April Media Deconstruction

This commercial was shared with me via email, I think that it is so well done and touching, especially as a future teacher.

1. Who paid for the ad? This was paid for by the Indigo Love of Reading fund.

2. Why was this ad created? This ad was made as a public service announcement of sorts. It's goal is to so that reading promotes vocabulary development and great writing. They are showing that even a young ordinary boy can be impacted by reading and that teachers can influece a child's love of reading.

3. Who is  targeted in this ad? This ad feels like it is targeted to both teachers and parents. These would be the people that would be promoting reading in a young childs' life, and so the ad is encouraging them to bring reading into childrens' lives.

4. How does this try to move emotions? This video uses cute children, and a young boy who writes an amazing love note the girl next to him. They are using his words and his like -ability to play on peoples' soft sides, evoking that "awwhh" type of reaction.

5. Is this closer to fantasy or reality? This video takes a realistic situation, a child passing a note in school, and puts a bit of an unrealistic spin on it by having the teacher read the not aloud and the note being a poem with vocabulary far above the expected level of the student. The video itself is close to reality, but promoting a fantasy which it is hoping to make a reality, that young children will find a love of reading and this reading will influence other areas of their lives.

6. What kind of culture does this ad create? This video creates the feeling of a typical american suburban lifestyle. It is in a way promotning the dream for women that a man will write them poems and treat them special, and make them fall in love.

7.  What tools of persuassion are used? Some of the tools used are the idea of "plain folks" that these are normal people, and that your child too could be exceptional if they had the same love of reading.
Warm & Fuzzy: using a sentimental type of message to connect to you as the view and play on your emotions.
Also used is the tool of nostalgia. They make adults think back to when they were in school and passing notes, or that time that a boyfriend wrote a note for them.

March Media Deconstruction

1. Whose message is this? This ad was created by the makers of the snuggie to promote sales of their item

2. Who is the “target audience”?  Thier target audience would be love pet owners, who feel that their dogs need coats on top of their fur.

4. What is the “subtext” of the message? That if you love your dog and want a long happy life with them, you will buy them this product so that they will be comfortable.

6. What values are expressed? That responsible pet owners take care of their pets.

7. What tools of persuasion are used?  The use of pets pulls on people's hearts, so the cute animals are the tool of persuasion in this ad.

10. What part of the story is not being told? The part left out is, do dogs need sweaters, and are most dogs going to be happy with something on them.

Media Deconstruction

1. Whose message is this? Who created or paid for it?

This ad was Nova-Schin, a maker of non alcoholic beer, promoting the "ultimate beer belly"

2. Who is the “target audience”? Their target audience is young hip pregnant moms who enjoy drinking beer, but currently can't because they are pregnant.

4. What is the “subtext” of the message? That you can still enjoy beer while you are pregnant and that this is a different type of beer belly

5. What kind of lifestyle is presented? The lifestyle presented is one of a young fun party loving woman, who enjoys dressing up in her gold sequined bikini top. And that just because she's going to be a mom, it doesn't stop her from having a good time.

6. What values are expressed? The values that are expressed seem to be that having a good time is more important than creating a new life.

7. What “tools of persuasion” are used? They are using beauty as a suggestive tool. They are suggesting taht because this pretty woman is drinking beer while pregnant, that you should too.

14. Is it closer to fantasy or reality? This ad is closer to fantasy, because for one, most women when pregnant don't feel like dressing up in this outfit, and two, even though it is non-alcoholic beer, a lot of women would not feel comfortable drinking something that even resembled beer.

PBS Media

Quiz Yourself:

When I took the quiz I usually chose the high numbers for my answers, because I know that media usage among kids is much higher than I think. I was suprised that all of those high number answers were right. Especially the amount of time children are exposed to media during the day! The answer that I got wrong that I didn't expect was the question about what ethnic group has the most exposure to media, I thought for sure the most exposure would be to white children and the least to hispanic, instead it was reversed.


Digital Media Landscape

 In the first section, I went to the link for Common Craft. This website has short informative or tutorial videos, such as how to prepare for an emergency. They are simple and easy to follow, yet provide direct information.

In the second section I looked at Education world which was a site for integrating technology into the classroom. This site had everything from lesson plans and tips to templates for holding class elections.

 In the third section I visited Edutopia, which had helpful tips and resources for using the amount of media that kids consume, as a tool for education. It also had some ideas as to how to use media inside the classroom.

 In the last section I looked at TeacherTube, which had a whole library of how to videos for teachers to watch, share and create their own to share, on a variety of instructional topics.

PBS Resources PBS Guide to Children and Media:
 This resource was broken up into different media types and different ages. It had helpful tips for staying involved with your children's media use and using it as a teaching tool. They also had characteristic to look for in media that would be helpful to your child's development.

Intergrating Digital Tools and Content

 I like the idea of having the students create and contribute to a class blog. This would then be something that we could use as an online newsletter to keep parents updated about what was happening in class and would give the students a chance to post their own views on what they were doing. I also like the idea of using VoiceThread in class. I think that this would be a great way for students to give and recieve feedback from each other on projects that they make on VoiceThread

Media Deconstruction

1. Who created or paid for it? The Doritos company paid for this ad to promote their product.

 2. Who is the “target audience”? The target audience for this ad seems to be middle age men, who are married. I think this because the message is suggestive, not direct, so a young audience might not understand, and the main character is a middle age white male, who appears to be trying to find the cat before his wife notices. So the people who would relate the most would most likely be married as well.

4. What is the “subtext” of the message? The subtext of the ad is that dog is man's best friend, not cat, and that Doritos chips are worth telling a lie for, to cover up where the cat went.

5. What “tools of persuasion” are used? They use humor and a cute dog in this ad to persuade you to eat or buy Doritos.

6. What positive messages are presented? What negative messages are presented? The positive message would be that dogs are loyal and there for you. The negative message would be that it is ok to lie, and that it is ok to bribe other people to lie for you.

 13. How does the example try to move emotions? Is it simple/complex? Is it logical? It relies on humor to help sell their product.

 15. Does it use stereotypes? It uses the stereotype that married males are somewhat afraid of their wifes, and that they are not the most responsible people.

Media Analysis

Media Analysis

I knew before starting a media diary, that media was involved in almost every aspect of my day. That from almost sun up to sun down, I am using some sort of media, whether for entertainment, work, news, or planning, it is like my sidekick throughout the day. However, I was actually pleasantly surprised that my media use, wasn't as prominent as I thought it would have been before keeping a diary of my use. Instead media use was more in the background rather than the foreground of my day.

I chose to start my media diary on a Friday, thinking that, looking for distraction from the busy week and the weekend looming only hours away, that I would turn more to media to distract myself from the day. I sleep with my Iphone on the charger next to my bed, and it's not unusual for me to play around on it for a minute or two while laying in bed cuddling with my three year old. Today was no exception, I disappointingly looked at the weather from the comfort of my warm bed. After getting up, as I waited for my kid's oatmeal to cook, I checked my email on my phone, hoping for some news of a lotto win or school cancellation, no such luck. While my boys ate breakfast I settled in on my corner of the couch with my cup or coffee and browsed through Facebook, Newsminer.com, and Msn.com, catching up on the highlights of the morning. Then it was time to head out for a day of class. In the car I listened to a combination of radio and Fisher Price's Greatest hits while dropping off the boys and heading to class. Then while waiting for class to start, I checked Blackboard on my iphone and sent a couple text messages. My high media use for the day came after class, while the kids were napping. I spent about an hour and a half editing photo sessions and uploading client galleries to my hosting site. After this, the rest of the day was just a minute or two here and there, checking facebook, email, weather, all on the iphone. And then turning in for the night.

Saturday wasn't much different. It started off with my usual situation, laying in bed, my phone screen lighting up the room while my husband slept soundly next to me, hoping that I might be able to go back to sleep for a few minutes, but instead checking Facebook- no luck, I got up. After getting up I used my phone to check open swim schedules for the day so that my husband could take the boys swimming while I had a session. Then I checked the weather, lousy again, and hopped on the computer for my morning internet fix, 20 minutes or so. A few hours later, when driving to my session, I used my GPS to find a client's house, and was listening to the radio on the way there. During my session I used a white noise app on my iphone to keep a newborn baby happily asleep, and also used my phone to send the client an invoice. I then listened to the radio again on the way home and spent a bit more time on the computer editing once I had arrived home. After that, my only other media use for the day was a quick phone Facebook check, and some itunes on in the evening.

Overall, I thought that my media use would be higher on the weekend, but I think because I have the whole family around, and have more going on, that I have less time to just kill time with different forms of media. This did make me see that although I don't feel dependant on media, that it is a large part of my everyday life and routine, and is a modern convenience and luxury that I very much enjoy.