 Media literacy is an important critical cross-field outcome. At Bonatu Park High, Carolyn Greer is teaching a grade 10 language and communications class how to analyze adverts and other media images. Okay, today we're going to be learning about advertising, specifically advertising in magazines and the way adverts are created in order to get us to buy the product or whatever their message is. Okay, and now know that teenagers know advertisements very well, okay? So if I were to say to you, I want to sing to you, it's good, it's good, it's good, it's nice. So what does that make you think of? In the corner, okay? So it's like common knowledge to you, huh? And perhaps some of you can give us a few. Just one bite, just one bite. Then you'll write drama, just one bite, just one bite, and you know you're right. Very good, well done, teacher. Now, when we look- She explains that when you analyze an advert or any image for that matter, learners should first simply describe the content of the advert without interpreting it. This process is called denotation. We're looking at the language that they use, the words that they're using in the advert, and also the images that you have, okay? The people that are in it, the colors, et cetera, that are used. All right, if you notice here, what is the gender of the teenagers in this picture? Mostly males. Mostly males, one female who is draped over the shoulders of this good-looking guy over there. What do you see in the background here? Caroline then moves to the second step in analyzing an advert or an image. She asks learners to tell her what the advert makes them feel. This process of interpreting and analyzing is called connotation. We decided that the message was that if you use the product, you're going to be part of the whole culture. Very nice, well done. What I think is that the girls get attracted to the guys when they put this break and stir me. So obviously, one of the messages of this advertisement is that if you use this fragrance, the girls are going to fall all over you. Okay, now we're going to go into group activity. Each group is going to get two adverts. These two adverts provide interesting comparisons. So I'm going to give you two toys. And perhaps you can compare the two. In their groups, the learners decode the adverts. First, they describe what is in the advert. They complete the denotation step and then begin interpreting or working out the connotations of the adverts. The actual fact that the food has been like almost zoomed in, it's appearing to the eye and it's appealing. And especially they're using the red oriental cuisine, which showing that it's from the east. And also they're showing that it's original. When they're using the chopsticks, the language, I mean the writing in Chinese. A big difficulty in teaching media literacy is moving learners beyond superficial interpretations of adverts and images. We discussed that the target market are women because they are mostly working in the kitchen, not men. This boy, for instance, simply reflected society's dominant interpretation that women are naturally responsible for washing dishes. Without being able to explain that this connotation was constructed by placing a picture of a woman in close proximity to a picture of a dishwasher. And then as I was looking through the magazines, I found many more advertisements with women in the kitchen. Here you have, this is a skip advertisement. The women are doing her washing. Here you have another woman in the kitchen. This is advertising stainless steel. Now what I'd like to know is if they replaced these women with two males, what difference would it make to the effect of the adverts? The ad is not going to appeal to anybody, I mean if they use men, because men really don't care whether you skip home or surfers as long as the washing is done. If you were paging through the first sight, you'd say, maybe you think maybe they're advertising a plumbing company or something like that. It's quite an ambitious task to challenge gender stereotypes because these kids are brought up from a very early age to see things in a certain way. They take it for granted that a woman's job is in the kitchen and a man must make the money. And I think the only way to transform society is for them to be able to recognize what is going on because it's reinforced time and time again on the media. One of Caroline's outcomes was to get learners to challenge media stereotypes. She asked them to design an advert that sells a product to people not normally associated with such a product. By breaking the stereotypical associations between, for instance, young men and motor cars, she hopes learners will become more media literate. They were being forced into being stereotypical because of the target audience that I selected. So for example, one group is going to have to come up with an advert for a car aimed at an elderly woman, which is quite unusual because normally cars are aimed at young, up-and-coming males. Okay, and obviously I want them to have some fun with it. I want them to be able to be creative and to not necessarily go with the way that it's always done, but also to be able to think carefully about every single word that they choose and the images that they've put across. What did you get? A cell phone for a female teacher. The groups choose pictures from magazines or draw their own pictures and write their own advertising captions to create an advert which will be interpreted favorably by the target audience. This forces learners to think about the connotations their readers will draw. Not only are the learners developing media skills, but they're also practicing a variety of language skills. I think on the whole they've been very creative, I think, which is great. I think that they've really tried hard to appeal to their particular target audience. But what I have noticed is that on the whole they have kind of done what the way of the society I think would expect. We chose this particular box because businessmen like glamorous things, even where they put their Cuban cigars and stuff. Advertising works with stereotypes. Part of a good media lesson is to develop a learner's media literacy to a point where they can see through these stereotypes. The washing part of the container is a masculine container as opposed to a soft feminine one. So in a sense, I think that's what works in advertising and that's the way that advertising does do it. As you can see, that's a car designed specially for old people. And it's also small enough for them. Knowing that a lot of greenies live by themselves, no children to take care of. And then also as you can see, we came up with the name, the name for the car, other called a WG, called Granny. So go Granny, go. I think that is a bit different as not the typical image that a granny has. So I think that was also quite creative and quite original. In follow-up lessons, Caroline will build on the issues raised in this lesson. Among the issues she will tackle is the difficulty stereotypes posed in a multicultural society. Learners will begin to see that the message they are trying to get across in their adverts might not necessarily be understood in the way they want them to be. For instance, in a multicultural society, some people might be offended by an advert trying to project a granny as a youthful go-getter. In order to develop a media literacy, learners should be aware of how they as consumers read media messages and be aware of the thinking that goes into the production of media messages.