A Guide to Using Divided We Fall in Media Studies Courses

Thank you for downloading this teaching companion for the documentary lm, Divided We Fall. We are excited to offer you this resource and hope that you nd it valuable and easy to use. The activities in this lesson are guidelines to inspire your

teaching; they may be applied exibly. Visit our website http:// www.dwf-lm.com/ for more lesson guides, multimedia, and supplemental resources. If you have any questions about this guide, please contact Jodi Elliott at jodi@dwf-lm.com.

Intended Audience
The activities in this guide are designed for college level Media Studies and Communications courses. They may also be adapted and used to facilitate discussions about stereotyping or media literacy for high school students or general audiences.

Lesson Objectives
Upon completion of the lesson, students will be able to: Recognize the presence of stereotyping in media Analyze media messages and draw conclusions about how different target groups are portrayed Evaluate the impact of media messages on audiences and on their own understanding of the world

Additionally, the lesson facilitates exploration of these questions: What is media? What role does the media play in perpetuating stereotypes? How has the media affected my own understanding of people or groups who are different from myself?

Teaching Tips
Employ this lesson before students have watched Divided We Fall.

Activity 1
25MIN PHOTO PREVIEW

Intro

This warm-up activity should be completed before showing students the lm Divided We Fall. The purpose of this activity is twofold. First, to identify the stereotypes and preconceived ideas students may have developed based on images presented in the media. Second, to encourage students to deconstruct these ideas and analyze the factors that may have contributed to their development. Begin with the photos of Sikh men included in Handout 1. Reproduce them in a way that will enable you to show them to the class one by one (in a Powerpoint presentation, on screen, or printed out). Before you show the students the images, tell them to take out a piece of paper or their journal. Explain to students: In silence, write down anything that comes to mind as you see these different images. Write anythingbad, good, or neutralthat pops into your mind. Alternatively, tell students draw a line lengthwise down the center of their notebook, making two columns. The left-hand column should be labeled what I see and the right-hand column should be labeled how it makes me feel. Students should record what they notice about the images in the left-hand column rst, and afterwards jot down their perceptions and feelings about the images on the right. Encourage students to jot down everything that comes to mind, and not to lter or process their thoughts. One by one, show the class each picture. Allow them approximately 15 to 30 seconds to process each image. After you have shown all of the pictures, allow students extra time to record any thoughts they may not have had time to write down as the images were being displayed. If you chose to have students use the chart, this would be the time for them to ll out the right-hand column and process how the images or their perception of the images made them feel. Once they are nished, lead the students in a discussion about what they wrote. You should anticipate that many of them will write down terrorist or turban or September 11th. It is also possible that students may offer more accurate and specic answers such as a Sikh man or Siddhar. Record student answers on a blackboard or screen for all to see.

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Written by Irene Yeh and Marisa Jackson Hedges. Produced by Mindgate Media. 2011 New Moon Productions. All rights reserved.

Activity 1 (cont.)
25MIN PHOTO PREVIEW (CONTINUED)

Begin a discussion around the recorded answers. The primary goal of this discussion is for students to realize that the media affects what they know or dont know about the world. Questions for discussion might include: How many students wrote the same thing? Now that youve had a chance to process your initial thoughts, how do you feel about what you wrote down? Do your ideas accurately describe the images? How would you know if they do not? If what you recorded is inaccurate, where do you think your ideas came from? Where are we exposed to stereotypes, prejudice, negative attitudes, and discriminatory behaviors? If a student accurately recognized the images of Sikh men, you may want to ask: Where did you learn about Sikhism? Encourage the class to compare how their accurate and inaccurate ideas were learned.

Show students clip 1:08:38 to 1:09:01 from the lm, or read out loud Valaries monologue from that scene:

I see somebody with a turban, I say hes a siddhar, hes a Sikh man. Hes like my uncle, hes like my brother. Hes like my grandfather. I know him, we come from the same place, he probably speaks Punjabi. He says the same prayers that I do.
Then, ask students: How is Valaries response similar to or different from the responses of people in this class? What factors inuence how we responded to these images? What factors inuenced Valaries response? What factors inuence how we respond in general to images of unfamiliar people or groups?

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Written by Irene Yeh and Marisa Jackson Hedges. Produced by Mindgate Media. 2011 New Moon Productions. All rights reserved.

Activity 2
45MIN IMAGE COMPARISON

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Photocopy and distribute to students Handout 2 which includes two images from the lm. Explain to them that both are images that might appear in the news media. Instruct them to write an imaginary caption for each image. Give students 2 to 3 minutes to create their captions. Ask students to share their headlines aloud or post them on the board for the class to read. After they have shared, have them compare and contrast the photos. Questions you might pose include: What messages are being sent by these photos? How are they different? How are they similar? Which looks like the images you have seen more frequently in the media? How do the words chosen for the headline impact your understanding of the image? Why might a media outlet choose to introduce its audience to the story of Sher Singh and not man with the ag? How might this decision impact our understanding of Sikh Americans?

Show students the short lm The Psychology of Hate, available on the Divided We Fall DVD and website, which features Stanford social psychologist Joseph Brown. Ask students for their reactions to the clip.

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Written by Irene Yeh and Marisa Jackson Hedges. Produced by Mindgate Media. 2011 New Moon Productions. All rights reserved.

Optional Assignments
REINFORCING LESSON CONCEPTS

Media Analysis Project. This assignment expands beyond media portrayal of Sikhs and encourages students to analyze the way media portrays other target groups. This long-term media analysis project is outlined for students on Handout 3. There are several target groups listed on the assignment sheet, and the instructor can assign students one or multiple target groups. Once the project has been assigned, encourage students to use a variety of media sources and to follow them over a period of time. Students should document the media they have viewed on the sheet provided. Magazine Collage. This assignment ask students to analyze U.S. media portrayal of the Middle East (or another geographic region or target group). Ask students ahead of time to bring old news magazines and newspapers to class. You may want to procure several of these materials yourself in advance. Instruct students to cut out any image they can nd that relates to the Middle East. Students should not lter their ndings; any and all images should be clipped. After providing sufcient time to gather the pictures, instruct students to paste the images together on a big sheet of paper to make a large collage. Post the collage so that all students can view it and analyze what common themes they see. (Typically, the images students nd of the Middle East will be of a violent nature and the activity will lead to a discussion).

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Written by Irene Yeh and Marisa Jackson Hedges. Produced by Mindgate Media. 2011 New Moon Productions. All rights reserved.

Handout 1
PHOTO PREVIEW ACTIVITY

Handout 1
PHOTO PREVIEW ACTIVITY

Handout 1
PHOTO PREVIEW ACTIVITY

Handout 1
PHOTO PREVIEW ACTIVITY

Handout 1
PHOTO PREVIEW ACTIVITY

Handout 1
PHOTO PREVIEW ACTIVITY

Handout 1
PHOTO PREVIEW ACTIVITY

Handout 1
PHOTO PREVIEW ACTIVITY

Handout 2
Using your imagination and the information you can observe in the image, write a caption for the news article that might accompany each of these images in the newspaper. You can also write a caption for the photo.

! ! !

What are the similarities between these images? What are the differences? Which are you more likely to see in the news media? Why?

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Written by Irene Yeh and Marisa Jackson Hedges. Produced by Mindgate Media. 2011 New Moon Productions. All rights reserved.

Handout 3
MEDIA ANALYSIS PROJECT: TARGET GROUP REPRESENTATION
The purpose of this assignment is to increase your awareness about the presentation of target groups in the media. The essential questions you will investigate are:

What patterns or trends are found as target groups are being portrayed? What television channels or newspapers are particularly good or bad at portraying target groups? How does the medias portrayal of this target group affect societys perception of that group?

For the next 8 days, please search for media representations of the target group you have been assigned. Examples of media sources include, but are not limited to, print and online news, radio, television, magazines, cartoons, literature, art, and performing arts. You are responsible for writing a 2-3 page description and analysis of what you found. Additionally, you will report your ndings to your classmates. Your assigned target group is circled below:

Muslims and/or people of Arab descent African Americans Jews Sikhs Latinos/Latinas/immigrants from Spanish Speaking countries High School dropouts/persons not formally educated Asian/Asian Americans English as a Second Language (ESL) persons Immigrants Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender Poor, Working Class, People on Welfare Native Americans Women

Keep these concepts in mind as you research: 1. All media messages are constructed. 2. Media messages are constructed using a creative language with its own rules. 3. Different people experience the same message differently. 4. Media have embedded values and points of view. 5. Most media messages are organized to gain prot and/or power.

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Written by Irene Yeh and Marisa Jackson Hedges. Produced by Mindgate Media. 2011 New Moon Productions. All rights reserved.

Handout 3 (continued)
MEDIA ANALYSIS PROJECT: TARGET GROUP REPRESENTATION
Questions to consider during your research and analysis: What are the news stories associated with your target group? How are members of the target group portrayed? (one dimensionally, with complexity, etc.) Are they portrayed as sad/happy/heroic/helpless or a combination? Do certain recurring images or stories seem to represent your target group? What techniques are being used to attract your attention? What does it mean if you see little to no representation of your particular target group? How would you feel if you were a member of this target group? Who is telling the story about the target group? Is a member of the target group telling the story? Are members of the non-target group telling this story? What does this mean? What lifestyles, values, and points of view are represented in, or omitted from, this message? In what genres are they portrayed? Are they in positions of power? From the perspective of the networks/and or producers, who is the target audience for the programming? Are there stereotypes that you can identify in this representation?

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Written by Irene Yeh and Marisa Jackson Hedges. Produced by Mindgate Media. 2011 New Moon Productions. All rights reserved.

Handout 3 (continued)
MEDIA ANALYSIS PROJECT: TARGET GROUP REPRESENTATION

DATE

MEDIA ANALYZED (LIST CHANNELS, PERIODICALS, ETC.)

TIME SPENT

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Written by Irene Yeh and Marisa Jackson Hedges. Produced by Mindgate Media. 2011 New Moon Productions. All rights reserved.