MEDIA AND INFORMATION

LITERACY TEACHER: ELENA B.

MOHAMMAD

Lesson 3
Understanding Media: Aesthetics of the Image, Text, and Audio

I. Introduction
The Key to appreciate information technologies and communication process is reading. If you don’t know how to read
very well, then you cannot thoroughly enjoy the information society. And when we say reading, we don’t mean learning
how to distinguish your ABCs. Going beyond the basics, we also need to learn how to decipher meanings embedded in
media texts.

But first, in order to comprehend deeper meanings, we need to comprehend how much each medium of information and
communication dissemination works with the image and the written word. We will also touch upon how the written word
is given new meaning when it turns into the spoken word.

II. Objectives

At the end of this activity, you should be able to:

1. Differentiate how news is framed through differing media outlets;

2. Assess how images could convey messages;
3. Create a media message using visuals;
4. Create media using text and words.

III. Concept/s Explanation

A. Framing and Reading

Framing means to construct, compose or imagine something,
meaning create with a solid plan to follow using a specific structure in mind.
What that structure is composed of should be taken into equal consideration –
always together – when we deconstruct and later construct media and media
products.
From thinking of the basic idea in your brain, the next challenge was
how to get information out of your brain in reach others. In our example, we
used text (writing the idea down on paper) and audio (speaking on a sidewalk).
This is basically what we will tackle when we talk about text and audio in the
world of the print and broadcast media.
B. Newspapers and Journalism

News is defined as “the communication of information on current events

print, broadcast and internet of word of mouth to a third party or mass audience”.
Since its root word is “news”, it is obvious that the kind of information one needs to
communicate in this context should have this element of freshness or newness. We
read these news items in a newspaper, defined as “a regularly scheduled publication
containing news, information and advertising, usually printed on relatively
inexpensive, low-grade paper such as newsprint”. Newspapers all have sections inside,
mostly covering the general category of headlines (the most important news of the day),
opinion (columnist writing essays with specializations), entertainment (pop culture
happenings), lifestyle (health, wellness and related topics), technology, business,
sports, and other special themed sections.
Journalism is defined as “the collecting, writing, editing, and presenting of
news in newspapers, magazines, radio and television broadcast, or the internet” and
concerns the discipline as well as the business of new creation. A journalist’s main
characteristics in creating a news story are objectivity. This means facts should be
presented without
any form of bias or emotion that favours one side over the other. This is where the concept of presenting both sides of
the story emanates from, as journalists should always present news that involves all the parties involved.
However, certain newspaper formats are trusted more than the others. Dailies or broadsheets, meaning the
main or major newspapers printed in the long paper format, are the ones that many subscribe to or buy on a daily
basis. The popularity of tabloids is, perhaps, attributed to the way news is presented. Aside from being small and
therefore cheaper to buy for the ordinary Filipino on the street, the language is also conversational because it uses
colloquial language most of the time.

C. Books, Comics, Magazines, and the Publishing Industry

Different kinds of book have their various formats or
structures of relaying information to the readers. Literature covers
books that usually involve fictional or true- to-life stories of the human
condition like novels, novelettes, a collection or anthology of short
stories, essays, memoirs and the like. Trade books are the more
expensive books usually printed or glossier type of paper with
hardbound covers. There are also picture books, children’s books, art
books, and may others.
The comic format is usually designed into panels, where the
visual drawings are similar to how you would see still scenes of
movies or TV shows. Dialogues and descriptions are written on dialogue
balloons and panel line. Some comics are designed using photographs
that depict certain actions.
The magazine is also a format popular among adults and
teens alike. Some-what an intersection of the newspaper, books and
comics, a typical magazine contains printed stories or essays,
illustrations and photographs, and pages of advertising content. The
magazine is periodical, meaning there is a regular station when it comes
out.
Publishing houses in the Philippines are usually concerned
with printing books for educational purposes.
The textbook you should hold right now is an example of this geared towards various types of readers like literary
titles, comics or graphic novels, coffee table books, picture books, travel books,
 and many others. Most of these print books are sold in the country but they also have markets outside, selling books via
online means.

D. Photography and Timeless Image Concepts

Photography, as originally defined, is “the process of recording images
through a chemical interaction cause by light rays hitting a sensitized surface”
referring to the celluloid film known before as the negative. In the age of digital
photography, however, this process of recording images happens when the image
is captured or encoded as electronic signals, stored in the camera system’s memory
storage unit, and later decoded as digital computer image files.
Using photography equipment then and now, the only glaring differences
and advancement that one could be thankful for the elimination of the chemical
laboratory in the over-all photographic process. Wherein before, all celluloid-
based film strips need to undergo chemical processes to make an image appear,
today we only need to push the playback button of our digital camera devices to
see the picture we took seconds ago. Thus, this makes the processing and the
transmitting of images faster in the digital age. It also makes reproduction of
images very easy and their storage very manageable; as you only need the
computer hard drive a smaller storage device to store the digital image files.

E. Framing and Listening

There is something about the human voice that evolves certain emotional responses in us, immediately, that
we are moved or touched when we hear things that affect us.
This is why radio was deemed as very important at a time when moving pictures were not yet invented to
supply us with more accurate details of a broadcast. In fact, radio announcer could be so effective that listeners could
believe an alien invasion is happening if they hear the convincing broadcast on air.

F. Radio and Evoking Imagination

Radio is the most popular form of mass media all over
the world. For the message senders, it is powerful since that
broadcast could reach wide array of areas, covering many
households and reaching many individuals at a given time. For
the message receivers, radio become an immediate source of
news because information is always fresh and delivered fast.
Due to the existence of frequency transmitters, radio
stations could reach even the remotest of places that has a radio
set. The existence of radio transistors or radio sets that don’t
rely heavily
on electricity plugging makes radio the most practical form of media to have in rural or remote areas still having
problems with electricity distribution. Plus it is also economical for lower classes since they only need to open the radio
set to listen to new content every time.
Radio has remained popular today, amid the rise of new interactive media. This is because of radio’s
accessibility, reach, flexibility, and its ability to leave something to the imagination. In addition, even illiterate people
can listen to the radio, in contrast to, for example, newspapers, which required the audience be literate to use and
enjoy the content.
III. Work/Practice Exercise

TASK 1: Answer the following questions on your notebook. Copy questions before answering. Write your name and
section on top. Take a pic/scan then submit this under this assignment. Due is September 6, 2022.
1. Describe how news is framed through differing media outlets.
2. How can you relate newspaper with journalism?
3. What is the most effective way of presenting news in the world of print, online, or broadcast?
4. What is necessary for you to get the perfect shot in taking photographs?
5. Do you still listen to radios? Why?

TASK 2: Create a 9 to 12 frame comic strip, explaining how radio, newspaper, and television influence our society. This
may be encoded or hand-drawn in a short bondpaper. Take a pic of your work then submit it under the announcement that
will be posted on September 12, 2022.

TASK 3: Make a 10 page – magazine (5 long bond papers folded at middle; should be computerized) about the
following topics: (choose one topic only). Due is on October 31, 2022.
1. Me, myself, and I
2. My goals, dreams, and aspiration
3. My family and me
4. My dream wedding
5. Any…

IV. Reference:

Media and Information Literacy, Cantor, Vibal Group Inc.