Media Literacy Activity:
Blaming Media
Activity Objective: In this activity, you will apply the critical process to reflect on an opinion piece written by a pop culture icon who became a scapegoat in an infamous school shooting.
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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:
Description: paying close attention, taking notes, and researching the subject under study
Analysis: discovering and focusing on significant patterns that emerge from the description stage
Interpretation: asking and answering “What does that mean?” and “So what?” questions about one’s findings
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
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
Read “Columbine: Whose Fault Is It?” by the heavy metal singer-songwriter Marilyn Manson. Manson wrote this piece for Rolling Stone Magazine after some people blamed him for the shooting at Columbine High School in 1999. The piece was published on June 24, 1999 (pp. 23-24) and is available at: https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/news/columbine-whose-fault-is-it-19990624. Manson followed up several months later with an essay published on his Web site: “Is Adult Entertainment Killing Our Children? Or Is Killing Our Children Entertaining Adults?” The essay is available at: https://www.mansonwiki.com/wiki/ Is_Adult_Entertainment_Killing_Our_Children%3F_Or_Is_Killing_Our_Children_Entertaining_Adults%3F.
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Now, do some additional research. Google: “Marilyn Manson” AND “Columbine.”
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Next, let’s dig deeper into the patterns you identified to interpret your findings.
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Through the following questions, express your views as you assess the role of media coverage in our culture and society.
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Let’s take action! Marilyn Manson engaged by writing an opinion essay for Rolling Stone Magazine, writing a follow-up essay, and putting out an album, “Holy Wood (In the Shadow of the Valley of Death),” that addressed the school shooting and its aftermath. Possibilities include posting your views on social media, or creating a petition.
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