"I Don't Buy It": Exploring Elementary Students' Application of Media Literacy Skills to Election Advertisements

• In Event: Media, Culture, and Learning SIG Top Paper Session

Abstract

In this qualitative case study, elementary students developed media literacy skills by learning to identify commonly used persuasive techniques in advertisements. Findings show that the participants’ preexisting media literacy skills and knowledge from their outside of school media experiences provided a solid foundation to develop those skills as they analyzed advertisements, which in turn supported their transition from commercial to political advertisements. In doing so, students gained an understanding of the critical media literacy tenet that all media messages are constructed for specific purposes (Mihailidis, 2009; Share, 2009). However, students’ understandings were limited by a lack of knowledge about political content within the advertisements and the context in which the advertisements were constructed and viewed.

Author

• Alice Miriam Sullivan, University of Texas - Austin