Mediated Geographies

We are bombarded daily with explicit and implicit messages through visual media. Engaging with, and critically evaluating, mediated information can increase our awareness of societal values and pressures, identify biases, recognize our own values, and enable us to use visual media to express concepts.

"Media has a strong influence on how we perceive the world, whether or not we are aware of it.Â Media is not only what you see on TV, but advertisements, movies, photos, etc.Â You can manipulate the media to make it convey what you want it to, so sometimes what you see isnâ€™t the truth, but what the author wants to you to see."
- Brittany Hostetter, Student

This project created integrated undergraduate geography courses at Arizonaâ€™s three universities. Using learner centered strategies, these courses focused on enhancing studentsâ€™ visual literacy and ability to use technologies related to digital media in relation to geographic concepts and processes.

project development, implementation, and results

Visual media can refer to any use of images from primitive paintings in caves to the art of the Louvre to film. In the context of this project we focused on mass media and the proliferation of images used to persuade, educate, and entertain. Examples of this are television, the web, and omnipresent images associated with advertising.

"While I do not think it is necessary to write a complete, detailed analysis about the thousands of messages we receive every day, I do think it is important to take a second to step back and think about where the message is coming from and what the creator might be trying to say. In essence, I have learned that it is important to take a more active role in receiving visual media rather than passively let yourself be bombarded with sounds and images all day."
- Patrick Trevellyan, Student

"Prior to this course I had never really recognized what the decision-making process would be in creating visual media, and how much intention and thought that underlies each image which is placed before the viewer.Â I think that this knowledge significantly affected the way I perceive visual media.Â Being conscious of what each type of shot implies and how it can change our perception of the subject in the shot is an incredibly useful tool."
-Rene Kladzyk, Student