Core Concept #1:
All media messages are 'constructed.'
We should not think of media texts (newspaper articles, TV shows, comic books to name just a
few) as "natural" things. Media texts are built just as surely as buildings and highways are built.
The building materials involved vary from one kind of text to another. In a magazine, for
example, there are words in different sizes and typefonts, photographs, colors, layout and page
location. TV and movies have hundreds of building blocks from camera angles and lighting to
music and sound effects.
What this means is that whether we are watching the nightly news or passing a billboard on the
street, the media message we experience was written by someone (or probably several people),
pictures were taken and a creative designer put it all together. But this is more than a physical
process. What happens is that whatever is "constructed" by just a few people then becomes
"normalized" for the rest of us; like the air we breathe, it gets taken for granted and usually goes
unquestioned. But as the audience, we don't get to see or hear the words, pictures or
arrangements that were rejected. We only see, hear or read what was accepted!
Helping people understand how media are put together ‹ and what was left out ‹ as well as
how the media shape what we know and understand about the world we live in is a critical first
step in helping them navigate their lives through a global and technological society.