Kajal Madeka's Digital Portfolio

The Basic Media Critique was an exercise in visual media literacy through dissection of the ‘media text’ i.e. the way in which the total visual message is engineered by the use of symbolic and metaphorical images, people, clothes, postures and manipulation of light, color, placement, alignment, typefaces and text to create almost subliminal messages marketing certain life-styles, values, ideals or products.

Media literacy, along with its sister, Information literacy, marks the new definition of knowledge and critical thinking and inquiry skills necessary for the present generation to interpret the deluge of mediated information. This transforms them from passive consumers to empowered and active evaluators who question the ulterior motive of the media messages they receive and recognize that the information media presents is not value-free.

For instance, decoding each graphical element in this particular ‘Got Milk’ ad and asking questions about their purposeful presence and placement revealed a lot of information about who constructed the message, whose purpose it served, the subtle biases and interpretations of lifestyle, success, gender expectations and exclusion that were embedded into this one image. The exercise so heightened my critical perception that, thereafter, it has become impossible for me to look at any piece of media without expressing skepticism and counter views.

I experienced this activity both as a student and as a professional. As a student, this critique, along with the photo-essay framed my final understanding of ‘media’ as not just the conduit for information, but as the message itself. As a historian, the affordances of this exercise excited me no end. It hinted to me avenues by which I could help students understand the subjective nature of historical interprtations and that history is not an objective, unbiased statement of facts and events. Thus, the total ‘media text’ of history – the evidence supporting a claim and the language it is ensconced in must be critically analyzed and tested from multiple viewpoints. 

Media Literacy : Decoding Visual Messages