The Reality of Mediated Reality: Whats Real and Whats MakeBelieve

1
The Reality of Mediated RealityWhats Real and
Whats Make-Believe?

• Success in First-Year Composition
• February 3, 2006
• Ann Parker
• Southern Polytechnic State University

2
Reality? Are you Kidding Me?

• What do students really SEE?
• How does the media skew what we perceive as
  real?
• Do students take mediated information as fact or
  fiction?
• Where does this fit into a freshman composition
  class?

3
Connecting Seeing to Writing

• I-Search Paper
• Film The Truman Show
• Traditional Library Source
• Two Internet sources
• Field Research
• Personal Interviews
• Photographs

4
Student Topics

• How college is portrayed in the media (fun,
  girls, free time) vs. the realities of being a
  college student
• Growing up as a gang member vs. media portrayals
  of gangs
• Choosing a major (job reality vs. student
  perceptions)
• Living gay vs. gays on television
• Teen attitudes about sex vs. medias portrayal of
  teen sex
• Electronic reality vs. real life

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Resources

• Lukkonen, Josh. Relevancy in the Classroom
  Bringing the Real World into School.
  Classroom Notes Plus. Oct. 2003. 8 10.
• Macrorie, Ken. The I-Search Paper. Portsmouth
  Boynton/Cook. 1988.
• McQuade, Donald and Christine McQuade. Seeing
  and Writing 3. Boston Bedford/St. Martins,
  2005.