Messages use stereotypes to express ideas and information. Because they are selective and incomplete, messages rely on stereotypes to express ideas and information. Stereotypes are a form of media representation that depicts people, events, and experiences using widely shared but oversimplified ideas. Stereotypes can be harmful because they distort people’s understanding of the world around them. Filmmakers and writers may use stereotypes because they provide an effective shorthand for depicting personalities, relationships, events, and experiences quickly. Some creative authors play against the stereotype by creating characters that may seem stereotypical but then break with expectations in interesting ways. Once you recognize stereotypes, you can analyze their rhetorical functions in news, advertising, information, literature, video games, films, and other media.

9. The credibility of media messages is judged using features like authority and authenticity. We value media messages that are credible because they help us develop a more accurate understanding of the world. Trustworthy media messages extend your perception and widen your view of a topic—they expand your ability to see beyond your limited perspective on the world. You may make judgments about whether a message is believable without much awareness. When you encounter an Instagram post, you intuitively judge it for authenticity, deciding within a few seconds whether filters have been used or whether the image has been staged (or created with the help of artificial intelligence). You may consider whether it has been created by an influencer who has been paid to promote the product. When you see a video that features an expert who uses facts and statistics that come from reputable sources, you may be more likely to believe it because the message has authority. Authority is established through community norms about what counts as expertise. Understanding how authority and authenticity are expressed in news, advertising, and entertainment can lead to better discernment of the quality and value of media messages.

COMING SOON! 

Get a paper copy of the Media Literacy DISCourse Model to explore Authors and Audiences, Messages and Meanings, and Representations and Realities.