May I have your attention?

This year marks my 17^th year teaching in the field of new media literacies. In this time, I have conceptualized and designed curricula to sharpen the effectiveness of teaching and learning new media literacy skills, including active and critical thinking, across a stunning array of contexts and for a wide variety of learners. I have used existing media literacies frameworks and models, as well as adapted content with my own original twists and takes. Yet, throughout nearly two decades of media literacy teaching, research, and practice, only one model stands out above the rest and continues to ring in my mind. This is Harold Lasswell’s Communication Model.

I first learned about Lasswell’s Model as a graduate student studying media literacy with an early leader and expert in the field, Dr. David Considine. The value and potential of this model to facilitate active thinking regarding media in all forms has only grown in step with the increasing complexities of our mediated world.

In my courses, I have incorporated lateral reading, fact-checking, validity scenarios, and other activities to teach students how to identify and evaluate many types of misleading information. With these activities, I seek to facilitate students’ news literacy skills development and general habits of mind when engaging with information and other media messages. The resources and materials that I have designed, used, and adapted all have significant perspectives and processes to offer students. Yet the reality is, when they leave my classroom, it is a challenge for them (and for all of us) to recall or implement these active measures in real time when engaged with media. In an age when our attention is a valuable commodity, it seems that keeping it simple is best.

For this reason, I’ve adapted Lasswell’s Model, making some adjustments and adding a sixth area (Why?), in order to help create a memorable way for my students (and all of us) to exercise our daily habits of mind and life long media literacies.

Simply put, whenever you are engaged with media– and especially if you are feeling heightened emotions as a result of that engagement– pause and check in with your own attention. Ask yourself six questions: Who has my attention? What are they saying? To whom? How? Why? And with what effects? Sing it, if it helps!

Citation: Redmond, T. (2022, February, 3). May I have your attention?. Retrieved from https://theresaredmond.com/media-and-technology/may-i-have-your-attention/