Mental Health and Teen Suicide
Stephanie Di Maria, Alex Forsyth, Braydon Gordon, Kendra Sowinski, Josh Steffens
Critiquing Media
The HOOK of the activity will be watching a video of a model being photo shopped in to a pizza
(College Humor, 2014).
Students are presented with different forms of media (social media, music videos, advertisements in magazines, commercials, movies) with themes in relationships and self-image (ie. disney romances, hyper masculinity, diet and workout culture, The Kardashians, rap/pop videos). Students are asked to reflect on the messages that are being said, whether or not these messages are accurate, and what is the purpose behind it (ie. selling a product, etc). How does this relate to mental health? (depression, anxiety, eating disorders). Students will have an opportunity to journal their thoughts and have a class discussion.
Additionally, students will compare this to media in Italy, Mexico and Japan, they can create a compare/contrast sheet or a Venn diagram followed by class discussion. The purpose of focusing on the three countries is to bring students' historical understandings of conflicting worldviews into the present day. Of course, students will have touched on the contemporary picture of the respective countries throughout the school year, but this activity will build on students' prior knowledge and extend it to something new: an analysis of mass media and social media cultures in a global context in order to shed light on contemporary Canadian society. Through comparison then, students will gain a deeper understanding of media in the national and international context.
References
College Humor. (2014, March 11 {of video post}). Photoshop has gone too far [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hnvoz91k8hc