Wednesday, November 14. 2012

Today's schedule is B-A-D-C

B Block Geography 12 - Today we are continuing our work on the Medicine Hat Topographic map. You need your Canadian Landscape topographic map book and the Medicine Hat map can be found on pages 40-42. You will need to work on questions 1 a, b and d, 2 a & b, 3 a-e, and 7 a-d. This work is due on Friday but you should get it finished by the end of class today. If you don't get this work finished and wish to work on this activity out of the class I would highly suggest you ask me questions ahead of time. You can find topographic maps of Medicine Hat on Google Maps (Type in Medicine Hat Alberta on a Google search and click on maps at the top and then choose "Terrain" as an option). For other maps and information on Medicine Hat that will help you with some of the topographic map assignment questions check out Tourism Medicine Hat

A Block Law 12 - Today with Ms. Curry...you'll have some time to work on your projects, but there will be a short lesson first. You'll briefly discuss the different kinds of crimes and the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act. You'll do questions #3 and #4 on page 247 and #2 and #5 on page 250. After you're done, you can work on your projects.

D Block Social Studies 11 - Today with Ms. Curry...you'll have time to finish off the questions and definitions that I assigned in last class (define: appeasement, War Guilt Clause, isolationism, St. Louis Liner, Kristallnacht and do questions #2-5 on page 98). After that, you'll watch an episode from Love, Hate and Propaganda: Strongmen (it goes over the rise of dictators and shows you how they used propaganda to gain vast support). It will also show you what was going on before WWII.

C Block Crime, Media and Society 12 - Today we continue with our unit on media literacy. Yesterday we talked about the history of media and communication formats (I'll give you a handout on the topic and we'll go over it today). We also understood that not only are media constructions (made by humans) but that the receiving audience interprets the meaning of the message themselves. Today we'll find out that:

1. Media have commercial implications - Most media production is a business and must, therefore, make a profit. In addition, media industries belong to a powerful network of corporations that exert influence on content and distribution. Questions of ownership and control are central – a relatively small number of individuals control what we watch, read and hear in the media. Even in cases where media content is not made for profit – such as YouTube videos and Facebook posts -- the ways in which content is distributed are nearly always run with profit in mind.

2. Media have social and political implications - Media convey ideological messages about values, power and authority. In media literacy, what or who is absent may be more important than what or who is included. These messages may be the result of conscious decisions, but more often they are the result of unconscious biases and unquestioned assumptions – and they can have a significant influence on what we think and believe.
As a result, media have great influence on politics and on forming social change. TV news coverage and advertising can greatly influence the election of a national leader on the basis of image; representations of world issues, both in journalism and fiction, can affect how much attention they receive; and society's views towards different groups can be directly influenced by how – and how often – they appear in media 

3. Each medium has a unique aesthetic form - The content of media depends in part on the nature of the medium. This includes the technical, commercial and storytelling demands of each medium: for instance, the interactive nature of video games leads to different forms of storytelling – and different demands on media creators – that are found in film and TV.

So, I'll ask you to work in partners on a handout that I'll give you today. On it will be a commercial advertisement for a product and I'll ask you to practice the skills of critical analysis of the message and the medium. Together as a class we'll look at the following commercial and try to consider the message that this commercial sends to people...

Now consider what the commercial indicates about sex in modern society. Who is the commercial targeted at and what are the sexual roles in the commercial.