Educ 307

Word: 531

Journal 3

Part 1:

The newscast explained with the help of experts that targeting the famous art was never
actually about the art or the artists. Instead, they targeted them knowing no real damage would
be done, but that it would bring a lot of attention to the protesters. The attention garnered was
then used to promote action towards climate change. However, Mann noted that the medias
seemed to be solely focused on the shock factor headlines that incited millions to read, to then
later admitting that no real damages were done until the end of the article.
Further, Brown related that these paintings have more protection than our planet and
those living through the harsh effects of climate change, nonetheless people are more outraged
at some soup being thrown at a glass pane. The newscast subsequently followed her message
by showing images of the effects of the climate crisis to ensue compassion.
In this newscast, I believe that although they tried to showcase the protesters in a good
light, they still missed out on the opportunity to promote climate change. Instead of focusing
on the opinions of experts and the reasons as to why the protests caused so much shock factor,
they should have shown the public reaction and then followed by providing resources and
information regarding actions that can be done to alleviate the crisis.
Moreover, the video begins with the Geoff Bennett announcing that they will be looking
at how the protests are both helping and hurting the fight against climate change. Conversely,
throughout the segment they only mentioned one point about how they’re helping by adding
how in some instances disruptive and non-violent protests have incited change. However, when
it came to the other side, they included how the protests essentially deterred public support
and ended the video with a potential legislation that would give the police power to stop and
search someone for a police-related offence.
By deconstructing this video, we can understand the stance that this news outlet took
on this issue. When first watching the video, I thought that PBS was doing a great job at
portraying the importance of the message behind this protest. After rewatching a few more
times and carefully listening to the text I realized that there were more negative points about
the protests, and that the positive points were dismissed.

Pt.2:

I believe teaching deconstruction to youth is important because it teaches them to not take
everything at face value. It also allows them to avoid being easily influenced in biased situations
by forcing them to reflect further on what they see and hear. For example, when presented
with media that reinforces only one side of an argument, people may be easily influenced into
believing that this stance is the right one given they haven’t heard the arguments from the
opposing position. Specifically, this newscast touched on both sides of the argument regarding
these protests, but their points concerning how they’re hurting the fight against climate change
were stronger and essentially dimmed the reasons that they helped. By teaching
deconstruction, youth will understand how to create a subtext that is fair, and fitting and that
medias and messages are structurally built for certain audiences.
 Reference List

Mambrol, N. (2019, September 12). Deconstruction. Literary Theory and Criticism. Retrieved
February 26, 2023, from https://literariness.org/2016/03/22/deconstruction/

Wittbrodt, A. (2023). Deconstruct media messages. Sophia. Retrieved February 26, 2023, from
https://app.sophia.org/tutorials/deconstruct-media-messages