Ian Gant's List: ENG&COMMS

• Media literacy is the ability to interpret and create personal meaning from the hundreds, even thousands, of verbal and visual messages we are exposed to every day.
• One critical area that media literacy education focuses on is the news and the role of the news media in a democratic society.
• choices have to be made
• news directors' perception of the audience's interests
• philosophy of the newspaper or station owner
• editor's perception of his/her own role as "gatekeeper
• Bias and Spin
• Bias and spin are two ways of shading the truth in news. The first comes from those presenting the news, i.e., editors, news directors and reporters. The second comes from those who are the source of the news itself.

  • Definition of bias and spin
• Have students compare a story on the same topic from two different source
• Ask students to deconstruct the story by analyzing the particular words used in describing persons and events; the order in which the facts are presented; who is quoted; the use of visuals; and the headline

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