GET REAL! Toolkit • Educator Guide to Digital Media Literacy
Media Literacy Key Questions
CORE CONCEPTS
KEY QUESTIONS TO ANALYZE MEDIA MESSAGES
Media messages
are constructed
Which medium is used to create the message?
(TV, movie, radio, music, magazine, newspaper, book, video game, advertising, billboard, Web site, social
network, video/photo sharing, IM, text, e-mail, twitter, blog, and other social media, etc.)
Who wrote, edited, designed, produced, and distributed the message?
Media professional? Medical expert? Blogger? Celebrity? Or anonymous?
Did you create the message? Or is the source someone you know or admire? Friend? Online acquaintance?
How credible is the source?
Who is the intended target audience? How do you know?
Each medium uses
its own creative
techniques, interactive features,
and software to
construct messages
What techniques are used to create the message?
What features are used to get the audience’s attention? (images, photos, language, slogans, headlines,
layout, sarcasm, humor, emoticoms, colors, fonts, video, animation, avatars, music, lyrics, sound effects,
camera angles, lighting, Photoshop, celebrity endorsement, interactivity such as likes, hits, retweets)
If models or celebrities are featured, do they really look like that?
Are bodies or faces airbrushed or altered in any way? How can you tell?
Media messages
are produced for
particular purposes,
usually to make money
Why was the message created?
Is the purpose to entertain, educate, inform, persuade, and/or make money?
How does the purpose affect the content and how it is communicated?
Who owns, pays for, and profits from the message?
Who might benefit? Who might be harmed?
Media messages have
embedded values,
points of view, and
lifestyles What does the message really say about body image and health habits? What underlying values
are implied about positive and negative body ideals, appearance, weight, diet and exercise?
What lifestyles are portrayed?
What body shape and size does it suggest are desirable?
What does it suggest to do to achieve that certain look or lifestyle?
Is the information accurate and true? Fact or opinion?
What body shapes are left out? What is not said that might be important?
People understand
the same message in
different ways based
on their individual skills,
beliefs, and experiences
What do different people take away from the message?
How might a person with weight or food issues interpret the message?
How might it make someone feel about his/her body – a person who is too thin or too heavy, happy with his/her
body or preoccupied with body image, overly concerned about what to eat, in recovery from an eating disorder?
How might certain beliefs, attitudes or prejudices about weight, diet and exercise affect a person’s
understanding of the message?
What expectations might someone have about different size people?
How might people interpret the message differently based on their age, gender, sexual orientation,
education, race, ethnicity, religion, political ideology, ability, appearance, prior experiences?
Media messages can
influence beliefs,
attitudes, values,
behaviors, and the
democratic process
What does the message mean to you? In what way does the message reinforce or conflict with
your beliefs and attitudes about body image?
How does it affect your knowledge about a person or health concern?
How does the message make you feel about yourself and your body?
Does the message make you want to change something about yourself –
your looks, eating habits or exercise routine? Is this positive or negative?
How might it affect how you relate to other people and they relate to you?
What actions can you take to promote positive body images?
What can you do to spread the word and advocate for change?
Adapted from the media literacy framework developed by the Center for Media Literacy at medialit.org
Get REAL! about Media and Body Image | California State University, Northridge | National Eating Disorders Association