Choosing Texts
Whether you’re teaching Media as a unit in the primary curriculum or at the senior secondary level, there will come a time when you will need to make choices about what film or television texts to use.
When it comes to text choice, there’s no real rule about what’s right or wrong - but there are a few things to consider.
Firstly – the topic. What is it that you are actually studying? Is your chosen text going to be used to explore storytelling and story construction (film narrative)? If so, it needs to be ‘heavy’ in production and story elements (because whilst they are in all films, some definitely use them better than others). Will the text be used to highlight production values (or what can be done on a particular budget or with certain technology)? Will it be used as an example of a genre study? If so, does it have all the typical conventions that you’d expect or want to discuss? Will the text be used to paint a portrait of society at a particular time? Or is the text’s purpose solely to provide an appreciation of filmmaking as a medium for communication? Understanding the teaching or pedagogical raison d'être behind the text choice is what is most important. There are films or TV series we love or we know our students will love, but if they’re not great examples for the topic being studied, then they won’t best demonstrate what it is you are actually trying to teach…and then they fail.
Secondly, your text choice should be context relevant. Whilst we would like to think that all media forms and texts (be they good or bad) can teach our students something about what works or what doesn’t, there are definitely some texts that will be much more appealing and successfully engaged with by particular audiences. So when considering text choice, you need to consider the audience. The obvious factors (such as age and gender) should come into your decision, but so should other factors, such as previous exposure (and perhaps pre-conceived attitudes) to the text. Appreciation of the genre is also important. I once saw a whole class of teenage girls cringe as they studied violent horror films…over and over again, but these very films were highly appealing to a class of male students. Consider your students’ level of understanding and their capability to analyse or deconstruct visual images, as well as their exposure to film or TV texts in general. Whilst good teaching practice will always extend the student and their knowledge, using something that is extremely ‘art house’ or independent just for ‘arts’ sake may not be the best choice for students who never stray beyond the cinematic realms of the dominant Hollywood blockbusters. As a rule when choosing texts, I always consider this….meet the students where they are at, but then take them further. This may result in my choosing a film with a genre that I know they will like (e.g. a drama about family relationships with a female protagonist), but I will also ensure it is something that they won’t have seen before (e.g. a foreign, small release or art house film), or is independent and creative in its approach, or is full of the sorts of things that I know I need to teach about (but that they won’t pick up on during the very first watching).
Thirdly, make the text choice something that you love (or at least like enough!) to watch, research, talk about and deconstruct a number of times, because this is the reality of what we do. Don’t be afraid to choose something different to what everyone else seems to be studying if YOU believe YOU can make it work. You know your topic best. You know your students best. Give them a great experience.