Deconstruction of March

No kidding EVERY TIME these commercials come on they crack me up, does Carls Junior think that when you eat their burgers, you will REALLY look like this? There was a new one that I saw the other day and the girl was of course beautiful and extremely skinny, stuffing her face with a burger.

1. Who Paid for this ad? Carls Junior.

2. Why does the company need to do the ad? Because they are trying to promote a new burger.

3. What group is targeted by the ad? I would assume men to start with, because they know that beautiful women are eating this burger, so why not grab one myself and see if there are some more pretty women eating there. It also targets women, perhaps with lower self esteem, because there left thinking, " Wow, that could be me. If she can eat this burger, why cant I?"

6. What kind of culture does the example create? Its creating a culture that expects all women to be beautiful physically, and that we enjoy eating fast food in our swimsuits. The reality of this is though is that the majority of the people who are eating these burgers will not look as well in a swimsuit as this girl does. It also is creating a culture that enjoys fast food, they know we will eat it so now they have to sell it in any way possible.

7. What values are reinforced? My guess is that if you look beautiful and if your skinny, you too can enjoy a carls junior burger. Its reinforcing the connection of sexiness and eating their food.

8. What techniques of persuasion are used? Bandwagon for sure. If a swimsuit model is eating this, you BETTER be eating this. Also celebrities, the woman who did the ad was famous for having a body like hers. Also depending on how you look at it, humor could be a way. They know that not everyone will take this commercial seriously, so they perhaps are anticipating on people finding it funny.

9. In what ways does this depict a lifestyle that is healthy and unhealthy? Well, this does not take into consideration that this woman has most likely worked very hard to get a body like what she has, and she is most likely a very healthy person, yet she is promoting something that is so unhealthy. It does not tell you the amount of calories in the sandwich, and you might be under the impression that it is healthy especially since it has pineapple on it!

PBS Teachers

Before I start, I must say there is a lot that I didn’t know about children and media. Perhaps the reason I did so poorly on the quiz was due to the fact that I didn’t know the exact percentages, but I scored a measly 5 out of 12! I felt the quiz would be hard to score 100% on with out reading anything on the PBS website, but I still was shocked by some of the numbers. 10 hours and 45 minutes was spent on media, but what confused me was they did not specify weather or not this meant in a week or a month. I was also somewhat surprised only three minutes a day was spent reading a newspaper!

The second portion of this was looking at the What, How, Learn More, and Examples.

On the quick link “What is it?” I chose to look at the center for media literacy (http://www.medialit.org/), which has been used a few times in this class. The website is full or online resources, and their main goal is “promoting and supporting media literacy education as a framework for accessing, analyzing, evaluating, creating and participating with media content”.  My favorite part of the website was the reading room, because it provided viewers with great background articles about media literacy. There were over 350 articles that you could look at, all pertaining to Media Lit.

Next was the “How do I use it?” and I chose to look at the center for safe and responsible Internet use (http://new.csriu.org/). The had a section all on cyber bullying which is something that may not be talked about very often in the classroom but can be a huge issue. As of now under the professional development tab there is not too much, but they are working towards providing information on how to help manage Internet use as an educator. I also liked that they had a specific area for parents who are looking for information on how they can help.

Third was the “learn more” section, and I chose Edutopia (http://www.edutopia.org/media-literacy-collaboration). Unlike the other websites, this one was a specific article about students, parents, and teachers collaborating on using media appropriately and effectively. The article talked about how parents and teachers can have conversations with their students about using the media, and they gave specific examples. The actual website Edutopia seemed very interesting although it was not specific to Media Lit. I still think it had an interesting layout and message to promote.

Last was the “examples” section. I chose school tube (http://www.schooltube.com/) which is a website for k-12 that provides students and educators with a safe and free video sharing website that is appropriate. I looked around it and found a couple of interesting videos, one called States and Capitals by teaching tunes. It was an interesting hip-hop song that dealt with the states! I know that in Fairbanks You tube is blocked, but It would be interesting to see if the district allowed to use this website. It was very appropriate and did not have an area for comments like you tube.

Under the PBS resources I looked at FRONTLINE: Growing Up Online (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/teach/kidsonline/). It was giving background information on a video that you could purchase, along with discussion questions, lesson plans and other resources. I enjoyed looking at this because it was all about how to relate to a generation who has switched from reading books to using computers, and the effects that it has had on students. It was giving viewers an inside look of what is happening to our children, and the risks of being online. It gave methods on how to make sure students are safe. I connected with this website because I know that I used MSN and talked to friends online, but there were times that strangers would add me and luckily I denied their friend requests, but it is so easy for a child or teenager to click “accept friend” and have no idea who they are letting into their life.

Under PBS Integrating digital tools and Content there were a few things I would be interested in trying, and a few I don’t think I could do quite yet. First off, I am not a fan of using cell phones in class. I do understand cell phones are the big thing these days, but I am a believer that phones should only be used out side of the classroom. I would be more interested in using laptops or computers. I also would not want to have anything like Twitter, only because I feel it is not appropriate for that young of students. I would enjoy setting up a blog or personal website so that we can regulate what the students are looking at. I do like the idea of making a presentation using Prezi because I have personally used that website and it is fascinating!  I also would like to use Google Earth because if a student wants to relate to a different culture or country I think it would help to be able to locate the place from where we are now in Fairbanks. I do like many of these ideas, but it really is only good for students who are old enough to operate a computer. For adults many of these tasks would be easy, but even for a 6^th grader I feel like some of these ideas would be too large to take on.

 I had no idea that PBS had so many resources right at the click of a button! I am excited to use some of these in my future class room =)