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Media embedded values and points of view

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hyangminitromuring
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4 views6 pages

Media embedded values and points of view

Uploaded by

hyangminitromuring
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Key Question #4

Core Concept #4: Media


have embedded values and
points of view.

1
Because all media messages are
constructed, choices have to be made.
These choices inevitably reflect the
values, attitudes and points of view of
the ones doing the constructing. The
decision about a character's age,
gender or race mixed in with the
lifestyles, attitudes and behaviors that
are portrayed, the selection of a
setting (urban? rural? affluent? poor?),
and the actions and re-actions in the
plot are just some of the ways that
values become "embedded" in a TV
show, a movie or an ad. Even the news
has embedded values in the decisions
made about what stories go first, how
long they are, what kinds of pictures 02
are chosen, and so on.
• Sometimes, like us, media makers are
careless and turn a generalization (a
flexible observation) into a stereotype (a
rigid conclusion). We should expect them,
however, to strive for fairness and balance
between various ideas and viewpoints. But
we also need to know how to locate
alternative sources of both news and
entertainment and to be able to evaluate
the alternatives as well for their own
embedded values. 03
• What's significant about Key Question / Core
Concept #4 is not that ideas and values are
embedded in media messages but that the
values of mainstream media typically reinforce,
and therefore, affirm, the existing social system.
This explains two of the major complaints many
people have about media: 1) Less popular or
new ideas can have a hard time getting aired,
especially if they challenge long-standing
assumptions or commonly-accepted beliefs; 2)
Unless challenged, old assumptions can create
and perpetuate stereotypes, thus further
limiting our understanding and appreciation of
the world and the many possibilities of human 04

life.
If we have the skills to question and rationally identify both overt and latent
values in a mediated presentation, whether from the news, entertainment -
or now especially from the Internet -- we are likely to be much more astute
in our decision-making to accept or reject the overall message. That's vital
for effective citizenship in a democratic society.
05
• What kinds of behaviors / consequences are
depicted?
• What type of person is the reader / watcher /
listener invited to identify with?
• What questions come to mind as you watch /
read / listen?
• What ideas or values are being "sold" to us in
this message?
• What political ideas are communicated in the
message? Economic ideas?
• What judgments or statements are made about
how we treat other people?
• What is the overall worldview of the message?
• What ideas or perspectives are left out? How
would you find what's missing? 6

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