E1. Understanding Media Texts
Specific Expectations
Purpose and Audience
E1.1
explain how media texts from First Nations, Métis, and Inuit cultures, and, as appropriate, relevant media texts from non-Indigenous sources including increasingly complex texts, are created to suit particular purposes and audiences (e.g., explain the purpose of showing a variety of First Nations, Métis, and Inuit role models in urban and rural community settings on reality television programs with an Indigenous target audience; explain the purpose of inviting experts with a spectrum of opinions to speak about issues of importance to First Nations, Métis, and Inuit communities on mainstream news programs)
- Who is the audience for this reality television show? What evidence can you offer?
- How might you revise promotional material for a television or web program with primarily First Nations, Métis, or Inuit content in order to increase the number of non-Indigenous viewers?
Interpreting Messages
E1.2
interpret media texts from First Nations, Métis, and Inuit cultures, and, as appropriate, relevant media texts from non-Indigenous sources, including increasingly complex texts, identifying and explaining the overt and implied messages they convey (e.g., identify the overt and implied messages about First Nations youth conveyed in a documentary about youth entrepreneurship and suggest reasons for any contradictions between these messages; explain the implied message of an advertising campaign featuring First Nations, Métis, or Inuit imagery)
- What message is conveyed by the use of an Inuit symbol in this advertising campaign? Why might its use be considered cultural appropriation or offensive?
Evaluating Texts
E1.3
evaluate how effectively information, themes, ideas, issues, and opinions are communicated in media texts from First Nations, Métis, and Inuit cultures, and, as appropriate, in relevant media texts from non-Indigenous sources, including increasingly complex texts, and decide whether the texts achieve their intended purpose (e.g., determine the credibility of a website based on an evaluation of the various voices it incorporates; explain why social media are effective or ineffective channels for communicating First Nations, Métis, and Inuit community news)
- How effectively does the inclusion of multiple first-hand accounts of living in the same Indian residential school support the documentary’s key findings?
Audience Responses
E1.4
explain why the same media text might prompt different responses from different audiences (e.g., explain why a Métis leader and a non-Indigenous elected politician might respond differently to a news report on changes to legislation regulating traditional harvesting rights; explain why sports fans might have a variety of responses to a team name, mascot, and/or logo embodying an Indigenous stereotype)
- In your opinion, why has this documentary on treaty rights and obligations prompted widely conflicting responses among viewers? What specific information may have sparked the polarized reactions?
Critical Literacy
E1.5
identify the perspectives and/or biases evident in media texts from First Nations, Métis, and Inuit cultures, and, as appropriate, in relevant media texts from non-Indigenous sources, including increasingly complex texts, and comment on any questions they may raise about beliefs, values, identity, and power (e.g., identify issues of individual identity and power raised by the representation of First Nations, Métis, and/or Inuit women on an Indigenous organization’s website; explain how the perspective of a news program is revealed in its choice of experts to discuss an issue of importance to First Nations, Métis, and Inuit communities; describe how First Nations individuals were portrayed in Wild West shows in the late nineteenth century, and assess the influence of these portrayals on popular beliefs about Indigenous identity)
- What topics covered by First Nations, Métis, and Inuit news outlets are under-reported in mainstream news media?
- How does the use of the term ‘settler Canadian’ in an advertisement for a webinar on Indigenous peoples in Canada imply a particular historical perspective? What values does the use of this term imply? What does the term suggest about cultural identity?
Production Perspectives
E1.6
explain how a variety of production, marketing, and distribution factors influence the First Nations, Métis, and Inuit media industry (e.g., identify some challenges that First Nations, Métis, and Inuit media producers face in gaining access to conventional marketing channels, and describe some recent attempts to address those challenges; explain how product placement works, what the benefits are for the product manufacturer and the media producer, and what First Nations, Métis, and Inuit media producers are doing to secure this form of marketing partnership; suggest reasons why a college with a predominantly Indigenous student population might supplement its course information with promotional materials about the college culture and extra-curricular programs)
- What factors might influence the number of visits that a promotional website for a First Nations, Métis, or Inuit video receives?