AIDS RESOURCE PAGE
THE media influence the way people think. Television, radio, newspapers, magazines and books give us a view of the world and its people. This is why the media are used as a tool by politicians, advertisers, large corporations, activists and anybody else who would like to affect how we think.
For example, this article is part of a series that wants to make you change the way you think and behave. We want everyone to play a role in stopping the spread of HIV and AIDS. We want you to think about yourself and your beliefs. We want you to respect yourself enough to choose great relationships and healthy sexual behaviour. This newspaper is a tool for us to reach you and spread our message.
Media power is used for propaganda, manipulation, information-sharing, profit-making, empowering and teaching. It reflects our society so that we learn how to live and behave in a way that is acceptable. This can teach us to understand ourselves and know our rights; it can make us feel connected to the lives of others; and it can affect how we think about who we are. It can also stop us from knowing the truth, make us believe that something is truth when it is only an opinion, and make us want to change ourselves to be more acceptable to others.
The media can give us inspiration and freedom, or destroy our sense of self. If you belong to a group that the media feel is the right group, they will talk about your group in ways that show you to be correct, powerful and good. They will only publish flattering photographs and complimentary descriptions of your people and they will leave out negative stories. You will feel like you belong. You will feel normal. But, if the media misunderstand you and publish terrible stories about every mistake your people have ever made, if you only see unflattering photographs and read derogatory remarks, you will feel ashamed and not good enough to belong. You will want to be more like the other groups.
If we understand how effective the media are, we will understand why so much money is spent on trying to control them. To be strong, free-thinking, informed adults, we need to learn how to look at the media and be able to ask who is telling the story and why. That way we can understand which side of the truth is being shown and we can stop being influenced without knowing it.
Activity 1
Aims
– To show how we have been influenced by the media.
– To challenge assumptions.
Activity
Read the following paragraph to learners. It describes a photograph on the front page of a daily newspaper:
A woman squats on the sandy floor. She is barefoot and has a simple cloth wrapped around her in traditional style, covering her head and body. She has a nose-ring and two simple plain bangles. On her left breast, a naked baby suckles and she holds him in her lap as she draws with a thin stick on a piece of plain cloth laid out on the ground.
Ask the class about this image:
– Why do you think this woman is on the front page of the newspaper?
– Do you think she is rich or poor? Why?
– Do you think she has power and influence in her community? Why?
Allow for plenty of discussion. Ask learners to imagine what the news story is about. Tell them that it is about a tradition of women artists, the Mithila of India, who have been painting sacred images for 3 000 years. They squat on the ground with their children and paint in a trance. They create art that is desired around the world. Their communities consider them powerful and their work important.
Discuss with learners how the press has influenced us. Why did they assume what they did about the photograph described? Is this picture similar to others? In what context do they usually see these pictures? Help them understand the way the media influenced them.
Activity 2
Aim
To examine how we are affected by the media.
Preparation
Ask learners to bring an example of their favourite advert to class.
Activity
Ask a few learners to describe their favourite advert and say why they like it.
Ask the learner how the advert makes them feel. How do others in the class feel?
Does the advert make them want to change themselves or their behaviour? Why.
Discuss whether the advert is positive for self-esteem.
After discussing a few examples, divide the learners into groups of four or five and ask them to discuss their adverts. Monitor the group work to ensure that the learners are analysing how the ad makes them feel about themselves. Lead with questions like: Do you wish you had a body like that? What kind of lifestyle do you think that person has? Do you think you would also feel like that person if you had the money?
Activity 3
Aim
To examine media approaches.
Activity
List examples of: You magazine, a daily newspaper, a Department of Health poster, a pamphlet on youth sexuality, a radio talk show, a television soap opera, a church newsletter.
Ask learners in which of the above media they would expect to find the following: The story of someone living with Aids, stories on falling in love and having sex, how to use a condom, answers to questions on HIV and Aids, what teenagers think about safe sex, scary information about sex and Aids, a headline about a 14-year-old girl with HIV, how to get an HIV test. Note that the answers are not as important as the idea that different media have different approaches. If learners give more than one answer, ask how the information would be changed to suit the different media. Stress that if learners want simple factual information, they should look for information pamphlets from clinics, libraries and other organisations.
Activity 4
Aim
To explore media role models
To question stereotypes
This activity will require group preparation time. You might like to do this as a project activity or take a few lessons to cover it.
Activity
Tell the learners that they have the opportunity to design, produce and act in a scene from a soap opera like The Bold and the Beautiful or Generations.
Divide the class into groups and give them time to prepare their scene. The story is about two glamorous young people who meet and fall madly in love. It is very romantic — the relationship is perfect! These people are everything we want to be.
Ask the learners to stage a scene where the couple has a wonderful night out and then decide not to have sex even though they want to. They must produce a scene that they think will make every viewer want to do the same thing.
Give learners time to debate how to reach the heart and mind of the viewer. Remind them that many people expect soap opera stars to have sex.
After the scenes have been acted out, discuss how they worked. Ask them if the scenes made abstinence seem desirable in a strong, sexy way. If not, tell them they will have to try harder to be good soap opera producers and stars!
Project Activity
Aim
To encourage learners to look for positive role models in the media.
To reinforce a healthy self-image.
Activity
Tell learners to collect images and stories from the media that make them feel good and inspire learners to be their best without making them feel bad about who they are now.
Make a collage on the wall and leave it up for a few weeks so that learners get an opportunity to think about them. Make sure that there are positive male and female examples.
— The Teacher/Mail & Guardian, June 19, 2000.
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