Media Socialization Online Culture Homeschool Course

Getting Started with Our Media Socialization Online Culture Homeschool Course

Media Socialization, an online culture course presented by Dr. Lisa Dunne, is designed to help middle school and high school homeschool students examine the effect that media plays in a person’s life, become more media literate, reflect on the power of words and wisdom, and more. The concepts in these lessons are taught using written instruction, reading assignments, videos, external websites, reflection activities, and tests. Homeschool students study both Biblical and scientific evidence for a person’s social nature.

Overview

19 weeks
Includes text-based lessons, reflective activities, links to additional resources, and exams
Grades: 6–12

Supplies Needed

Corresponding lessons on SchoolhouseTeachers.com, access to the Internet, computer, printer, Bible, and a journal for notetaking and research

What to Do

Go to Class Lessons and download the lesson plan and Week 1 lesson. Start with the Day 1 reading assignment. Follow the instructions each day on the lesson plan and check them off when completed.

Course Sample for Our Media Socialization Online Culture Homeschool Curriculum

To view a full sample of this course, click here.

Media Socialization
Week 1: Welcome and Introduction

Man, Media, and Motive: The Power of Social Influence
Dr. Lisa Dunne

I’m Dr. Lisa Dunne, a professor, author, pastor’s wife, and homeschooling mom. I’m looking forward to our time together here on SchoolhouseTeachers.com!

Maybe you’ve heard someone say, in defense of a musical selection, “I don’t listen to the words; I just like the beat.” Or, perhaps you’ve overheard someone in line at the grocery store, skimming the headlines of modern pop culture, explain, “I just like looking at these fashion magazines; I don’t believe what they say.” Does our social environment influence the way we think, feel, or behave?

As Christians, we want to be keenly aware of the subtle (and not-so-subtle) influences bombarding us daily. We live in a generation where we are confronted with hundreds and sometimes thousands of persuasive appeals each day—messages that are designed to sell us a belief, a behavior, or a worldview. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, the average American spends 7 hours and 38 minutes a day in front of a screen. These “virtual” influencers can be quite powerful, especially at the “consumption” rate of 40 hours a week—the equivalent of a full-time job.

However, even if you unplug the screen, turn off the music, and shield your eyes when passing roadside billboards, it is difficult to escape the realm of mass media influence entirely, especially when companies are spending billions of dollars a year trying to influence our behavior.

In his first letter to the church in Corinth (1 Corinthians 15:33), Paul writes, “Don’t be deceived: Bad company corrupts good character.” As we will see throughout our time together, the company we keep, whether physical or virtual, bears an impact on our beliefs and our behavior.

This course is designed to help you become media literate—to help you understand, interpret, analyze, and respond appropriately to the millions of media messages you are likely confronted with over the course of the year. My hope is that you will learn to become not simply a consumer of culture, but a producer of it.

Over the course of this class, we will analyze the impact of the social system on the individual, recognizing that the social context is much wider and more powerful than we may have once believed. By the end of the 16 weeks, students will be better equipped to evaluate the influence of mass media and its collective spiritual, psychological, and sociological impact on the church, the family, and the culture. Most importantly, students will learn how to apply the findings of media literacy and “walk with the wise.”

Course Outline for Our Media Socialization Online Culture Homeschool Curriculum

Nineteen Media Socialization online culture lessons explore the impact media has on people’s lives and equip homeschool students to “walk with the wise.”

Week 1: Welcome and Introduction

Week 2: Course Overview
What does it mean to be a social creature? This week, we will analyze the micro, mezzo, and macro levels of social influence, as well as get a basic understanding of what it means to be “persuadable” as humans.

Week 3: Biblical and Scientific Bases for the Influence
This week, we will examine the theological and scientific evidence that exists for our social nature and our persuadable nature. We will review God’s design for culture and society according to the brain and the Bible.

Week 4: Self-Justification and Third-Person Syndrome
This week, we will look at the power of self-justification and get a better sense of why it’s hard for humans to believe we’re persuadable.

Week 5: A Brief History of Entertainment-Education
How can mass media use our persuadable nature against us? This week, we will cover a brief history of entertainment-education and its social implications. For additional reading, I’ll provide a link to the online chapter of Entertainment-Education from Emerge: Cracking the Cocoon of Media Socialization.

Week 6: Conformity and Culture
This week, we will discuss conformity and culture. Are there times we should conform? For a macro view of the impact of conformity, watch the documentary Expelled with your family. Discuss the culture of government education and its influences on the behavior and beliefs of the social system.

Week 7: Understanding the Power of Persuasion
This week, to better understand the power of mass media, we will create our own persuasive appeal.

Week 8: Peer Culture and Conformity in the Church
This week, we will look at the new grassroots uprising that is creating awareness about peer culture. We will review George Barna’s May 2012 study on youth ministry and Christianity Today’s August headline story on the “juvenilization” of church, as well as some other current research. Watch the documentary Divided with your family to learn more about this movement.

Week 9: Junk Food Media: Causes and Cures (Part 1)
This week, we will examine the role of advertising on the human brain, including some fascinating and compelling research on sociology, neuroscience, and physical health.

Week 10: Junk Food Media: Causes and Cures (Part 2)
This week, we will continue our study of the role of advertising on the human brain, and we will track some social trajectories that highlight the Third-Person Syndrome concept we discussed in Week 3.

Week 11: Midterm Exam

Week 12: Media Analysis: Movie Madness
This week, we will analyze the messages of mass media in modern movies and sitcoms. What worldviews are being peddled, and what is the potential for cultural and individual influence?

Week 13: Music Analysis: Labels, Lies, and Soul Ties
This lesson will review some fascinating (and frightening) research findings from the University of Virginia on the impact of music on the human brain.

Week 14: Tracking Social Trajectories: Impact on the Culture
This week, we will follow the social trajectories from our findings in the studies of movies, sitcoms, and music to see if these ideologies are having an impact on the larger social sphere.

Week 15: Tracking Self-Trajectory: Impact on the Individual
This week, we will analyze the impact of movies, sitcoms, and music on our individual lives. We will chart a course for creating positive, prosocial influence in this realm.

Week 16: Becoming Media Literate
This week, we will review some great websites designed to help you become more media literate. Building on what we’ve learned throughout the course, we will create a base for media literacy in your home and your realm of influence.

Week 17: Emerge: Breaking Free
This week, we will summarize all the points we’ve covered and discuss ways for students to start becoming producers of culture, not simply consumers of culture.

Week 18: Making Social Worlds
Our final week of the course will be a reflection on the power of words and wisdom.

Week 19: Final Exam
Take Dr. Dunne’s 25-question “final” to cement your knowledge in this course. Feel free to send your answers to what you feel are the more challenging questions to Dr. Dunne for her feedback.

For a printable course outline, click here.

More About Our Media Socialization Online Culture Homeschool Curriculum

Dr. Lisa Dunne, a professor, author, pastor’s wife, and homeschooling mom, designed this Media Socialization online culture course for homeschool students at the middle school and high school levels.

A person may say, in defense of a musical selection, “I don’t listen to the words; I just like the beat.” Or someone in line at the grocery store, skimming the headlines of modern pop culture, may explain, “I just like looking at these fashion magazines; I don’t believe what they say.” Does the social environment influence the way people think, feel, or behave?

Throughout this online culture course, homeschool students analyze the impact of the social system on the individual, recognizing that the social context is much wider and more powerful than it was once believed. By the end of the Media Socialization course, students are better equipped to evaluate the influence of mass media and its collective spiritual, psychological, and sociological impact on the church, the family, and the culture. Most importantly, homeschool students learn how to apply the findings of media literacy and “walk with the wise.”

Dr. Dunne draws from current research and summaries of segments of two books accessed through online links, Making Social Worlds (written by one of Dr. Dunne’s favorite Ph.D. professors) and Emerge: Cracking the Cocoon of Media Socialization (which Dr. Dunne wrote with Teen Mania/Acquire the Fire speaker Joel Johnson).

As a teacher for over 17 years, Dr. Dunne has found that the deepest transformational learning takes place when students actively and practically engage in the subject matter. Thus, each online culture homeschool lesson is followed by a reflective activity that will help students make practical sense of the information that has been presented. These include some reflective journals, hands-on “lab” activities, and discussion prompts for family dinner conversation.

In the first chapter of the book of Romans, Paul tells the believers in Rome that they can change their behavior by changing their belief: “Do not conform any longer to the patterns of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing, and perfect will” (Romans 12:2, NIV). This concept of renewing the mind is a fascinating one from a neuroscientific sense, and homeschool students explore that in a later lesson. For now, suffice it to say that the more individuals understand about science, the more clearly they can see the fingerprints of God in the design of their hearts and minds.

Welcome to Our Media Socialization Online Culture Homeschool Curriculum

Dr. Lisa Dunne

Dr. Lisa Dunne

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1. Bookmark the course for easy access during instruction.

2. Click “View Lesson Plan” and organize as desired (on computer desktop or in a printed format).

3. Gather necessary resources as listed in the lesson plan.

4. Click “Go to Class Lessons” and get started.

5. Enjoy the course!

6. Utilize Applecore or your own record keeping system throughout the course.

7. Print a certificate of completion.