By: Charli Padilla
Over my first week at the Annenberg Youth Academy, specifically in the Communications 101 course, I learned many beneficial strategies on how to have a heightened level of civic media literacy when it comes to analyzing a series of graphic designs.
This photo shows a set of notes that student Charli Padilla took while participating in the Comms 101 course.
On day two at AYA we had the opportunity to dive deeper into the idea of civic media literacy. To start learning about civic media literacy we first had to define civic media. We came to the conclusion that civic media is a way to be engaged with people through media, like technology and designs to strengthen democracy. Literacy is the ability to read, write, and understand information. With these two definitions we can conclude that civic media literacy is the ability to read different forms of media that ultimately bring people together and work towards a common goal. After diving into the idea of civic media literacy we were lucky enough to have the opportunity to be spoken to by Samah Sadig who is a worker with the Critical Media Project, which is a project that works to inform youth on civic media literacy. She worked with us to analyze clips of popular films and music. After her presentation I can confidently say that I know much more about civic media literacy and can analyze any piece of film, art, music that is headed my way.
As we continued on in the week we dove deeper into the idea of civic media literacy and started putting our new skills to the test by analyzing posters and examples of graphic designs. Over the course of a couple classes we learned about frames, typography, color palettes, and how simple things like the sizing of our words can affect how readers connect to our piece of digital media. My favorite piece we looked at this week was two different posters that showed how women can support each other. In these pieces we saw brighter colors to catch the attention of potential audiences. We also saw words in all capital letters to make you focus on the straight forward message that the poster is sending. Seeing these examples was impactful because it showed the application of the skills we learned. Learning about the aspects of graphic design was very helpful because as the weeks progress we will have to put our skills to the test by working on our own zines.
Overall, my first week at AYA in the communications course has been phenomenal. I learned so much in one week alone. Before this week I would consume media and not understand the deeper meaning provided. I also never thought about graphic design and how much thought goes behind media like zines and infographics. With this week’s lessons I’m able to analyze and understand the digital media I consume while doing a straightforward task like scrolling on my phone.
Communicating Change 