Reading Questions
Chapter 11: Media
Instructors are provided with two sets of questions to engage students: discussion questions
(provided in the text) and reading questions (provided below).
1. What is your relationship to media? Do you view it as a form of entertainment? Are you
thoughtful about your media consumption? Are there certain types of media you refuse to
engage? If so, how did you come to this decision?
2. Is the Internet a place of inclusion, exclusion, or both for you? Do a quick search to locate
a place of inclusion for people around issues of gender/sex. Do a quick search to find an
example of ways social media polices sex and gender. Share your examples.
3. Locate a debate on an issue surrounding media representation (i.e., Is the film Moana
cultural appreciation or appropriation?). Does the author(s) discuss media as hegemony,
polysemous, or polyvalent? How do the author’s assumptions about how media work
influence his or her position?
4. Write a short blog post teaching others how to read, watch, and create against the grain.
Compare your blog post to advice on how to create an oppositional gaze.