Media Literacy Activity: Books in Our Lives

Introduction

Activity Objective

In this activity, you will apply the critical process to examine how people discover books and their relationship to books.

Pre-Activity Instructions:

Identify ten friends and/or classmates that you want to interview about their relationship to books.

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Reviewing the Critical Process

Developing a media-literate critical perspective involves mastering five overlapping stages that build on one another. Let’s review the critical process you’ll be using below:

  1. 1. Description: paying close attention, taking notes, and researching the subject under study
  2. 2. Analysis: discovering and focusing on significant patterns that emerge from the description stage
  3. 3. Interpretation: asking and answering “What does that mean?” and “So what?” questions about one’s findings
  4. 4. Evaluation: arriving at a judgment about whether something is good, bad, or mediocre, which involves subordinating one’s personal taste to the critical “bigger picture” resulting from the first three stages
  5. 5. Engagement: taking some action that connects our critical perspective with our role as citizens to question our media institutions, adding our own voice to the process of shaping the cultural environment

Description

Interview ten of your friends and/or classmates about their relationship to books. Ask them the following questions:

  1. Do you read books at all? Why or why not?
  2. How do you choose the books you read? Would you read more books if they were recommended to you?
  3. How have books made a difference in your life? What kinds of books are they (e.g., novels, non-fiction books, religious books, children’s books)? How did you get these books? Were they recommended by family, friends, and/or teachers? Did you buy them? Get them from the library? Received as a gift?

Use the text box provided to answer the following question.

Analysis

With the interview responses in mind, let’s explore what patterns emerge regarding your friends’ and classmates’ relationship with books.

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Interpretation

Now, let’s explore the meaning of the patterns you found.

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Evaluation

Next, we’ll examine your view as you assess the trends and forecast of the publishing industry.

Use the text boxes provided to answer the following questions.

Engagement

Let’s take action! Moving forward, engage with books and the publishing industry in a new way. Here are some suggestions:

  • For book-related reviews and articles, visit the New York Times Book Review (https://www.nytimes.com/section/books) or the London Review of Books (https://www.lrb.co.uk). Choose some titles. Read!
  • Start a book club with some friends.
  • Carefully choose a book to give to a friend as a present.

Use the text box provided to answer the following question.