Name ______Section ______Date ______
Worksheet 1-1 Cultural Forum
Make a list of things you have learned from the mass media in the last 24 hours that you would not otherwise have known. Try to go beyond news items to media sources that inform you in less explicit ways (i.e., product information in advertising, jokes from situation comedies, David Letterman’s monologue, game show prize descriptions, movie locations).
1.______
2.______
3.______
4.______
5.______
6.______
7.______
8.______
9.______
10.______
Share your list with a couple of your classmates. Do the lists have any of the same items in common? Which ones? What kinds of items were different? Can you provide a cultural explanation for these commonalities and differences?
Name ______Section ______Date ______
Worksheet 1-2 Exploring Communication
Have a quick conversation with one of your classmates. Isolate the ingredients of that particular exchange: the source, the encoding, the message, the channel, the receiver, and the decoding. To describe the decoding, think about the evidence that your message was received. For example: Carl Beauchamp enters a video store and says, “I’d like to rent the movie The Ring, please.” The clerk hands the video to Carl.
Source:Carl
Encoding:Spoken English
Message:I’d like to rent the movie The Ring, please.
Channel:Verbal
Medium:Air that carries the sound waves
Receiver:Clerk
Decoding:The clerk listens and understands the English words.
Feedback:The evidence for this is that the clerk gives the video to Carl.
Now you try it. Don’t forget to include any nonverbal communication that might occur.
Source:
Encoding:
Message:
Channel:
Medium:
Receiver:
Decoding:
Feedback:
Indicate whether noise, gatekeepers, or other communication components were at work to help or hinder your attempt at “shared meaning.” Would you have changed the content of your message if it had been meant for a mass audience? How and why?
Name ______Section ______Date ______
Worksheet 1-3 Culture’s Uniting and Dividing Effects
Today we will play a word association game. Here is a list of potentially culture-bound or time-bound words. Write down the first thing that comes into your mind as you read each word.
1. patriotism6. guns
2. motherhood7. girl
3. party8. immigrant
4. success9. hard work
5. freedom10. religious
1. Break into small groups and compare your answers with your classmates’. List specific differences or similarities in your group.
2. Now that you’ve shared your responses with your classmates, identify the source or foundation for some or all of your cultural understandings of these terms.
3. Can you identify ethnocentricity in any of your responses? Cite specific examples. Based on your own experience, when and where has ethnocentricity been established in your life?
Name ______Section ______Date ______
Worksheet 1-4 Media Literacy: Recognizing Cultural Values
1. Compare your childhood heroes and heroines with those of your parents. What differences are there between the generations in what you consider heroic qualities?
2. What are some similarities between the heroic qualities you and your parents recognize(d)?
3. Are the good qualities of your personal heroes something you can find in the movies or on TV? Perhaps your hero is even a TV character. Either way, where on TV or in film can you find the qualities you consider heroic?
4. Which cultural values, attitudes, and beliefs, if any, do you think have influenced how heroes/heroines have changed qualities throughout the last couple of decades?
5. How have the media helped establish the values you mentioned above as important qualities of people?
Name ______Section ______Date ______
Worksheet 1-5 Culture and Influence
Museum you visited: ______
This assignment requires you to visit an art museum. Before you answer these questions, simply wander around the museum and take notes on some specific art that catches your eye. Reflect on your overall experience of consuming art at a museum. Once you’ve thought about it, answer the following questions.
1. Why does some art get into museums while other art does not? Who decides?
2. Do you think the art at this museum is “worthy” of public display? Why or why not? Who decides?
3. Based on your answers to questions 1 and 2, in your opinion, what constitutes “good” art?
4. Provide a detailed description of one piece of art that affected you deeply (either positively or negatively). Explain why you think you were affected in this way.
5. Describe your overall experience of these types of visual arts (paintings, drawings, sculptures, etc.).
6. Do you consider the content of radio, magazines, television, movies, or other mass media to be art? Why or why not?
7. Has popular media content ever “affected” you to the extent that the (so-called) classic arts have? Why or why not? And if yes, how?
Name ______Section ______Date ______
Worksheet 1-6 Media Literacy Self-Examination
Choose your favorite medium (e.g., books, magazines, newspaper, television, the Internet), then answer the following questions.
Your favorite medium is ______
1. Why is this medium your favorite?
2. How literate do you believe you are in your consumption of this medium’s content? Explain your answer.
3. Have you ever made errors (misunderstood, “misread,” or missed the point) in consumption of content from this medium? Provide a detailed description of a particular instance.
4. Have your skills as a consumer of this medium’s content enhanced your enjoyment of specific content? Describe a specific example.
5. Can you recall a time when you approached content from this medium from multiple points of access? Describe how this may or may not have affected your enjoyment of the content.
Name ______Section ______Date ______
Worksheet 1-7 Journaling Your Thoughts on Developing Media Literacy
1. Do you think all media content increases your level of media literacy or can some broadcast or print media actually provide more confusion about the meaning of media messages? As you answer this question, consider that some media succeed best if the consumer remains illiterate. Explain your answer in a couple of paragraphs below.
2. The textbook argues that the media literate person develops sensitivity to media content trends as a means of learning about his or her culture. Will all media content always clarify the way you understand your culture, or can exposure to some types of media content make you less aware of your personal cultural identity? Explain. Give examples to support your answer.