Critical Media Literacy: Commercial Advertising

Dear MAGICians! As you already have read at the advertising theme description and timetable, you will have the opportunity to start investigating the "Critical Media Literacy: Commercial Advertising" topic  between January 14 - 20. The full description of this session is available for you to read.

OVERVIEW

Studying the influence of mass media on our lives allows you to view advertising in a new light. This lesson provides you with the opportunity to look at mass media in a critical way. You become aware of the tremendous amount of advertising that we are exposed to on a daily basis. By looking at advertising critically, you begin to understand how the media oppresses certain groups, convinces people to purchase certain products, and influences culture.

STUDENT OBJECTIVES

Students will:

• Investigate the influence of advertising on their daily lives
• Engage in critical inquiry of mass media
• Identify hidden media messages
• Interpret messages presented through advertising
• Discuss the effect of advertising on culture

Read the full description of this session or jump to the advertising theme description and timetable! 

Advertising theme description and timetable

Hello dear MAGICians!

It’s about time to move on to our second theme which is advertising. All of us will be working in the following fields: TV, radio, magazine, Internet, junk mail and billboard (or street) advertisements or, to keep it short, ads.

Learning Objectives

Through the completion of this theme you will be able to:

• Understand the intersection of ads and art and their impact on consumerism.
• Develop criteria for determining statements of opinion and practice discerning statements of opinion in advertisements.
• Identify types of ads, analyse them, and respond to them.
• Analyse the persuasive techniques in ads
• Discover the rules of ads and check whether certain type of them bent or not the rules.
• Create your own artistic interpretations of advertisements, present them, and reflect upon the nature of consumerism in your lives.

Weekly topics

Week 1: Critical Media Literacy: Commercial Advertising: January 14 - 20
Weeks 2 & 3: Fact vs. opinions in ads: January 21 - February 3
Week 4: Truth in ads - Understanding the media: February 4 - 10
Week 5: Persuasive techniques in ads: February 11 -17
Week 6: Consumerism, ads and art intersection & rules in ads: February 18 - 24
Week 7: Creation of a marketing campaign of students choice: February 25 - March 3
Week 8: In class presentation of campaigns - uploading on blogs: March 4 - March 10
Week 9: Review and conclusions: March 11 - March 16

Collaborative tools

As we walk through the theme material you will find ads you want to share with the rest of the students from other countries and reflect on them. So what do you do with them and how do you share them with the rest of us? Well you can pin them using our pinterest board so everyone can see them!  Sign up at Pinterest using your facebook or google account.   

Also do not forget to regularly check for our facebook group updates and share your comments and ideas!