Writer's Choice Grade 6

Unit 26: Viewing and Representing

Overview

The term mass media means ”a form of communication that is widely available to many people.“ Examples include magazines, newspapers, television, and the Internet. Because we spend so much time with mass media—one out of every five nine-year-olds spends six or more hours watching TV per day—it has a great influence on our lives. In order to be an informed consumer of mass media, you need to learn how to interpret, analyze, and evaluate media's messages.

Visual messages, such as advertisements, television shows, videos, movies, Internet graphics, and video games, need to be ”read“ very carefully since some are valuable and truthful and others are not. Understanding the visual design, or composition, of a message will help you to interpret the message. For example, thick, heavy lines suggest boldness or power, while thin or broken lines suggest weakness or lightness. Colors like orange and red suggest energy, but cool colors like blue and green suggest calmness.

Creators of movies and commercials use the same elements of visual design and composition that artists and photographers use. They can also use camera angles and lighting techniques to send messages. A high camera angle usually makes the subject look smaller or less important than the viewer while a low camera angle emphasizes the subject's importance. Using high, bright lighting creates a cheerful tone, but using low, shadowy light makes things look gloomy or scary.

Visual mass media has one goal in mind: to send the viewer a message that delivers a certain point of view. There are several key questions you can ask yourself to ensure that you are analyzing the message carefully. First, what message is the visual media trying to send and which techniques are the creators using to persuade viewers to agree with the message? What do you already know about the subject and how can you use what you know to determine whether or not the message is fair? And finally, which sources can you trust to find out more information on the subject?