Teaching sequence

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

20 minutes

Part A: The media’s power

20 minutes

Part A: The media’s power

30 minutes

Part C: Debate

10 minutes

Reflection

Learning intentions and success criteria

Students understand...

sources of and barriers to power for the media
what constitutes evidence of the media’s power
how the media does, and does not, exercise power over others.

Students can...

identify their prior perspectives
identify evidence to support and disprove a claim
make an argument using evidence
listen to the arguments of others and refute them.

Part A: The media's power

Step 1

Distribute the Student Worksheet to all students, then show them the quotes below and ask them to record their thoughts/responses:

Quote	Do you agree/disagree or partially agree/disagree? Why?
“Whoever controls the media, controls the mind.” – Jim Morrison
“When widely followed public figures feel free to say anything, without any fact-checking, it becomes impossible for a democracy to think intelligently about big issues.” – Thomas L. Friedman
“The media’s the most powerful entity on earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent, and that’s power.”. – Malcom X

Step 2

Play this video:

Media Effects (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvgURfZMGoQ)

Step 3

Invite students to complete the table below considering ‘the media’, keeping in mind what the video showed them about sources of power.

Sources of power	Barriers to power

Step 4

Show students this video and discuss the claims made/evidence given:

Does social media have the power to change the world? (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uppg_2nGo54)

Step 5

Discuss the following questions as a class:

How is the mass media different to social media?
How might they use power in different ways?

Step 6

Invite students to free-write for five minutes in response to the question:

How powerful is the media (including social media)?

Note: Their focus should be on getting down ideas, not on careful expression/structure. A mind-map, list or other representation should be encouraged.

Part B: Media in The Final Quarter

Step 1

Explain to students that they will be looking for evidence that both proves and disproves the media’s power in the following clips from The Final Quarter:

Show clips and support students to fill in the table below:

Eddie in total control (https://vimeo.com/389150102/99c94cd7d2)

I know knuckleheads (https://vimeo.com/389150138/acc36057e0)

AHRC ad and backlash (https://vimeo.com/389149844/c30e117eb6)

Evidence of the media's power	Evidence of the media's lack of power

Step 2

Allocate one of these newspaper articles to pairs of students to study:

Adam Goodes documentary leads to outpouring of remorse from AFL fans - https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-06-20/adam-goodes-after-release-of-afl-documentary-the-final-quarter/11223880
The Final Quarter: Waleed Aly’s major issue with reaction to Adam Goodes documentary - https://7news.com.au/sport/afl/the-final-quarter-waleed-alys-major-issue-with-reaction-to-adam-goodes-documentary-c-357664
The media's treatment of Adam Goodes shows we need more indigenous voices - https://www.afl.com.au/news/2019-07-03/we-need-to-hear-more-indigenous-voices-in-the-football-media

Explain to students that they need to find evidence in the article that either proves or disproves the media’s power.

Step 3

Invite students to share their major findings (based on their article) about the media’s power in the Adam Goodes story.

Step 4

Divide the class in half and tell one group to create a mind-map or list on the positive uses of media power. Instruct the other group to do the same on the negative uses of media power. You can provide them with this prompt:

How can the media’s power be used positively/negatively?

Step 5

Invite students from each side to present their ideas to the class.

Part C: Debate

Step 1

Show students the debate topic:

Whoever controls the media, controls the mind.

Step 2

Either divide the class or have students choose their own positions. Encourage students to work in teams to generate their arguments for the affirmative and negative sides. Students should then work in pairs and select one argument to write up.

Step 3

Invite students to read their arguments to the class, taking turns between affirmative and negative. The opposing team should listen and write notes for their rebuttals.

Step 4

Have students present their rebuttals.

You may prefer to use a more formal debate structure if you are familiar with the rules.

Reflection

Invite students to respond to the following:

What is your personal opinion on the debate’s statement: Whoever controls the media, controls the mind?
Has your position changed since the beginning of the lesson? Why/why not?
What was a good point made by the opposing team? Why did you find the point interesting or persuasive?

Differentiated learning

Extension

In Part B, students could seek out their own articles to provide further evidence.
In Part C, students could be encouraged to reference case studies, statistics and other evidence that they can find online. Students could also explore more sophisticated rebuttal techniques such as concessions. See this article for more information:
- Different forms of rebuttal

Provisions for Learning Support

In Part C, students could deliver their argument to a peer, rather than to the whole class.
In Part C, students could also be given an argument, rather than having to generate their own, and then expand upon this argument with an example.

Teacher reflection

Take this opportunity to reflect on your own teaching:

What did you learn about your teaching today?
What worked well?
What didn't work so well?
What would you share?
Where to next?
How are you going to get there?

The Final Quarter - Media Power

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Summary

Lesson guides and printables

In this lesson