MediaSmarts Tags - Diversity in Media

Passing on information orally was possible when the traditional languages were still very much alive, which is no longer true today. In a single century, approximately 10 Aboriginal languages have become extinct and a dozen others are in danger of becoming so, according to the Atlas of Canada. A number of studies have predicted that only Ojibwa, Cree and Inuktitut will still exist in 50 years.

Even rarer is when Aboriginal people are positioned in mainstream media as experts or commentators on major issues of public interest. An exception to this was an initiative in 2010 when the Quebec newspaper Le Devoir published exchanges of letters and opinions between Ghislain Picard, Chief of the Assembly of the First Nations of Quebec and Labrador and Manon Barbeau, founder of Wapikoni Mobile.

In political ads that talk about protecting “our way of life”, “our culture”, “our values”, “our civilization”, I can generally assume that my group is included.At school, I can expect to be given materials that attest to the existence of my group.When talking about the best movies and television shows, I can expect to see my group widely represented in almost all levels of production (writing, producing, acting, directing).I can easily avoid shows that do not focus on telling the stories of individual

Level(s): Grades 10 - 12

Author: This unit was created by Roger Bird as part of a Media Education course taught by John Pungente at the Faculty of Education, University of Manitoba, 1992.

Overview

Level: Grades 7-12

Duration: 1-2 hours

Author: Matthew Johnson, Director of Education, MediaSmarts

Overview

In this lesson students are introduced to the key media literacy concept that media are constructions that re-present reality and consider how representations of crime in news and entertainment media may influence how we perceive members of particular groups.

Level: Grades 9-12

Author: Matthew Johnson, Director of Education, MediaSmarts

Overview

Hollywood's versions of "how the West was won" relied totally on the presence of Native tribes, who were to be wiped out or reined in.

The Canadian Association of Broadcasters report found that disabled “individuals are viewed as the objects of pity and depicted as having the same attributes and characteristics no matter what the disability may be.” Similarly, the website Media and Disability, an organization advocating for broader representation of people with disabilities, points out that “disabled people, when they feature at all, continue to be all too often portrayed as either remarkable and heroic, or dependent victims.”

The Canadian Association of Broadcasters report found an “overall lack of coverage of disability issues by television news outlets,” and what coverage there is typically tends to fall into the “victim” or “supercrip” categories: either stories that ask for the viewer’s sympathy or “uplifting” stories of people who have “overcome” their disabilities.