Deck 1: Mass Communication, Culture, and Media Literacy

Question 1

What are some specific media literacy skills?

Answer 1

Specific media literacy skills are defined as,
• The ability and willingness to understand the content.
• An understanding and respect of the power of media.
• The ability to distinguish emotional/rational reactions and respond accordingly.
• Heightened expectations of media content
• Knowledge of genre conventions.

Question 2

What is the difference between genres and production conventions? What do these have to do with media literacy?

Answer 2

Genres in media are described as the category of expression for a news source. Examples of genres are morning news, expose, independent reporting, etc.
Production Conventions are the style elements that often follow the forms mentioned above. For instance, an independent report may contain less facts or video is of lower quality that comes with a lesser budget.
Knowing the genre or conventions would improve the media literacy as one will know what to expect, common tactics/methods of conveying information, and how to spot when certain elements are missing.

Question 3

Who were your childhood heroes and heroines? Why did you choose them? What cultural lessons did you learn from them?

Answer 3

One's childhood hero would be Michael Jackson and childhood heroine would be Elizabeth Taylor. Because as a child, one's childhood hero or heroine should be the one who possesses high cultural values, and is relatable by everyone. Both, Michael Jackson and Elizabeth Taylor, exhibited high cultural values through their art, and had mass appeal.
Generally, heroes and heroines convey the cultural messages, if any, through their films and television. These individuals often displayed strong moral compasses, which helped in influencing the society in a positive way. Therefore they taught morals, restraints, ethics, and compassion to their followers.

Question 4

What is culture? How does culture define people?

Question 5

The Gutenberg printing press had just the opposite effect from what was intended. What optimistic predictions for the cultural impact of the Internet and the World Wide Web do you think will prove as inaccurate as Gutenberg's hopes for his innovation? What optimistic predictions do you think will be realized? Defend your answers.

Question 6

What is communication? What is mass communication?

Question 7

How media literate do you think you are? What about those around you-your parents, for example, or your best friend? What are your weaknesses as a media-literate person?

Question 8

What are encoding and decoding? How do they differ when technology enters the communication process?

Question 9

What does it mean to say that communication is a reciprocal process?

Question 10

What is James Carey's cultural definition of communication? How does it differ from other definitions of that process?

Question 11

What do we mean by mass media as cultural storyteller?

Question 12

What do we mean by mass communication as cultural forum?

Question 13

What is media literacy? What are its components?