Analyzing Media Impacts
Students swim in a sea of media messages every day; understanding how media messages are intentionally
crafted to elicit very specific audience responses—what techniques are used to grab attention, inform,
persuade, entertain, and arouse certain emotions or actions—helps students become more media literate,
better able to choose media to support their own learning goals, and better able to craft effective media
messages for their learning projects.
Key Method
Using a research-based framework to analyze types of media messages, students become more aware of
techniques used by media producers to inform, persuade, or entertain; they apply this awareness to crafting a
short media message designed to inform viewers and persuade them to take some positive action (see the
Persuasive Presentations micro-credential). They then evaluate audience responses to the message.
Method Components
After establishing discussion guidelines, educator guides students through a critical discussion of media
messages, followed by reflection by the students and teacher. This framework can be implemented
individually, in small groups, or during whole-group instruction.
Research-based framework for analyzing media impacts:
1. Who created this message?
2. Who is the intended audience for this message?
3. What creative techniques were used to attract and keep my attention?
4. What creative techniques were used to inform, persuade, or entertain me?
5. What values, lifestyles, and points of view are represented in, or omitted from, this message?
6. How might different people respond differently than me to the message?
7. What impact do you think the creators of this message wanted?
8. Which techniques were most and least effective in achieving the intended impact?
Suggested implementation activity
Using strategies like the following eight-part approach to evaluating media messages, students discover the
methods media producers use to get intentional responses from audiences:
§ Who created this message?
- All media messages are constructed with a purpose in mind.
- Who designed the message can reveal much about the intention behind the message.
§ Who is the intended audience for this message?
- Knowing the targeted audience for a media message can help explain the choice of words, music,
tone, style, actors, voice of narrator, and other elements.
§ What creative techniques were used to attract and keep my attention?
- There are a wide variety of proven, powerful methods to get and keep attention for the message
being presented; identifying these techniques can help consumers resist being manipulated by the
media and offer techniques for creating impactful media messages.
§ What creative techniques were used to inform, persuade, or entertain me?
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Identifying the methods used to keep you engaged in receiving compelling information, persuade
you to adopt a certain perspective or take a particular action, or entertain you with humor, drama,
or stories will increase your level of media literacy.
What values, lifestyles, and points of view are represented in, or omitted from, this message?
- The choices made regarding who presents the message and how it is presented are intentional
and often result in subtext or hidden messages about class, race, and values.
How might different people respond differently than me to the message?
- Different audiences often take different meanings from media messages, depending on their
background, age, experience, and other elements.
What was the intended impact of this message?
- Taking all of the above analyses into account, what do you think were the obvious and not-soobvious intended impacts of the message?
Which techniques were most and least effective in achieving the intended impact?
- Evaluating the level of impact of the media designers’ choices can make you a more critical media
consumer.
Students then design and create a short video or presentation to inform an audience and persuade them to
take some positive action using some of the techniques they observed, then play or present it for an audience.
Each audience member writes about how the message impacted him or her and what parts of the message
had the most impact.
Suggested preparation
After watching an example of a short video commercial or public service message, students discuss what kinds
of responses they think the producers of the video wanted from viewers, what media techniques the
producers used to get these effects, what were some of the hidden messages being communicated, and how
effective these techniques were.
Suggested review
Students discuss the results of the audience feedback and the lessons learned about how media impacts their
everyday lives.
Supporting Research
Research on media literacy—understanding the design of everyday media and their impacts on students—
indicates that critical media analysis is important to deepening understanding of the impacts of individual
media choices and students’ ability to design effective media messages.
§ Kirsh, Media and Youth: A Developmental Perspective,
http://www.amazon.com/Media-Youth-A-Developmental-Perspective/dp/1405179473
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§ Kaiser Family Foundation, Generation M : Media in the Lives of 8- to 18-Year Olds,
http://kaiserfamilyfoundation.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/8010.pdf
§ American Academy of Pediatrics, The Impact of Social Media on Children, Adolescents, and Families,
http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/127/4/800.full
§ Common Sense Media, Social Media, Social Life: How Teens View Their Digital Lives,
https://www.commonsensemedia.org/file/socialmediasociallife-final-061812pdf-0/download
Resources
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Media Literacy Project, Introduction to Media Literacy,
https://medialiteracyproject.org/sites/default/files/resources/Intro_to_Media_Literacy.pdf
Center for Media Literacy, MediaLit Kit,
http://www.medialit.org/sites/default/files/14B_CCKQPoster+5essays.pdf
Scheibe and Rogow,The Teacher’s Guide to Media Literacy: Critical Thinking in a Multimedia World, ,
http://www.amazon.com/The-Teachers-Guide-Media-Literacy/dp/1412997585
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Submission Guidelines & Evaluation Criteria
Following are the items you must submit to earn this micro-credential and the criteria by which they will be
evaluated. To earn the micro-credential, you must receive a passing evaluation for Parts 1, 3, and 4 and a “Yes”
for Part 2.
Part 1. Overview questions
(200-word limit for each response)
§ Activity Description: What kind of project activities did you and your students engage in to become
more proficient in analyzing media impacts? Please describe the learning activities and strategies you
used.
Passing: Activity description is clear with sufficient detail to illustrate what the students did to
gain competencies.
§ Activity Evaluation: How do you know your students increased their proficiency by engaging in the
Analyzing Media Impacts activities and what evidence did you collect that demonstrates these learning
gains?
Passing: Activity evaluation process and evidence are clear, appropriate, and sufficient to
evaluate the competencies.
Part 2. Evidence/artifacts
Please submit work examples from two students (such as links to writing, audio, images, video, and other
media) that demonstrate progress toward competency in analyzing media impacts, including such items as
evidence of discussions of producers’ intended media impacts, examples of student analyses of specific media
messages, samples of the videos the students created, discussions of lessons learned from the media analysis
activities, and other relevant items.
“Yes”
“Almost”
“Not Yet”
Student work clearly demonstrates
learning from applying the
guidelines for analyzing media
impacts through:
1. Evidence of discussions of
the techniques used to
create specific media
impacts
2. Examples of how the
guidelines were used to
evaluate how media
messages are constructed
for an intended purpose
3. Evidence of improved
ability to understand the
methods used to inform,
persuade, and entertain in
media messages
4. Individual and group
reflections on how the
design of media messages
can be improved and
lessons learned from
Student work demonstrates
learning from the guidelines for
analyzing media impacts through
some examples of media analyses
and student-created videos, but
few examples of discussions and
reflections on the value of the
strategies, lessons learned, and
ideas to improve one’s level of
media literacy
Student work shows some learning
from the guidelines for analyzing
media impacts, with a few
examples of the strategies used, but
very few examples of discussions
on effective strategies and no
reflections on lessons learned or
ways to improve the analysis and
design of media messages
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analyzing and crafting
media messages
Part 3. Student reflections
For the two students whose work examples were included above, submit student-created reflections on their
experience of the analyzing media impact activities. Use the following questions as a guide:
§ How did the analyzing media impacts activities help you use understand how media designers
construct media messages to create their intended impacts on you?
§ How did the strategies for analyzing and creating media messages change your view of the influence
media has in your life and your learning?
- Passing: Student reflections clearly indicate how the activities helped them understand how
media is designed for intended impacts, and the reflections are specific and convincing.
Student reflections also clearly show how the activities changed student views on the
influence media has on their lives, and the reflections are specific and convincing.
Part 4. Teacher reflection
Provide a reflection on what you learned, using the following questions as a guide (200-word limit):
§ What was the impact of engaging your students in the Analyzing Media Impacts activity?
§ How will experiencing these project activities shape your daily teaching practice in the future?
- Passing: Teacher reflections clearly indicate how the activity affected both the students and
the teacher, and the reflections are specific and convincing. Teacher reflection also clearly
states how the experience will affect the teacher’s future practice, and the reflections are
specific and convincing.
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