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 or difficult texts, are created to suit particular purposes and audiences (e.g., describe how a news broadcast by the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network reflects the priorities and interests of its target audience; identify the primary audience for a video game featuring a First Nation character and explain their reasoning; explain the purpose of selecting certain images over others in a documentary about remote Inuit communities)
- In your opinion, why do some news items about First Nations, Métis, or Inuit individuals fuel misconceptions while others do not? How might the intended audience of the piece affect the journalist’s accuracy?
- Whose interests are served by this news item? In your opinion, why was this text produced?
- What is the likely purpose of a museum website showing mainly historical images of First Nations, Métis, and Inuit cultures rather than contemporary images? Who is the primary audience?
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 or difficult texts, identifying and explaining the overt and implied messages they convey (e.g., identify some underlying social and/or political messages in a documentary on First Nations, Métis, or Inuit housing, access to clean drinking water, or mental health services, and explain how statistics are used to support those messages; identify the implied message about government legislation and Indigenous peoples in an online broadcast by a major Canadian news network and suggest possible reasons why the message is not openly expressed)
- What societal values or beliefs do you think are revealed by online news coverage of recent legislation affecting First Nations, Métis, and Inuit cultures?
- What is the overt message of this documentary about missing and murdered Indigenous women in Canada? What message or messages are implied? How are the implied messages conveyed? On what facts are they based?
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, relevant media texts from non-Indigenous sources, including increasingly complex or difficult texts, and decide whether the texts achieve their intended purpose (e.g., determine whether a televised press conference about an initiative to improve health services to First Nations, Métis, and Inuit communities effectively communicated all the information needed by the target audience; assess the relative effectiveness of interviews with filmmakers and actors and interviews with film historians in the documentary Reel Injun)
- In what ways might a virtual museum exhibition focused on traditional customs and past achievements both help and hinder First Nations, Métis, and Inuit efforts to realize contemporary aspirations?
- In your opinion, what Aboriginal Peoples Television Network programming has changed Canadian attitudes about First Nations, Métis, or Inuit individuals the most? In what ways has it altered these perspectives? Does that reflect the goals of the network? Why, or why not?
Audience Responses
E1.4
explain why the same media text might prompt a variety of different responses from different audiences (e.g., provide historical reasons why a First Nation, Métis, or Inuk war veteran and a youth from the same community might have different reactions to the Canadian flag and/or the nation flag representing their home community; identify various possible responses to background information provided by an Indigenous women’s organization in a statement about a government policy position on an issue concerning First Nations, Métis, and Inuit women)
- Why might some people be offended by a news broadcast suggesting wrongdoing by the Crown in its dealings with Indigenous peoples? Why might a First Nation, Métis, or Inuk activist find such a broadcast refreshing?
Critical Literacy
E1.5
identify the perspectives and/or biases evident in media texts from First Nations, Métis, and Inuit cultures, and, as appropriate, relevant media texts from non-Indigenous sources, including increasingly complex or difficult texts, and comment on any questions they may raise about beliefs, values, identity, and power (e.g., identify First Nations, Métis, or Inuit archetypes and/or stereotypes portrayed in a film, and explain how they are used to confirm or contradict the audience’s expectations about plot or character; assess the realism or lack of realism in the depiction of a First Nation, Métis, or Inuk character in a mainstream television sitcom or drama)
- Were you expecting this character to be depicted as ‘good’ or ‘bad’? Why? What prior experiences informed your predictions about the character?
- How does the depiction of family structures on mainstream television sitcoms represent or fail to represent First Nations, Métis, and Inuit perspectives on family life and relationships? What issues does that raise about Canadian social values?
- What power imbalance is implied between the characters in this Western? How is this typical of mid-twentieth-century films in this genre?
Production Perspectives
E1.6
explain how production, marketing, financing, distribution, and legal/regulatory factors influence the First Nations, Métis, and Inuit media industry (e.g., describe some ways in which the concentration of media ownership affects First Nations, Métis, and Inuit media creators; determine whether the Canadian-content regulations of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission [CRTC] contain any provisions for Indigenous content, and explain how that affects First Nations, Métis, and Inuit communities; identify some challenges that First Nations, Métis, and Inuit media creators face in financing projects, and describe some recent attempts to address those challenges)
- What considerations drove the decision to establish the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network?
- What are some marketing factors that hinder the distribution of media texts intended for First Nations, Métis, and Inuit audiences? How is technology being used to address this challenge?
