Thursday, October 14, 2010

Teaching about Media Representations of race and class


To teach students about the media representations of class, I would assign students to watch news shows, such as their local evening news, FOX news, CNN, The Today Show, Good Morning America, BBC news, etc. Each student must watch some kind of news for at least ½ hour. While watching, students should keep track or make a list of who the news stories are about and the ethnicity and class of these people: what is the race/class of the people committing crimes, winning an award, making a difference in the community? In class, students will then compare their lists, discuss them, and see if they can find any common themes and any similarities in the ways the people in the news were presented. After this, students will be asked to think about any stereotypes that they are familiar with and compare them to the themes they found in the news. They will be asked to think about and discuss how the stereotypes are supported by the representations of these people in the news and how the news might have been skewed in ways that work to support  or reinforce these stereotypes.

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