Course Profile - Curriculum Services Canada

MD1.01B - demonstrate critical thinking skills by identifying the differences between explicit and
implicit messages in media works;
MD1.03D - compare and explain their own and their peers' reactions to a variety of media works;
MD1.04D - identify factors that influence media production and distribution and explain the effect of
these factors on specific media works.
Planning Notes
• Collect a variety of television ads. Some possible sources are The Cannes Film Festival (ADFilms,
Toronto), Scanning Television, Prentice-Hall, The Bessies or The Cleos, (The Canadian and
American Commercial Awards Shows).
• This activity provides the required knowledge and skills necessary to complete Activity 6, which deals
with the creation of their own television advertisement.
• Possible supplementary readings for this activity include the following: Barry Duncan et al. Mass
Media and Popular Culture, 2 nd edition; Mediacy, AML; Popular Culture, Issues Collection,
Nelson; Advertising, Copp Clark; Teaching Ideas for Media Literacy, Don Walker, TCDSB.
Teaching/Learning Strategies
• The teacher discusses that there are three signposts or prisms through which we view media products.
The teacher introduces these three signposts, purpose and values, codes and constructions, and
audience. Purpose refers to the intention of the creator of the media text; it might be something as
simple as telling a story or the selling of a product. Values refer to the implicit and explicit meanings
derived from the text, which are employed to achieve the desired intent. Codes refer to those
techniques used to achieve desired effects, such as sound, lighting, camera angles, and camera shots.
Constructions refer to the idea that all media products are created and are products of multiple
decisions and revisions. Audience refers to the intended receivers of the media text; one needs to
consider gender, age, economic status, and stereotyping.
• Invite students to examine television ads that are aimed at their specific age group and to look for the
three identified signposts. Focus questions include the following:
• What is the message of this particular ad?
• What are the values at work, both explicit and implicit?
• Are there messages about lifestyle? about consumerism? about sexuality?
• How are these messages constructed through the different codes or conventions employed in this
ad?
• What visual or oral elements combine to produce such a meaning? Consider colour, camera
angles, camera shots, special effects, sound, music, and dialogue.
• For whom is the message intended?
• Does the content of the ad reflect the intended audience? Describe that intended audience in
terms of gender, age, economic status, and attitude.
• Do the values proposed or promoted in the ad correspond to our values?
• In what ways might they contradict our values?
• How might cultural, religious, and individual differences influence our perception of the values
proposed by the ads?
• How might the ad shape our perception of ourselves?
Unit 5 - Page 15
•English - Academic