Media Vacation or Monitoring-- students examine their media use in either case

[Linda Cuellar]

Examining Media Use in 48 Hrs.

It's been a great start to a new semester at our community college, and particularly in my five sections of Introduction to Mass Communication.

I don't use a textbook. Most of the class is project-based.

Students have explored the Media Literacy concepts and questions by examining various media messages.

They examined the results of the Gen M 2009 report on media use among 8-18 year olds in the U.S., and particularly the results on grades and media use. They also read numerous articles about media deprivation projects among college students around the world.

Next they began an exploration of their use of media by taking either a 48 hour media vacation or a 48 hour monitoring of their media use, with the first group preparing questions which they would answer after the 48 hours of their media vacation and the second group carefully charting their use of media in 8 media types in an Excel spreadsheet prepared for the assignment as well as a journal.

Groups in class discussed their individual results then their group experiences on which technology was easiest or hardest to give up and other observations. They then created a news story about their group experiences and totals for media use among various media types.

One group's keen perspective was memorable. The class was busy in five or six separate groups discussing their results. The students in one group had found most of them found it easier to give up TV and the Internet and harder to give up cell phones and social media. I piped in too fast and offered a McLuhan-based reason using senses. I offered the explanation TV and the Internet were more visual. Another explanation was put forward by another student: portability! That would account for students' preferences. Another student then offered his idea, that preferences were due to connection to people! TV and Internet were one way devices, while social media and cell phones give us what we crave the most connection to people.

I have stair-stepped this assignment into drafts and final drafts and given them the experience of reading the work of their pair-share partner. The assignments total 20% of the student's grade this semester. We have spent about 3-4 weeks on related topics and assignments connected to 48 hrs.

Their writing of a news story incorporates basics of news writing, writing in the 3rd person, 5 w's and h, 7 news values, quoting, paraphrasing and examining their work by applying the media literacy questions to their own writing about the experience. It also satisfies the necessary reflection over the project that helps to "connect the dots" or cement the experience in class with the experience of living real life.