Page 346 - Štremfel, Urška, and Maša Vidmar (eds.). 2018. Early School Leaving: Contemporary European Perspectives. Ljubljana: Pedagoški inštitut.
P. 346
ear ly school leaving: contempor ary european perspectives
Example: Dangerous Minds attempts to represent ‘whiteness’ (the
dominant group) as the rationality, authority and cultural standards
against the ‘non-whiteness’ (the marginalised group) as violence, chaos and
failure. Students should be encouraged to think of other cases where simi-
lar representations of students at risk of ESL are visible not only from mov-
ies, but also from real life and how they can oppose them.
Key question 5: Why is this message being sent?
The last question tackles the motive or purpose of the media or any other
message. This question is based on the assumption that media are organ-
ised to acquire profit and/or power (Erjavec, 2010; Thoman & Jolls, 2004;
Kellner & Share, 2005). The main aim of this question is to determine the
influence that financing, ego or ideology has on the message, which helps
the message receiver appropriately respond to it and understand the reason
it was sent (Thoman & Jolls, 2004).
Example: All movies are filmed in order to make a profit and this is
also the case of Dangerous Minds too. Students should, however, try to
think of other reasons or if one of the reasons was also to present the is-
sue of ESLers and how the movie could be changed so that this message be-
comes more evident (at this point, students should be warned not to use ste-
reotyping or other risks presented through the other four core questions).
Critical media literacy educators should employ all five questions to
address the problem of media representation and not only the ones that are
most obvious, such as which techniques are used in the media message or
how audiences react to the message. Further, educators should challenge
their students to question widely accepted assumptions with opposition-
al interpretations as well as seeking alternative media with oppositional
and counterhegemonic representations and messages. In addition, they
should encourage their students to produce new media messages, which re-
flect their own points of view (Kellner & Share, 2007). As a result, students
learn about different views on addressed issues, are encouraged to discuss
these issues and consequently possibly change their own knowledge, opin-
ion and view on these issues. Moreover, students are encouraged to present
their new messages through other public communication channels (such
as YouTube, Facebook, blogs, vlogs etc.) and therefore participate in a wid-
er public debate.
These five core questions of critical media literacy are used in prac-
tice for teaching critical thinking in many projects in countries around
346
Example: Dangerous Minds attempts to represent ‘whiteness’ (the
dominant group) as the rationality, authority and cultural standards
against the ‘non-whiteness’ (the marginalised group) as violence, chaos and
failure. Students should be encouraged to think of other cases where simi-
lar representations of students at risk of ESL are visible not only from mov-
ies, but also from real life and how they can oppose them.
Key question 5: Why is this message being sent?
The last question tackles the motive or purpose of the media or any other
message. This question is based on the assumption that media are organ-
ised to acquire profit and/or power (Erjavec, 2010; Thoman & Jolls, 2004;
Kellner & Share, 2005). The main aim of this question is to determine the
influence that financing, ego or ideology has on the message, which helps
the message receiver appropriately respond to it and understand the reason
it was sent (Thoman & Jolls, 2004).
Example: All movies are filmed in order to make a profit and this is
also the case of Dangerous Minds too. Students should, however, try to
think of other reasons or if one of the reasons was also to present the is-
sue of ESLers and how the movie could be changed so that this message be-
comes more evident (at this point, students should be warned not to use ste-
reotyping or other risks presented through the other four core questions).
Critical media literacy educators should employ all five questions to
address the problem of media representation and not only the ones that are
most obvious, such as which techniques are used in the media message or
how audiences react to the message. Further, educators should challenge
their students to question widely accepted assumptions with opposition-
al interpretations as well as seeking alternative media with oppositional
and counterhegemonic representations and messages. In addition, they
should encourage their students to produce new media messages, which re-
flect their own points of view (Kellner & Share, 2007). As a result, students
learn about different views on addressed issues, are encouraged to discuss
these issues and consequently possibly change their own knowledge, opin-
ion and view on these issues. Moreover, students are encouraged to present
their new messages through other public communication channels (such
as YouTube, Facebook, blogs, vlogs etc.) and therefore participate in a wid-
er public debate.
These five core questions of critical media literacy are used in prac-
tice for teaching critical thinking in many projects in countries around
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