Image Credit: Facebook

Media

Goals

  • reflect on the impact of media choices

The Learning Task

Graphic images of George Floyd handcuffed on his stomach as a Minneapolis police officer presses his knee into Mr. Floyd’s neck are present on mainstream media outlets and social media all over the world in the last few days. Mr. Floyd died from the injuries he sustained on Monday, May 25, 2020.

George Floyd’s family would like him to be represented and remembered in the image to the right, not the image of him dying on the ground.

What we know about media:

  • All media is constructed and created for an intended purpose and audience
  • Media contains beliefs and value messages.
  • Each person interprets messages differently

Your turn: What responsibility do you feel the media has to family members and the broader community with the images they choose to publish? How does the choice a media outlet makes to publish an image impact the interpretation of an event? How do images demonstrate a point of view?

Please represent your thinking as prompted by the preceding questions in a journal entry. Or, use your journal entry to write, or draw, about how you might feel about the death of George Floyd.

Daily task! Don’t forget to engage with your Writer’s Notebook: Creating a Place for Reflection

Note: please see the information in this lesson for guidance.