Positioning, Spectatorship, and Teen Films: Giving Students the Power for Effective Media Education

What is the most effective curricular and pedagogical approach to use in increasing media literacy among students? This is the challenge that I and most media educators must address today. This thesis charts my exploration of that question and demonstrates the results of a unit of instruction create...

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Main Author: Moss, Bradley David
Format: Others
Published: BYU ScholarsArchive 2009
Subjects:
Online Access:https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/1823
https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2822&context=etd
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spelling ndltd-BGMYU2-oai-scholarsarchive.byu.edu-etd-28222021-08-21T05:01:08Z Positioning, Spectatorship, and Teen Films: Giving Students the Power for Effective Media Education Moss, Bradley David What is the most effective curricular and pedagogical approach to use in increasing media literacy among students? This is the challenge that I and most media educators must address today. This thesis charts my exploration of that question and demonstrates the results of a unit of instruction created to enhance the critical media literacy of students by focusing on positioning theory, spectatorship, and considering teen representation in mass media films. In creating curriculum, I needed to define the end goal of the instruction. My research led me to critical media literacy and its focus on moving beyond media textual analysis to exploring the power systems and meaning-making of media texts that could increase understanding of the world and oneself. In this research, the critical media literacy objectives were addressed through a focus on teen representations in film. Students viewed and responded to teen representations in a variety of films, and then were placed in the role of media creators to create teen films that showed the teen experience from their own perspectives. This shift, from media consumer to creator, was designed to help students understand the role and power of media authorship, allowing them to consider how media messages could be constructed and transmitted. Positioning theory suggests that individuals take certain roles and enact certain storylines in their social interactions with others. In order to achieve my critical media literacy goals, I needed to encourage the students to break from the positioning patterns of a traditional classroom, wherein the instructor holds the knowledge and is the arbiter of media values to the students. This shift was promoted in an effort for the students to gain more autonomy in media production and to develop media reading skills based on their own perspectives and not simply by looking at a text through the instructor's eyes. The research presented here shows the success and limitations faced in a secondary film class with a shift in curriculum, based on critical media literacy, and pedagogy, based on positioning theory, and allows me as an educator to uncover new ideas that can help me and other media educators meet the changing needs of the subject and students today. 2009-07-20T07:00:00Z text application/pdf https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/1823 https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2822&context=etd http://lib.byu.edu/about/copyright/ Theses and Dissertations BYU ScholarsArchive critical media literacy representation education Film and Media Studies Theatre and Performance Studies
collection NDLTD
format Others
sources NDLTD
topic critical media literacy
representation
education
Film and Media Studies
Theatre and Performance Studies
spellingShingle critical media literacy
representation
education
Film and Media Studies
Theatre and Performance Studies
Moss, Bradley David
Positioning, Spectatorship, and Teen Films: Giving Students the Power for Effective Media Education
description What is the most effective curricular and pedagogical approach to use in increasing media literacy among students? This is the challenge that I and most media educators must address today. This thesis charts my exploration of that question and demonstrates the results of a unit of instruction created to enhance the critical media literacy of students by focusing on positioning theory, spectatorship, and considering teen representation in mass media films. In creating curriculum, I needed to define the end goal of the instruction. My research led me to critical media literacy and its focus on moving beyond media textual analysis to exploring the power systems and meaning-making of media texts that could increase understanding of the world and oneself. In this research, the critical media literacy objectives were addressed through a focus on teen representations in film. Students viewed and responded to teen representations in a variety of films, and then were placed in the role of media creators to create teen films that showed the teen experience from their own perspectives. This shift, from media consumer to creator, was designed to help students understand the role and power of media authorship, allowing them to consider how media messages could be constructed and transmitted. Positioning theory suggests that individuals take certain roles and enact certain storylines in their social interactions with others. In order to achieve my critical media literacy goals, I needed to encourage the students to break from the positioning patterns of a traditional classroom, wherein the instructor holds the knowledge and is the arbiter of media values to the students. This shift was promoted in an effort for the students to gain more autonomy in media production and to develop media reading skills based on their own perspectives and not simply by looking at a text through the instructor's eyes. The research presented here shows the success and limitations faced in a secondary film class with a shift in curriculum, based on critical media literacy, and pedagogy, based on positioning theory, and allows me as an educator to uncover new ideas that can help me and other media educators meet the changing needs of the subject and students today.
author Moss, Bradley David
author_facet Moss, Bradley David
author_sort Moss, Bradley David
title Positioning, Spectatorship, and Teen Films: Giving Students the Power for Effective Media Education
title_short Positioning, Spectatorship, and Teen Films: Giving Students the Power for Effective Media Education
title_full Positioning, Spectatorship, and Teen Films: Giving Students the Power for Effective Media Education
title_fullStr Positioning, Spectatorship, and Teen Films: Giving Students the Power for Effective Media Education
title_full_unstemmed Positioning, Spectatorship, and Teen Films: Giving Students the Power for Effective Media Education
title_sort positioning, spectatorship, and teen films: giving students the power for effective media education
publisher BYU ScholarsArchive
publishDate 2009
url https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/1823
https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2822&context=etd
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