Dire Straits "Money for Nothing" might provoke the class discussions I am looking for in media classes. It has themes such as a generation gap, inter-class struggles and sexuality.

In an effort to re-invigorate my media studies classes this year, I have completely re-designed the way I do things. For example, I usually start with television. This year I started with movies and tied the unit into the Oscar telecast in February. I even invited the students into class on Oscar Sunday night, so we could watch the Academy Awards, and tweet about our observations.

Very shortly I am going to begin my unit on music. I want the students to know some of the history of radio, rock and roll, the splitting of popular music into genres such as country and western and pop, rock music. Then I want to look at music on television. I will look at Ed Sullivan’s role in bringing in The Beatles and The Stones, and include details about American Bandstand.

In that regard, Matt Delmont has a new book out that I am dying to read. Nicest Kids in Town: American Bandstand, Rock ‘n’ Roll, and the Struggle for Civil Rights in 1950s Philadelphia.  And I am reading “I want my MTV: the uncensored story of the music video revolution” by Craig Marks and Rob Tannenbaum.

I will be introducing some music videos, especially the ones listed below. I am hoping my presentations will spark class discussions on the themes of racism, sexism, empowerment, hegemony.

I am open to suggestions. Feel free to tell me some of the videos you think I might include.

http://dougsaunders.net/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/09/joseph-kony-invisible-children_n_1335853.html

I have heard the observation that today’s youth can never compare to the generation that helped bring about the end to the Viet Nam War. Rubbish, I say. This generation is finding its way in storytelling, in ways the 60’s activists could only dream of.

Want absolute proof? Watch this little video, which is about 30 minutes in length. It’s about the abuses of Joseph Kony. As of mid March, 2012, it had 65 million views on YOUTUBE. And yes, it is completely suitable for use in your classroom.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4MnpzG5Sqc

When I get to a major sporting event, I like to report back on the prices at the concession stands. It is not surprising that prices keep going up. (See previous entry:   http://meonmedia.wordpress.com/2010/03/06/watching-basketball-adds-up/ )

At the Boston Celtics game this time, (vs Houston in March, 2012) so many more people were wearing Celtics player’s jerseys, that even my son was surprised. More than two-thirds of the house had on some form of green sports paraphernalia. And the other surprise is that whenever there is a down moment in the game or the fans are not being shown on the big screen TV, thousands of fans are using their cell phones. Mobile phone networks must find a surge or spike of their usage at those times. Literally thousands of people are suddenly taken with the idea of texting, tweeting or calling their friends to say they are at the game.

The big screen high above the centre of the court shows the play while the play is on. But if a whistle sounds, the in-house camera operators are immediately focused on the fans, showing them dancing, singing, or acting the fool for the gratification of those in the house. Some enterprising fans even work as a tag team – one will gyrate and perform, while the partner sits there with the cell phone camera to get a shot of these current or potential stars on the big screen. You just know those episodes are going up on Youtube or Facebook. The camera operators and switchers are pretty savvy to this; as soon as they see a cell phone in the shot, they go to another fan that is dancing, singing or somehow carrying on.

And yes, the in-house TV crews do have their favorites: energetic old ladies dancing with a sports jersey on, little babies sleeping through the commotion, old guys with grey hair but faces painted in the two-tone team colours, and pretty young girls. Seems that lots of people fancy themselves as working in the media or on the media.

At Celtics games, fans watch the big screen to see if the camera is watching them.

In Hawaii, do teachers teach about waves from a beach point of view or from a media point of view?

 Know a teacher in Hawaii, Montana, Wyoming, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, Vermont or Delaware?

You are one of the 25, 000 people reading this blog. Those are respectable numbers, especially considering this is a blog, published periodically, not a professional journal or news organization on a regular timeline. If this were being published by even a small, regional newspaper, we could brag of 25,000 readers per day. I get about a hundred a week.

I write with the intent that my experience and observations as a long-service media studies teacher will be of some help to other teachers somewhere. And apparently, it is. We have about five times the number of readers that typical blogs get. And since some posts date back to 2007, we have lasted about twice as long as most other blogs.

The Clustermap on the blog, a widget add-on, shows that you readers are everywhere in the world, so it seems. Certainly readers have come from many of the countries where media studies classes are often taught, such as Canada, the U.S., England, Australia, but also from countries such as Viet Nam, Nepal, Panama and Jamaica.

In Canada, I have readers from every one of the ten provinces. In the U.S, readers are in 40 of the 50 States. So dear reader, this time I am asking you for some help. I want to reach readers in all 50 U.S. States. If you know someone in Hawaii, Montana, Wyoming, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, Vermont or Delaware, please suggest they read this blog.  

Can we be more successful? Yes, with your help. So you tell two people, and they will tell two people….remember the shampoo ads that worked like that? Viral Marketing. I will keep you posted as the numbers change.

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Good work, dear readers, we have had our first contact from Vermont!

Congrats to Kara…no one more deserving.

Media Educator Frank W. Baker is an inspiration to media educators.

In 1999, the Internet was still in its infancy. I started reading a message board of sorts put out by some media education pioneers. Frank Baker’s name came up often. He either posted something he had found on line, or made a comment on media education. I enjoyed his comments and observations, and from time to time, would chime in with my own. Before long, we were talking, via emails, on a regular basis.  

I met Frank in person in 2000, in Toronto, at a huge Media Ed conference called Summit. It was like we had been friends since birth! We share many common interests from sports, to current events, to photography. But most of all, both of us love Media Education, and are thrilled to see the progress the field has made.  

Frank is incredibly generous and industrious. You would find so much of his work on his omnibus web site: http://www.frankwbaker.com/  It has book reviews, text book suggestions, teaching ideas, advertising analysis….it is as rich as site as you could ever find in a library.  

You can tell I look up to Frank Baker as a leader in the Media Ed field. I also respect him for his insight and input into the development of the media literacy field. 

Frank has just come out with a new book. Media Literacy in the K-12 Classroom, published by

Media Literacy in the K-12 Classroom is an important new resource that will benefit beginning and veteran media educators.

International Society for Technology in Education (iste), is a 197-page soft cover handbook that will help new teachers and veterans alike.  

An example of the breadth of this book can be seen in Chapter One. It is the rationale as to why we should teach Media Literacy, or Media Ed courses. Baker mentions state standards for teaching Media Ed principles in English/ Language Arts courses. Then he shows the reach of the Media Ed field by extending these principles to Social Studies and to Health Education.  

Chapter Two looks at key questions to be asked in a media studies classroom. This will prove incredibly helpful for those new to the field. Veteran teachers will enjoy it as well, as it refreshes one’s thinking as to why we do what we do.  Further chapters look at advertising, moving images and some of the stereotypes commonly found in media texts.  

Media Literacy in the K-12 Classroom is a book I am thrilled to have in my personal library. It is one I will use often. 

You can tell by now, I am a fan of Frank Baker’s. I am also impressed with his book on Media Literacy. If the book has any shortcomings, it is that it is too short! I can only hope there will be further volumes that help to move along our understanding of how to proceed in Media Literacy, Media Education and Media Studies, whatever name you give to this educational field.

Although Frank and I are friends now, he did not know I was writing this until he read it here.

Is Hollywood all about the big budget blockbuster?

I challenged my students to look at the strengths and weaknesses of the Hollywood Bliockbuster mentality. Here  are some of the observations of these grade 12 students.

Getting students to watch Oscar telecast may need some outside the box thinking.

I am going to keep the whole class in. This is something I have never done before.

In this case, however, it is not punishment, but a reward.

I am inviting my grade 12 students to come to school Sunday night to watch part of the Oscar telecast. In our Atlantic time zone, the Oscars broadcast, properly called the Academy Awards, can run really late into the evening. Or early morning! We won’t get to watch the whole ceremony, of course. Teens are legendary for needing their sleep.  

My plan is to have the students come in, and in an informal arrangement, watch TV in my classroom, talk about the Oscars, the outfits of the stars, and the glamour of the evening. I don’t want to direct their comments but rather allow them to comment as they wish on what they see.  

I even told the kids I would buy the pizza and pop for them. Almost as soon as I broached the subject, one of the girls said, “Is this open to plus one?”  That idea had not occurred to me, but it is so typical teenager thinking, I said “Why not!”  

I am hoping I can inspire some different thinking about the movies. I want them to appreciate the movies as an art form. But also, I want them to think about making their own movies, about having their own voice in making movies that reflect a teen age opinion. I will be giving them time later to make a movie of their own, but right now, I want them to watch the celebration that goes on at the festival we call the Oscars.

a)      construction of reality

b)     forms, codes and conventions

c)      commercialism

d)     ideologies and values

1. Alcohol Ads show no consequences for drinking. 

2. Low Lights, Soft Music = Romance

3. ABC charges about $3.5 million for a minute of advertising in the Academy telecast.

4. Movies are willing to pay big salaries to the stars, because it guarantees an audience.

5. Some movies teach us how to smoke, or be a man.

6. Los Angeles Board of Trade charges a fee for shots including the Hollywood sign.

7. Few news announcers are women.

8. NYPD Blue was filmed in Los Angeles.

9. Walt Disney owns ABC TV which will telecast the Oscars.

10.  Movies have title sequences at the beginning, and credits at the end.  

11. 10-year old boy Bart Simpson is voiced by a grown woman.

12. Another name for Hollywood magic is….

13. Beer is not allowed to be advertised during  Children’s television programming.

14. On the Award shows, many stars wear glamorous gowns donated by the designers.

15. Magazines are often printed on glossy paper.

16. To be nominated for an Academy Award, a movie has to play in a theatre in Los Angeles county before Dec. 31^st of that year. 

17. We expect to see female movie stars in gowns and males in tuxedos on the Oscar telecast.

18. Camera shots can be understood to be a language, with terms such as “Once upon a time” and “they lived happily after” coming to mind. 

19. Page numbers are usually at the bottom of the page.

20. PSA’s that promote safe driving are an example of …..

21. Television shots are easily divided into the rule of 1/3’s.

22. Most movies move through a beginning, middle and end.

23. M*A*S*H contains an anti-war message.  

24. Some movies  use lots of profanity and nudity.     

25. Most songs on the radio are 3 ½ minutes or so in length.

26. Many movies would have us believe it never rains in California.

27. We have the idea that all movie stars are glamourous and drive luxury cars. 

28. Sesame Street, set in New York, is filmed in New Jersey.

29. Sesame Street went on the air in 1969, to help promote numeracy and literacy.

30. Most cinemas make as much money from the concession stand as from movie tickets.