Critical Media Analysis

Here's my VoiceThread about depictions of African Americans in the Media!



Lesson plan about Media Representations:
1. Choose a racial/ethnic/minority group that you would like to discuss with your class.
For example: African Americans, Latinos, Muslim-Americans, Asian-Americans, Jews, ETC.
2. Discuss media representations/use of stereotypes of those groups:
For example:
African American Stereotypes: Highly sexualized, rap or R&B artists, gangsters, uneducated. (Past stereotypes: Blackface, Mammy, Coon, raping women, uncivilized, eating watermelon and fried chicken, etc.)
Latinos: Lower working class (McDonalds or a maid), broken english, etc.
Muslim-Americans: Terrorists, violent, sexist, broken english, etc.
Asian-Americans: Kung-Fu Hero, Dragon Lady, asian nerd, Charlie Chan, etc.
Jews: Media/Hollywood Producers, rich, big noses, only thinking about and handling money.
3. After students are aware of the extremely negative stereotypical representations of these groups in the media, make a writing assignment for them to either do in class, or as a homework assignment:
Give the students a prompt that they are executives at a film or television production company, who has been given a script for a TV show or Film that is blatantly racist (For Example, a television show call Kung-Fu Kenny about an Asian American High Schooler that fights crime by night and is a math tutor by day.)
Their assignment is to first identify the stereotypes and negative representations that are seen in the media piece. Then, their main assignment is to create an alternative film or TV show that challenges these specific stereotypes.
For extra credit, the student can even shoot some of their creation.

This assignment not only introduces students to negative stereotypes of minorities in the media, but also challenges them to create something that serves to benefit society and alter the course of these stereotypes.