Media literacy is the ability to access, decode, analyze, evaluate, and produce communication in a variety of forms. Audiences negotiate meaning in media, according to personal and cultural experiences. Media have commercial implications. Media contain ideological and value messages. Media have social and political implications.
Media have unique aesthetic forms that are closely related to content.
Let these key concepts guide your initial discussion of the role of media in the formation of our ideals and perceptions of such popular cultural symbols as the defining elements of the American Dream. For more information on media literacy, check out Media Literacy Council of Indiana's website. This is the first question I ask my students, and the answer is not as simple as it once was. Have your students draw a symbol of the American Dream. You will be amazed at what you find.