Media literacy key concepts Lesson 3: Audiences negotiate meaning Lesson Plan

Media Literacy 101

Level: Grade 5-8

Author: MediaSmarts has partnered with Concerned Children’s Advertisers to develop a suite of videos on each of the media literacy key concepts.

Duration: 45 minutes

Overview

In this lesson, students watch a video introducing the media literacy key concept that audiences negotiate meaning. They discuss the idea that different media products are aimed at different audiences and that different people may react differently to the same media product, and reflect on the experience of liking something they aren’t “supposed” to. In an optional final task, students watch a pair of TV shows, one they would normally choose to watch and one they wouldn’t, and identify the ways in which each is aimed at its target market as well as speculating on how someone other than the target market might react to it.

Learning Outcomes

Students will:

  • understand the key concept that audiences negotiate meaning
  • understand the idea that media products are aimed at particular audiences
  • understand that different people react differently to the same media text
  • reflect on the connections between media and personal identity
  • analyze the intended audience of a media text (optional task)

This lesson and all associated documents (handouts, overheads, backgrounders) are available in an easy-print, pdf kit version.

Lesson Kit