About | medialit

This course addresses two broad areas of media psychology inquiry: media literacy and the social impacts of technology.

The course begins with a broad consideration of the social impacts of technology by looking at how major technologies - including the plow, steam engine and printing press - have historically shaped society. This provides the foundation for a more detailed examination of the impacts of digital technologies.

We then consider ways to assess technological impact, using approaches developed by McLuhan and myself. We then consider media literacy - which is defined simply as “understanding how to identify, evaluate, and apply the techniques of media persuasion” - as a response to some of these impacts, most notably the persuasive nature of media. Within this area of inquiry we consider the psychology of advertising.

Media Literacy for Media Psychologists

Questions addressed in this course include:

How does technological evolution impact social evolution?
How can we assess the impact of media and technology, proactively and reactively?
What are Marshall McLuhan's theories of media, and how can they be used in such an assessment?
How is “the medium the message” and how does the nature of a medium impact the nature of the message it transmits?
How do networks and digital tools affect the nature of citizenship, creativity, narrative and literacy?
What is media literacy, and how can it be used to help us understand the media messages we send and receive?
What are the particular techniques used by professional mediasts, advertisers and marketers to present persuasive media content?

For the most part, you will do the following each week:

Complete weekly readings, viewings, interactive assignments. Standard stuff.
Participate. This means being part of weekly conversations in Moodle.
Complete an ePortfolio assignment. Requirements for your assignment postings are described each week. They are also listed below.
Rotate discussion leadership. Each week I will assign someone to take point on the Moodle discussion. This means you will try to make the first or one of the first postings that work, and actively field responses.

For your final project complete one of these:

A print ad, or 30 second voice or video ad. This will be based on the understanding of media literacy and consumer psychology you develop during the course.

A letter from the future. You will predict life in 20 years. The letter will have two foci: 1) setting the stage, in which you show us what everyday life is like), 2) explaining one particular area of social/technical development that is related to your area of professional practice as a media psychologist. The letter will be 8-10 pages in length.

Let me know which you are doing

Materials you will need for this course

Most materials for the course are free from the Web. In addition you will need the following:

"Storytelling and Media: Narrative Models from Aristotle to Augmented Reality," by Isbouts and Ohler. This appeared as a chapter in the Oxford Handbook of Media Psychology (Dill, editor) in the Fall, 2011. Download this for free. I will provide a link for this soon.

You will need to buy:

Digital Community, Digital Citizen, by Ohler. Available via Amazon.

The Medium is the Massage- An Inventory of Effects, by McLuhan and Fiore. Available via Amazon. Used copies start at around $3.

Intro to Media Literacy, available through the Media Literacy Project. It costs $6. The link takes you to the store.

Writing in Moodle Discussions vs. ePortfolio writing

These are two different kinds of writing used in this course: Moodle writing vs. ePortfolio writing. The differences between the two are explained below.

Moodle writing

This takes the place of conversation. As such, it is less formal than ePortfolio writing. You still need to reference the material, write clearly and so on. But feel free to converse.

ePortfolio writing and format

Your ePortfolio is your formal writing assignment. For your ePortfolio use the following three-part format:

Part 1. Abstract or thesis. Typically a paragraph. This tells us what you are going to discuss, and provides some of your primary findings.
Part 2. Body of your argument. This should flow from your abstract or thesis. This is typically a page or so.
Part 3. Conclusion, call for further study. This wraps up your argument, resonates with your abstract or thesis and identifies areas for further consideration.

Questions?

ePortfolio assignments

Each of these is tied to a particular unit in the course and is described more fully when it appears in the course:

Add a reflection to your portfolio based on your Moodle conversation. This happens throughout the course.
Complete a technology assessment, using McLuhan's Tetrad. This is explained in the McLuhan materials you read and view.
Complete a technology assessment, using Ohler's methodology. How to do this is detailed in Part II of your main text, Digital Community, Digital Citizen.
Complete a mantra tweet that captures your philosophy of living a digital lifestyle. A tweet is a maximum of 140 characters.
Complete a bias inventory with respect to your media consumption. This is explained when we get to that part of the course.
Complete a news or an ad analysis (due week 9). Your analysis will be based on the principles of media persuasion addressed in class.