As I was reflecting about our discussion from class today, particularly when we were talking about how to actually approach media literacy in a class or library setting, I started to think about VH1's Pop-Up Video. I used to watch these all the time, but hadn't really thought about them in years. I was considering making a video for this entry, and that's what brought it back to my attention. These videos are not only interesting to critique in and of themselves, but the producers have actually added some contextual information and analysis to the videos--making them little examples of media analyses.
While the videos do not cite sources (I guess we have to trust that the VH1 staff members did their jobs and their homework), they lend themselves well to study and classroom use. Although students today have probably never heard of this "show" (it stopped airing regularly in 2002), it could be a great way to introduce them to or have them work on developing media literacy. For instance, it would be interesting to show them the original music video to see what they come up with on their own and then show them the VH1 pop up video version. It would demonstrate how interesting it is to know about the context of a music video, or any type of media, when analyzing it.
Embedded above is the Pop-Up Video version of Ace of Base's "Beautiful Life." You can tell by watching it that it largely gives two types of information: contextual information and random facts. For instance, the bit at the beginning about burping wouldn't be relevant in a discussion about how to analyze this text, but the other information is highly useful. Through the course of the video we learn the band members' names, how the group started, how decisions (and what decisions) were made during the making of the video, and so forth. This is important information to have at hand when analyzing the video, and I wish I would have thought of using these when I was still teaching!
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