Representations of media - UNESCO...jumped from 200,000 to 400,000”, Hudson “Not everybody loves your new album. I’m looking online at comments from people and some of them aren’t

Representations of media

in children’s media

Sherri Hope Culver

Center for Media & Information Literacy

Sherri Hope Culver / Thessaloniki 2017

Research study:

An analysis of media literacy messages

in popular children’s television

Key question

How can we help children

develop media literacy skills whilethey are consuming media?

Analysis

Access

Act

Evaluate

Analyze

Create

How were these terms defined

in the study?

ACCESS: focus on availability & consumption

ANALYZE: focus on seeking meaning

EVALUTE: focus on assessing value

CREATE: focus on new and original media

Day-to-day life of

Lincoln Loud, a

middle child with ten

sisters!

Lincoln navigates

the challenges, accidents,

involvement and love

of his sisters.

Each episode deals

with a challenge that

ends with the siblings

supporting one another

Premiered May 2016

Two girls in 7th grade-

Kenzie and Babe

They run a video

game company

called Game Shakers

The (fictitious) rap star,

Double G, is their

business partner

Viewers can actually

download and play

the games they create

Premiered September

2015

Two best friends, age 13,

Paige and Frankie are

vloggers for online comedy

channel, Vuugle

They write original songs

and are seeking Internet

fame.

Their friends are other

Vuugle stars

Lyrics to opening song:“You could spend all day eating a

baguette. But why do boring things

like that when there’s the Internet!

Let’s go make some videos.”

Premiered June 2016

Series centers on Harley,

the middle child of the

Diaz family.

Focus is on the day-to-

day challenges of a

large family.

The family relies on

Harley’s technical

knowledge and creativity

to solve problems.

Premiered February 2016

20 episodes screened: 5 from each series

A total of 196 media literacy moments were

found

The category reflected most often was “access”

Game Shakers (67 moments): access (23),

create (22), evaluate (13) and analyze (9)

Loud House (61 moments): access (32),

create (15), evaluate (10) and analyze (4)

Bizaarvark (47 moments): evaluate (17),

analyze (14), create (12), access (4)

Stuck in the Middle (21 moments): access (9),

create (6), analyze, (4) evaluate (2)

Key Findings

Bizaarvark: Teddy obsessively looking at his mobile device,

Paige using a laptop to check statistics for Bernie’s uploaded

videos, Paige and Frankie using virtual reality headsets.

Stuck in the middle: Mom using her mobile phone to leave a

message for Rachel, Dad saying, “I’ll check the security camera

from the store.”, then looking at the video stream on his phone

from a security camera, Daphne luring her brothers into her tent

with downloaded episodes of Dumpster Jack

The Loud House: Lori using a flash drive to store her new

yearbook photo, Ronnie Anne reading a book, the family

gathering in the living room to watch the television show,

“Dreamboat”, a fake reality show

Game Shakers: using a drone, two adults playing the video

game “Lama Lama Spit Spit” with Babe and Kenzie on tablets,

Kenzie checking the time on her mobile phone

Examples of ACCESS

Bizaarvark: Amelia “In your space is live-streaming... Do you guys have

Internet?”, Frankie “Your mom hired the camera crew for a full day, so I

shot a bunch of footage in the pancake costume. I came up with a

character and…a full back story”

Stuck in the middle: Mom and Harley watching a commercial about

visiting the elderly and Mom saying “Those old people need us. We

should be helping too.”, Harley watching a commercial for a boarding

school and thinking about her best friend Ellie going to the school

The Loud House: Lincoln “All we gotta do is copy these handsome

dudes, grab a photo from the yearbook file and paste ‘em here.”,

Lincoln playing a handheld video game, hitting “pause” and “pause’

coming up on the video game screen

Game Shakers: Double G posting a comment on social media inviting

people to meet him face-to-face to tell him their comments in person,

Kenzie interviewing the “focus group” participants when they leave the

bathroom after playing their game, “Unicorn on the cob” ,

Examples of ANALYZE

Bizaarvark: Paige and Frankie, “You created an entire show just to breakup our

friendship? Hired actors? Created a fake network? All to bring down two teenage

girls who still haven’t cracked 20,000 subscribers?, Dirk “I’m such a dope.

Always record in landscape. It’s more cinematic that way.”, Paige “I love this

virtual snow. It’s just like playing in real snow but without any of the actual life

experience.

Stuck in the middle: Harley “Next time, we fast-forward through the

commercials”, Harley imagines a commercial for Radistone Boarding School with

Ellie’s face super-imposed on various scenes.

The Loud House: Lincoln “Our immortality rests on this flash drive!”, Lori talking

about being devastated if her bad photo makes it into the yearbook, Clyde “Time

for the 20/20 rule. For every 20 minutes looking at screens, you should look

away for 20 seconds”

Game Shakers: Everyone wants to take selfies with a meatball because a

celebrity did, Babe “Yesterday when people were watching Hudson our numbers

jumped from 200,000 to 400,000”, Hudson “Not everybody loves your new

album. I’m looking online at comments from people and some of them aren’t so

nice”.

Examples of EVALUATE

Bizaarvark: Victor “This entire web series was created by me!”, Paige and

Frankie make a music video about getting sweaty in gym class, Dirk is stuck

under a pile of stuff and records and uploads videos to his web channel, “Dare

me bro”, Bernie tries to create different videos to figure out his brand

Stuck in the middle: Harley imagining how she would convert the family

activity board into a digital, high tech interface, Brothers camping in the

backyard, play sound effects through their mobile device to annoy their sister,

Harley remembers she posted a bad review online of a DMV employee.

The Loud House: Baby Lillie holds a mobile device and hits the buttons,

Lincoln shows Clyde how to insert photos into group yearbook photos, Lucy

uses new technology to find the best roommate mix for the sisters, Leni “I’m

totally posting this!”, Lincoln installs a go-pro-like camera on a dog

Game Shakers: a crowd of people takes out their phones and video recording

the meltdown of Double G, Kenzie working on coding & hacking into a video

billboard, Babe “Trip, get this test on video, ok?” Then Trip takes out his mobile

phone, says “rolling” and starts recording, Babe puts a “yo-pro” harness and

camera on Hudson so they can “live stream” him all day.

Examples of CREATE

Previous kids TV shows focused on media

What are kids learning about media

when they watch these shows?

Posting videos online can make you famous and popular

Making media (creating) is fun Media can get you in trouble

Media is expensive

Cool kids have media & technology

Media can help solve problems

Sometimes it’s difficult to stop using media and take a break

People post mean comments online

Some kids make a lot of money making their own videos

Silly or dangerous videos often go “viral” Silly or sexy photos get a lot of “likes”

Everybody is online and has a mobile device!

Future research

Evaluate more popular children’s series using the rubric

Currently evaluating an additional six series

Consider evaluating additional components, such as

gender, race, ethnicity, consumerism, violence, etc.

Share findings with children’s media content creators

Sherri Hope Culver

[email protected]

www.centermil.orgwww.sherrihopeculver.com

Sherri Hope Culver / Thessaloniki 2017