CML's FIVE CORE CONCEPTS AND KEY QUESTIONS

FOR CONSUMERS AND PRODUCERS

Media Deconstruction/Construction Framework

www.medialit.org

What Media Literacy is About

In todays global society, citizens need the skills to access, analyze, evaluate and create media information 24/7. The goal is not so much to be able to store information, but to process information efficiently and effectively, so that we understand and are able to conduct our lifelong relationship with media by being:

• Efficient information managers. We need to access information quickly and be able to store information effectively so that we can access it again.
• Wise consumers. We need to understand the messages that come our way and make wise individual decisions, using the information we have.
• Responsible producers. Today, everyone can be a producer, and in producing, it is important for all of us to consider the audience and the society we live in, to provide an enlightened approach to media production.
• Active participants. In using media, in deciding to buy products or to cast or ballot, we are sending messages and voting and participating in society. We not only buy a product or a service, but we buy an organizations advertising and communications, and we buy the worldview that the organizations communication represents. Our votes count, and so does our own expression. Where would a company or a university or a nonprofit or an entertainer or an executive or a politician be without us, the audience?

Processing information requires process skills. Sometimes we are the receivers of messages; other times we are the producers of messages. But in either case, the Five Core Concepts of Media Literacy apply. Understanding how to apply Five Core Concepts: thats a big part of what it takes to be an enlightened, active citizen living in the 21st Century.

But the Five Core Concepts aren't enough. The Core Concepts and Key Questions work together to provide a methodology for critical thinking, media analysis and media production. Why? Because analysis requires inquiry, and in learning and applying a process of inquiry, it takes questioning media as it comes our way, or questioning as we seek out information. It takes questioning as we make or construct or own messages that we send to others or use to engage with others.

CMLs Five Key Questions of Media Literacy apply to both deconstruction, or analysis and consumption of media messages, as well as construction, or production of media messages.

When we consume or analyze media messages, we have no control over the content of the message. Instead, we only control the meaning that we make from the message and how we might want to respond to that meaning in our thought processing or making decisions or taking action. We can accept or reject it, but unless we remix and rehash the message, we cannot change it until we enter into an active production process.

But when we produce or construct media messages, we do control the content of the message to the extent that we have autonomy or self-awareness. Yet we always bring ourselves to the message, with all of our experiences and knowledge that inevitably affect the content of our messages, because by definition, human beings have imperfect understanding, and each human being is unique. In constructing a message, we have many more decisions to make. We are not just deciding how to make meaning from our own message, but through our construction techniques, we are also influencing how others might make meaning from it. We have both personal and social power, and therefore personal and social responsibility toward our audience. Where there is communication, there is audience, even if it is an audience of one!

The Five Core Concepts apply in both the case of consumption and production of media; however, the Five Key Questions that stem from each of the Five Core Concepts are slightly altered because consumers have a different point of view from producers, and this point of view affects the voice of the questions, from the passive voice for consumers to the active voice of producers.

The process of analysis encouraged by the Five Key Questions and the Five Core Concepts informs the decision-making or actions that we may take. This decision-making/action process is represented through CMLs Empowerment Spiral, starting with awareness of an issue or message, analysis through the Five Key Questions, reflection through processing our learning that comes through the message and the Five Key Questions, and action, whether we decide to take action or not.

Media literacy is about understanding our relationship with media, about how we make meaning from a media product and about understanding the greater role of media in society. Though being media literate implies a broader skill set than simply evaluating a media product, evaluating a media product always involves the skills of media literacy.

Key Question 1

Key Question # 1:

What am I authoring?

Core Concept # 1:

All media messages are "constructed."

Certain buildings look certain ways for certain reasons. A church looks differently than a house; an office building looks differently than a retail store. Whether someone tells us what type of building it is or not, we recognize the building for what it is due to the way that its built or put together; the elements that make up the construction of the building cue us as to how the building is used. And someone, or a team of people, decided what those construction elements were going to be and then actually put the building together, piece by piece.

The same is true of media. When we decide to manufacture media, we as authors decide what type of building we will make and what construction elements to use so that the buildings purpose is recognizable to others. Whether its an advertisement or a logo, a billboard or a webpage, a videogame or a novel, all media constructions exemplify certain characteristics that must be present for the construction to be recognized. Then, these elements are carefully put together to meet the authors our specifications, whatever they may be.

Authors, designers, developers and producers however they are labeled -- all create their own media environments, just as builders create physical environments. When we enter or create a media world, we leave the real world behind.

Keyword:

Authorship

Guiding Questions:

• What kind of "text" genre am I creating?
• What various elements (building blocks) make up the whole?
• How similar or different is it to others of the same genre?
• Which technologies am I using to create? What will my medium be?
• How would my construction be different in a different medium?
• What are my choices? What choices might I make differently?
• Have others contributed to this construction? How should they be credited?
• Have I respected copyright, trademarks or other intellectual property that I may have used?

Key Question #2

Key Question # 2:

Does my message reflect craftsmanship in format, creativity and technology?

Core Concept # 2:

Media messages are constructed using creative language with its own rules.

Marshall McCluen famously said that the media is the message. Often, the media determines a great deal about the message. If I am using a cellphone to communicate, my message had better be short and compact! If I am producing a film to communicate, I had better know how to make a film and how to use the language of film to communicate with my team. And if I want my message to resonate with powerful emotions or with compelling facts, I must be clearly aware of what these are and I had better be the master of crafting a particular form of message, whether its entertainment, information, persuasion or participatory in nature.

Having a deep knowledge of the arts is also helpful in mastering the creative languages of media construction. Theater requires knowledge of storytelling techniques; dance and motion demands understanding of choreography; music involves knowledge of tempo and instruments and orchestration; visual arts requires knowledge of perspective and line and form and color.

And technology plays a role, too, because the technology provides the tools and also the environmental constraints in which the tools can be used in cases like videogames or websites or search engines. Before making or breaking the rules, I must first know what the rules are and thoroughly understand the rules.

Keyword:

Format

Guiding Questions:

• What do I want people to noticeor not(about the way I am constructing my message)?
• What technologies am I using and how does that affect the structure of my message?
• What form does my message emphasize the most? Entertainment, persuasion, information, participation (interaction)?
• What techniques stand out the most? Color and shapes? Sound? Silence? Dialogue or Narration? Movement? Composition? Lighting? Texture? Scent?
• How am I telling the story? Do I know the storytelling conventions available to me? What storytelling conventions am I using?
• When does my message take place? What is the setting or timing of my message? What impact might the setting or timing of my message have on other choices I make?
• What visual, verbal, or visual symbols or metaphors am I using?
• What emotional appeal am I using?
• What persuasive devices am I employing? Am I being persuasive in an ethical way?
• What factual information am I presenting? Are my facts and information accurate? How do I know?
• Does my message seem real? Why?

Key Question #3

Is my message engaging and compelling for my target audience?

Core Concept # 3:

Different people experience the same media message differently.

Creative techniques alone are not enough to attract the attention of an audience, because each audience and indeed, each individual is different. The more I know about the audience I am appealing to, the better chance I have of engaging that audience, whether the audience is one person or many. And if the audience is engaged, the audience will feel compelled to take in my message and possibly even view or hear or interact with my entire message, from start to finish.

When I go to see a movie, I never see the same movie as my neighbor or friend. I can only see through my own eyes. Yet media appeals to life experiences that we have in common, or otherwise we would have no interest in the message. It is for this reason that advertisers target audiences, sometimes to reach the widest audience possible, and sometimes to reach only a select few. But in either case, knowledge of the audience and data about the audience helps provide understanding in reaching the audience efficiently and effectively, hopefully for mutual benefit.

Key Word:

Audience

Guiding Questions:

• Who is the target audience for my message?
• What do I know about this person or people? What are some important characteristics about them I should know?
• How wide an audience do I want to appeal to? Or how narrow?
• Have I respected the need for privacy or confidentiality on the part of my audience?
• Have I taken into consideration the appropriateness of my message for special or vulnerable audiences, such as very young children or youth or those disabled?
• How might my audience interpret my message and respond to it?
• What effect might I anticipate my message having on my audience? Positive, negative, neutral?
• Why should my audience care about my message?

Key Question #4

Have I clearly and consistently framed values, lifestyles and points of view in my content?

Core Concept # 4:

Media have embedded values, lifestyles and points of view

Because I am me, I always bring myself my values, my life experience and my points of view to my message. Yes, I can represent other voices and other viewpoints to the best of my ability, but there is never a way for me to represent all other voices; necessarily, someone or something is always left out. Because I am human, I can only aim to be fair and balanced, or admittedly biased in my viewpoint, but I can never be truly objective or provide perfect information.

Instead, when I present my message to my audience, I am selecting and framing the content that I am presenting according to my own priorities. Perhaps I consider the needs of the audience or perhaps not. The more clearly and consistently I frame and select my content, the more readily my audience can identify the lifestyles, values and points of view I am presenting, and determine whether that frame suits them or not.

Key Word:

Content

Guiding Questions:

• What is my main message?
• How am I supporting my main message? What information am I including? What am I leaving out? Why?
• Who or what do I invite my audience to identify with through my message? What lifestyles, values and points of view are overt? What are implied?
• Have I represented other voices or social groups? Are these representations nuanced or are they stereotypical?
• What might the opposition to my message say? Have I treated my opposition with respect?
• Have I made appropriate disclosures about conflicts of interest or assumptions?
• Have I considered the needs of the whole person that Im relating the message to? If not, are my reasons ethical?
• Does my message convey real-life behaviors or consequences? If not, why not?
• What is the overall worldview depicted in my message?

Key Question #5

Have I communicated my purpose effectively?

Core Concept # 5:

Most media messages are constructed to gain profit and/or power.

If I am going to send a message, I must have a reason. Generally, there are three reasons: I want to persuade or influence or inform someone of something, and as a result, I have a power motive (defining power as neutral and in its broadest sense!). Or I want them to buy something that I am selling, and so I have a profit motive. Or perhaps I have a mix of both a profit and a power motive, where I want to sell the world on a new idea and a new product at the same time. These motives are not necessarily good nor bad, but purpose is always present, regardless of intentions.

Behind media messages there is always intent. Inherently, there is nothing wrong with profit or power; they can be honorable and serve the public good. Is my intent to make the world a better place? Does my message provide mutual benefit for individuals and for the social good, as well? These are questions I must ask of myself.

Key Word:

Purpose

Guiding Questions:

• What is my intent? Whose needs am I trying to satisfy with my message?
• Who is paying for this message to be constructed and sent? Should I disclose this underwriting for any reason?
• Do I want my audience to feel, think or do anything specific as a result of engaging with my message?
• How is the audience served by my message? How do I profit or benefit? How does the audience profit by or benefit from my message?
• Who wins? Who loses? Who decides?
• What economic decisions may have influenced my message and how I constructed or transmitted it?
• Have I considered ethical, social and/or legal constraints on achieving my purpose?