Critical Media Literacy Exploring Values

1. Critical Media LiteracyExploring Values in Popular Music Presenters: Nancy L. Douglas Maysam Beydoun

2. Critical Thinking • Lipman -Thinking that facilitates judgment because it relies on criteria, is self-corrective, and is sensitive to context

3. Critical Literacy • Green - Developing ways of seeing through texts, their descriptions of cultures and worlds, and how they are trying to position you to be part of these cultures and worlds

4. Examining our own beliefs • Dr. Douglas, Assistant Professor • Maysam Beydoun, Middle School Language Arts teacher • Lydia Falk, graduate student and mother of 2 boys, one teenage and one pre-teen age

5. Guiding Principles 1. Young people are far from being the gullible consumers of popular culture adults often make them out to be. They accept or reject music, ways of dressing, and other trends according to their own background experiences, values, and the surrounding social milieu.

6. Guiding Principles, cont. 2. We wanted to provide an environment in which the students would be able to freely exchange their ideas about various artists. Focused discussions were teacher facilitated but not teacher led. We were careful not to interject our personal likes or dislikes.

7. Guiding Principles, cont. 3. There is a risk in asking students to critique artists whose music gives them personal enjoyment. We told the students that they didn’t know what we wanted to hear and that we expected them to be truthful in their responses.

8. Surveyed Students • Their favorite musical artists • Their least favorite musical artists

9. Included favorite and least favorite: • Britney Spears • Jennifer Lopez • Pink • Destiny's Child • N Sync • Linkin Park • Nelly

10. First day • Female artists • Listened to songs • Read and reflected upon lyrics • Viewed images of artists

20. First day, cont.Journaling We gave the students the option of using their own values to think critically about the artists. Specifically, we asked them to: a) compare the artists’ lyrics with their images, b) identify values suggested by the artists’ lyrics and images, c) compare their own values with the values suggested by the artists’ lyrics and images or discuss the influences these artists were having on adolescents.

21. Second day • Whole class discussion of journal questions

22. Third and Fourth days • Process was repeated using male artists

34. Fifth Day • Essay writing assignment was given • Reviewed prewriting techniques

35. Essay Directions • Read the choices below. Select one question to answer in a five-paragraph essay. Think about our class discussion, what you wrote in your journals, and choose the question you are most comfortable with.

36. Essay questions 1) Compare and contrast Pink, Britney Spears, and Destiny’s Child, or just two of these artists. Think about their images, their song lyrics, and anything else you may know about them. Tell how they are alike, how they are different, or both.

37. Essay Questions, cont. 2) Compare and contrast Linkin Park, N’Sync, and Nelly, or just two of these artists. Think about their images, their song lyrics, and anything else you may know about them. Tell how they are alike, how they are different, or both.

38. Essay questions, cont. 3) Who is a better role model: Pink, Britney Spears, or Destiny’s Child and why? Support your position with the images they project, their song lyrics and anything else you know about them.

39. Essay questions, cont. 4) Who is a better role model: Linkin Park, N’Sync, or Nelly and why? Support your position with the images they project, their song lyrics and anything else you know about them.

40. Essay questions, cont. 5) Which celebrity or celebrities do you relate to? In what ways do you specifically relate to them? Use specific examples from their images and song lyrics to support your answer.

41. Essay questions, cont. 6) Think about the core values: integrity, respect for self and others, responsibility, and honesty. Which of the celebrity(s) seem to stand for one or more of these values? Support your answer with information about the celebrity including images and/or lyrics and anything else you know about them.