Media Matters
Network Groups
Threshold
2015
Written by Amy Boone
Day 1 Monday
Introduction and welcome to Threshold
Identify 2-3 major NON-LOCAL stories in the
Dallas Morning News, Abilene Reporter News
Small groups
DMN
ARN
social media (twitter, facebook, etc)
other sites (TV news stories, etc)
Explore these questions
What kind of language is used?
Is it formal?
Highly educated?
Casual?
How does it attempt to lure you into reading
more?
Discussion
Write a headline as a tweet for twitter
with the 140 characters only or one of
the other sources.
Day 2 Tuesday
Who are you??
Jot down in one column words and
phrases to describe YOU
In a separate column, jot down words
and phrases that someone else would
use to describe you (may be some of
the same words and some different)
Teenager heading to a singing
audition
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=
Il1mVIjxzMA
Leave a comment for her! No names,
please! Be clever! Witty! Winsome!
Turn the comment in
Who are you??
Want to add your name?
Want to rewrite your comment?
How would someone describe you
based on this comment you made or
other things you post online? Does it
line up with your original lists?
Discussion
Online disinhibition effect is a
loosening (or complete
abandonment) of social restrictions
and inhibitions that would otherwise
be present in normal face-to-face
interaction during interactions with
others on the Internet.
Online Disinhibition
You dont know me: basic anonymity
You cant see me: the screen is used as a
shield and allows people to be someone
they arent in real life
See you later: lots of online
conversations dont happen in real time
so they dont seem as personal
More.
Its all in my head: online vitriol can
seem cathartic and the one to whom
it is spewed doesnt seem like a real
person more of an idea or concept
Its just a game: real rules of
interaction dont seem to apply
Day 3 Wednesday
What is bias?
What constitutes bias in media?
Do you notice any bias? If so, what?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v
=yRm_K9OpYbo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=AQhMllQ-ODw
Brainstorm current events
News
Sports
Entertainment
What are the various sides on these
different current event stories? How
might these sides be biased in their
reporting?
Unbiased journalism!!!
You can do it!
Share stories and peer feedback
Does the story give more than one
viewpoint?
Is there information that could be left out?
Is it free of emotionally charged
words/phrases or identifying a group
mentality (working class, unwed mothers,
teenage drivers, etc)?
Did the story avoid extremes (worst/best,
highest/lowest)?
Day 4 Thursday
Write down a
characteristic/personality trait of
each of the following people:
Halo Effect
Why did you assign certain character
traits to the various people?
The halo effect is a type of cognitive
bias in which our overall impression
of a person influences how we feel
and think about his or her character.
This kind of stereotyping sets people
up for automatic success or failure.
Stereotyping
How would halo effect and
stereotyping be alike and/or
different?
Identifying stereotypes
Walk around the room
Use dry erase markers to write around
the pictures.
What stereotypes do you notice?
Discussion
Have you ever been stereotyped?
How did that feel?
Have you ever noticed stereotypes in
media before? If so, when and what?
Have you ever watched someone
else treated a certain way due to a
stereotype? How did that look? How
did that person feel?
New thinking..
What steps can we take to help us
see real people and people in media
through the most fair and realistic
lens possible?
Come up with 3-4 steps as a group
1. ???
2. ???
3. ???
Day 5 Monday
Introduction and welcome to Threshold
Activity
Make up a pretend twitter name that
NO ONE would recognize (be clever!)
Create a response tweet (140
characters) to the following tweet
and be as creative, clever, witty, and
winsome as possible!
omg! I did it! I h8 u @baseballkiller!
U said green would luk bad but ha! I
luk awsome!
Turn in tweet
Mark likes with check marks
Words. MATTER
Once something is said in person or
ONLINE it cannot be unsaid!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=
DXIBjpjbKtQ
Discussion
Does posting something online give a
false sense of security?
Are we as careful with our online
words as our words to someones
face?
Can we ever really get the
toothpaste back in the tube?
Day 6 Tuesday
What questions do you ask yourself
when consuming media (watching
TV, videos, listening to music,
searching the internet, social
media)?
Five Critical Questions
Who is the author and what is the
purpose?
What techniques are used to attract and
hold my attention?
How might different people understand
this message?
What lifestyles, values, and points of view
are represented?
What was left out?
Digital and Media Literacy Renee Hobbs
Why the questions?
Social media is proven to:
Be addictive
Makes us compare our lives with others
Makes us restless
Give rise to cyberbullying
Glamorizes risky behaviors
Can make us unhappy
Can make us fear being left out
Active vs. Passive Media
Consumption
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjwvJ9E7nIQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YP0Hs0ADJY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0aOsLZT8
W8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=3MdNe8FHZrs
What if we only are passive
consumers?
What
What
What
IS there?
is NOT there?
is not even real?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=
iYhCn0jf46U
Day 7 Wednesday
Draw your picture based on your
prompt no talking!!!
Find your group!
Perspective
How did you find your group?
Everyone drew a frog.
Did you intentionally leave out
important details?
Big story of the week
Who are the characters in this
story?
What different perspectives would
they have?
Think back on the questions from
yesterday and how those play into
the perspectives in this story
Who is the author and what is the
purpose?
What techniques are used to attract and
hold my attention?
How might different people understand
this message?
What lifestyles, values, and points of view
are represented?
What was left out?
Discussion
Why is it important to recognize that
various perspectives will result in
unconscious bias?
Day 8 Thursday
Who are these celebrities?
Duran Duran are an English pop/rock
band formed in Birmingham in 1978. They
were a successful band of the 1980s and a
leading band in the MTV-driven "
Second British Invasion" of the United
States. Since the 1980s, they have placed
14 singles in the Top 10 of the
UK Singles Chart and 21 in the Billboard
Hot 100, and according to
Sunday Mercury, they have sold more
than 120 million records
Sigourney Weaver is an American actress and film
producer. Following her film debut as a minor character in
Annie Hall, she quickly came to prominence in 1979 with
her first lead role as Ellen Ripley in Alien, subsequently
reprising the role in its three sequels: Aliens (1986), for
which she was nominated for an Academy Award
Best Actress; Alien 3 (1992), and Alien: Resurrection
(1997).
Weaver is also known for her starring roles in the box-office
hits Ghostbusters (1984), Ghostbusters II (1989), and
Avatar (2009). A seven-time Golden Globe Awardnominee,
she won both Best Actress in Drama and
Best Supporting Actress for her work in the 1988
films Gorillas in the Mist and Working Girl, becoming the
first person ever to have won two acting Golden Globes in
the same year
John Ritter was an American actor,
comedian, and voice actor. Ritter was
best known for playing Jack
Tripper on the hit ABC sitcom Three's
Company, for which he won
an Emmy and a Golden Globe
Award in 1984.
Where are they now?
Does anyone know where these once
very famous celebrities are now?
What are they doing?
Does this say anything about
celebrity culture?
Celebrity Who Am I?
Write down 2-3 current celebrities on slips
of paper and add to pile.
Class will be split into two teams.
One person at a time will draw a celebrity
from the pile and try to get his/her team
to guess the celebrity in TEN SECONDS
without saying the celebritys name.
If the team guesses correctly, that team
gets one point. If not, its the other teams
turn.
What does fame even mean?
Unknown has beens from years
past?
Current celebrities who we only know
from their talents, not from who they
are as people?
Do we see them as people or as an
idea? Do we actually know them?
What if we applied the questions about
media messages to celebrities?
Who is the author and what is the
purpose?
What techniques are used to attract and
hold my attention?
How might different people understand
this message?
What lifestyles, values, and points of view
are represented?
What was left out?
Discussion
Who is a celebrity for whom you
have respect because of his or her
values, message(s), lifestyle, point of
view, personal characteristic(s), etc.?
Why?
Why are we drawn to celebrities who
do not hold our values, point of view,
or lifestyle that we find important?
