What is omitted from this message?

The final concept is connected to the first concept that all messages are constructed by someone who decided what to include to best convey the desired message (Kellner & Share, 2005). Therefore, what is not included in the message is not included on purpose. Being able to identify what views, arguments, or indeed facts have been omitted from a message plays an important role in critical media literacy. 

There are of course many competing views that are not included in the Earth Hour website. The probable views of the Indian villager or the Australian coal miner mentioned in the previous post for example. However, there is a deeper and more important omission. That is the omission of any other way to move forward other than decreasing our energy usage. A point that can be made here is that rather than simply turning off the lights to save the environment, it may be much more important to encourage people to turn on the lights in a more metaphorical sense. It is a fact that the global environment is in a constant state of change when looked at in a geological timeframe. In the long run, human ingenuity and achievement will be the only thing that will ensure the survival of our way of life. It could be argued that Earth Hour runs directly counter to this by promoting that we do away with the things our ingenuity has so far delivered us. If instead, a global, grass roots movement focused on discovering new ways of providing cheap clean energy to everyone, a real solution to the climate situation may be discovered. This discovery may well go undiscovered if everyone is sitting in the dark, burning a candle made of petroleum by-products, thinking they are doing their bit for the environment.

How might different people understand this message differently from me?

Another key concept in the framework is that different people will interpret the same media message in vastly different ways (Thoman, 2005). A variety of factors including education, political persuasion, culture, nationality, and economic status can have an impact on how a person creates meaning from a media message. This is precisely why it is vital to educate students in critical readings of media, and thus empower them (Kellner & Share, 2005).

As mentioned above most images in the video, while featuring a wide variety of people and cultures, focus greatly on well-known landmarks in affluent countries. This means that people in different parts of the world, especially those in poorer countries or regions, may take a different view of the campaign.  For instance, someone living in poverty in India on a particularly polluted stretch of the Ganges may ask if this is mere symbolism that allows people in affluent countries to believe they are doing their bit for the environment because their balcony view overlooking Sydney Harbour was darkened for an hour. Also, they may think it hypocritical for wealthy countries to ask for everyone to do their part for climate change when they do not have electricity or running water.

Closer to home, a family, or for that matter a whole town or region, that relies on coal mining for economic survival may object to the quest to do away with fossil fuels as that would also do away with their own livelihood.

What lifestyles, values, and points of view are represented in the message?

The next concept in the framework lies in the media message itself. To become media literate, a person must possess the ability to identify what values, viewpoints, and possible biases are contained within a media message. This is where critical media literacy really starts to play a key role in allowing an individual to participate fully in society and democracy (Morrell, 2002). This is because without the ability to understand biases or specific points of view within a message, a person is at risk of being controlled by a particular interpretation of a message rather than being in control of their own interpretation (Thoman, 2005).

At first glance the Earth Hour website and video represents a positive message of empowerment in that grass roots activism can make a real difference in the outcome of how the world as a whole responds to climate change. However, some questions can be raised from viewing the video and website. One interesting observation from the video is that many of the scenes of lights going out around the world feature well known landmarks and tourist attractions such as Sydney Harbour Bridge and The Eifel Tower. In the background of many of these images many lights in private dwellings stay on. The lifestyle of most of the participants of Earth Hour being portrayed then is one of luxury and affluence when compared with a vast majority of the population of earth. While it does all it can to include all cultures and ethnicities, this portrayal of economic abundance may unintentionally marginalise some groups.

What techniques are being used?

The second key concept of the framework is that each type of media, from traditional forms like newspapers and television to emerging forms like blogs, has its own language with its own set of rules or techniques (Thoman, 2005). One of the main reasons that these techniques vary significantly is because they are culturally constructed (Kellner & Share, 2005). That is, they reflect the culture, time, and values from which they were created. This is very similar to the way in which different text types are culturally constructed and developed in order to serve different specific purposes (Campbell & Ryles, 2006, Santoro, 2004).

The Earth Hour website is designed in a way to make the reader immediately see the value and importance of the Earth itself. Its background is a simple star field with a representation of Earth as seen from space at the top. This gives the reader the feel both that the Earth is fragile and that we are alone with nowhere else to go if something were to happen to it. This technique is continued by the Earth Hour logo itself which also reinforces the fact that, as a global community, we are all affected by and responsible for the environment. This sense of global community is furthered by the 2011 official video which features uplifting music and emotive language to impassion the viewer to action. The multiculturalism of the video also reinforces the idea that the environment is not bound by national borders and cultural and ethnic differences.

Who created this message and why are they sending it?

The first concept in the media literacy framework is that all media messages are constructed. That is, they are designed by someone for a specific purpose and are not simply providing a transparent and neutral message to the audience (Kellner & Share, 2005). With this established, it becomes essential to understand who this person or group is and what their intended purpose was, in order to begin the process of becoming media literate.

Earth hour itself was a concept devised by the WWF in conjunction with the Sydney Morning Herald in 2007 as a way to raise awareness of global climate change by encouraging people in Sydney to turn of lights and other electrical devices for one hour. Since 2007 it has become an annual global event with over one hundred countries participating in 2011. The earth hour website and official 2011 video were designed and produced by the WWF. The WWF is one of the world’s largest conservation movements whose main goals are the preservation of the natural environment and endangered species. They also apply political pressure on governments through lobbying to adopt more environmentally friendly policies. 

This website aims to raise awareness of Earth Hour and provide people with information of what is being done by cities around the world to participate in the event. This is done with the intent of showing how and why Earth Hour is important for raising consciousness of environmental issues. It also provides numerous links to other sites including the WWF homepage which notably has four separate links asking for donations on the first page alone.

So what's this all about?

The ability to participate fully in today’s society relies heavily on a person’s ability to access, understand, and use media messages. Where people access these media messages, how they interpret them, and what they choose to do with this information once gained, relies almost entirely on their level of critical media literacy. A precise definition of critical media literacy is somewhat difficult to pin down. However, a number of themes seem to be indispensible. These are concepts such as ability to decode, understand and create personal meaning from a message, and the ability to identify bias in a message and thus not be taken advantage of (Thoman, 2005). Another important theme is that to teach critical media is to arm a person with the ability to ask the right questions when analysing a media message (Hobbs & Jensen, 2009) and thus empower them to participate more fully in society. Finally, Thoman (2005) also points out that critical media literacy should also be thought of as a skill or a method to be undertaken rather than a body of knowledge. This can be understood in the same way that science is a method of finding things out rather than a list of things known.

As many readers will already be aware, media messages are not value neutral. From letters to the editor in newspapers to the evening news, and from advertising to documentaries, media messages reach their audiences laden with meaning, subtext, and purpose which were carefully and intentionally included in their design. This has become all the more evident with the evolution of digital media. With the increasing ubiquity of blogs, websites, and social media, the number of messages and information that people encounter on a daily basis is higher than ever before and with this the need to be media literate is more essential than ever (Kellner & Share, 2005).

The Purpose of this blog is to develop a close reading of the official Earth Hour website with particular reference to the official 2011 Earth Hour video. The aim is to assist in preparation for a learning exercise for a Stage 6 Geography class. This is done using the media literacy framework articulated by Thoman (2005) and Kellner and Share (2005). This framework is comprised of five key concepts which should be addressed when critically analysing a media message. This blog will address each of these concepts in relation to the earth hour website. 

Global climate change and what should be done to combat it is a hot button issue in the media today. As emotion tends to run high on all sides of this debate, students exploring it are bound to encounter information that that is heavily laden with values, biases, and viewpoints. Therefore, critical media literacy is vital in this area.