Kids, Alcohol and Advertising - Lesson 4: Interpreting Media Messages
In this lesson, students investigate the importance of branding and messaging, especially as they relate to parity products such as beer and alcohol.
In this lesson, students investigate the importance of branding and messaging, especially as they relate to parity products such as beer and alcohol.
Students are introduced to the idea of “privilege” in relation to diversity and how it applies to media. They then look at a checklist of media related privileges to help them understand the concept.
In this lesson, students learn to question media representations of gender, relationships and sexuality. After a brief “myth busting” quiz about relationships in the media and a reminder of the constructed nature of media products, the teacher leads the class in an analysis of the messages about gender, sex and relationships communicated by beer and alcohol ads. Students analyze the messages communicated by their favourite media types and then contrast it with their own experience.
From the tablet to the TV screen, media are a huge influence on how we see ourselves and our world. Nowhere, perhaps, is that more true than when it comes to gender: media provide many of our ideas of what “male” and “female” are, and many of our models of how to behave, what to avoid doing, and whom to emulate in order to play the role we’ve been assigned.
In this lesson, students are introduced to concepts of gender identity and gender expression and learn about common portrayals of trans people in movies and TV shows.
Canada’s Broadcasting Act, last amended in 1991, outlines industry guidelines for portrayal of diversity.