Disney Heroes and Villains Activity:
Frankie Magazine Activity: Responding
Frankie magazine has developed Media Arts learning based activities with their magazine as a resource. This activity can be modified to use any magazine. This activity was designed for year 9s but is also applicable for year 10. The activity involves looking at two magazines and analysing and comparing the content.
This activity engages students with the practice of analysing media as an audience member, observing the impacts of audiences on products, as well as, analysing how the audience interacts and makes meaning with the product.
Furthermore, this activity also looks at different forms and elements of media, acting as a example and discussion tool.
The activity is explained here on pp. 17 - 20.
The example provided by Frankie Magazine can be found here on pp. 3-7.
Respond and interpret.
This resource and activities plan will utilise representations of heroes and villains within disney movies to analyse how 'symbolic elements are manipulated in media artworks to challenge representations framed by social beliefs and values'(VCAA 2017).
Disney movies are an excellent example of storytelling that most students would have come into contact with. These stories and representations can influence 'the way we look at the world, including the way we judge fairness and justice, good and evil,' (Evely 2010 p. 10). The Disney education resource kit, developed by ACMI, outlines how different media art elements enable the characterization of the heroes and villains from pp. 13-16. This information will be utilised to form a whole class, teacher-led discussion about how characterization occurs which will be supported by small clips and images of the discussed Disney characters. The following clips compliment this task:
Following this discussion, each student will be provided with an image of a Disney character and will be required to write down all the different elements that make up the character and what these elements represent. I.E, hero or villain, rich or poor etc. Students will then record how the different elements of the character make them feel. This website can be used to select characters.
Students can also re-imagine characters in new roles. For example, students could reimagine a hero as a villain and redraw the hero using the common elements identified for villains.
This will enable students to develop a deep understanding of how characterization occurs, how different media are elements can affect and change representations and how media elements are utilised to manipulate audience emotions and responses.
Advertisement analysis: Responding
Coca-Cola - Open Happiness
Maybelline New York - Make it happen
The advertisements listed above can be great for analysis and evaluation of how media can portray certain ideas. These advertisements can be used to express to students different viewpoints and also the social and ethical implications in advertising.
This worksheet developed from Berger (1986), helps the students to analyse and evaluate the advertisements.
Media & Viewpoints
These resources will help students to analyse media artworks to explore different viewpoints (VCAA 2016).
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Images of wealth: This website outlines a discussion comparing the images posted on Instagram by the wealthy to the oil paintings of the European Elites in the 1700s. This can be used in an activity by providing students with printouts of the images and asking them to interpret and analyse the images in small groups. This would then be followed by a whole class discussion, scaffolded by the information in the article. A follow up activity that could be completed would be to instruct the students to find representations of something else on Instagram to compare to art from the past, for example beauty.
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Aboriginal media coverage:
This video talks about Indigenous Australians' representation in the media and NITV. This is a great resource for students to view to understand differing viewpoints and challenging representations.
This article discusses how the media explores different viewpoints of Aboriginal issues. This article can be given to students to examine and discuss, analysing and evaluating how the media represents Aboriginal issues and how the media manipulates images and stories to their own view point and how this compares to the view point of the Aboriginals.
A follow up activity could be to provide students with articles that contain imagery and ask them to do some research into the story and re-imagine the story and imagery from a different viewpoint.
