Media Education in Elementary - Essay Example

With the unprecedented growth in the usage of media in this information age, the knowledge of media has become an imperative requisite in the curriculum of education schools. Extensive use of public forum can be seen in many business chains such as Starbucks, Pringle, and coca –cola. Teachers should be motivated to inculcate in their teaching the use of media aids. Also it’s very crucial that the media should adopt a clear and impartial approach. I support that the critical inquiry of media by Douglas Kellner is helpful in abstaining media domination.

The students should be capacitated to read media messages and also create their own media messages. I definitely agree with Bill Bigelow that advertisements to a very large extent promote wrong perceptions. They make the viewer very uncomfortable by threatening the esteem of the viewer who start believing in the false claims and overlook the actual product. Advertisements are designed with only one rationale- maximum profit to the company. Therefore, they make all sorts of false claims to attract the viewer.

However, a viewer with sufficient knowledge of semiotics can never be deceived. This is because semiotics help the viewer unfold the actual meanings hidden in the ads. I liked his approach of teaching global studies and the one in which students wrote about the effects of ads on their personality. The newly emerged interest in the field of masculinity study has undoubtedly offered a variety of genres like magazines, journals, albums, videos, ads etc. However I would like to mention the not-so-good effects of this growing research- firstly, the potential psychologically damaging effects of violent ads on young adolescent boys.

Secondly, the well toned attractive body of male models threatens the self esteem of the male audience. Talking about the fairer sex , I definitely support Feona Attwood’s argument which means that the attempt by women to display their bodies as an object of spectacle is an indicator of certain qualities of today’s woman- confidence, power, success etc. Working on this assignment has developed my skills of critical thinking. I have reached to the conclusion that advertisements are designed after much market analysis and extensive research on potential consumers.

The sole motive of advertisers is to persuade the buyer to buy their product. A viewer equipped with sufficient media literacy can never be exploited in this gambit, no matter how promising the advertisement content is.