Be a Media Critic

In the Be a Media Critic section, take a closer look at types of media like photography, radio, film, and television. Record your answers to the Write About It questions in a notebook or a digital document.

Use the word banks: Media Arts | Photography  | Film and TV

Google Drive/Classroom Users: You can go under File and select "Make a Copy" or "Print" to access the Artopia Media - Write About It worksheet.

Google Docs Worksheet
Media Arts: Film and TV Word Bank | Artopia

Document

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Media Arts: Film and TV Word Bank | Artopia
composition – the arrangement of the elements (subject and other objects) in a scene or photograph contrast – the range of difference between highlights and shadow areas in an image focus – the clear...
Media Arts Word Bank | Artopia

Document

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Media Arts Word Bank | Artopia
line – a long thin continuous mark or stroke color – a component of light, the sensation of primary and secondary hues, tints, and shades as created by light and pigments, reflecting or absorbing...
Media Arts: Photography Word Bank | Artopia

Document

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Media Arts: Photography Word Bank | Artopia
composition – the arrangement of the elements (subject and other objects) in a scene or photograph contrast – the range of difference between highlights and shadow areas in an image focus – the clear...
Critical Viewing: Cigarette Ads | Artopia

Photo

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Critical Viewing: Cigarette Ads | Artopia
Critical viewing means taking a closer look, not being critical. It means that you are an active, rather than passive viewer. Active viewing means that you study the elements, in this case, an...
Photography - Women's Rugby Game | Artopia

Photo

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Photography - Women's Rugby Game | Artopia
BILL FRAKES A Closer Look Apparently the fact that the players in this rugby game were wearing dresses didn't diminish the intensity of the rivalry between the teams. Photographer Bill Frakes has...
Photography - Tetons and the Snake River | Artopia

Photo

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Photography - Tetons and the Snake River | Artopia
ANSEL ADAMS A Closer Look Tetons and the Snake River is one of Ansel Adams' great western landscape photographs. The image seems to go on to infinity, absolutely sharp and clear. It is interesting to...
Photography - Rosa | Artopia

Photo

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Photography - Rosa | Artopia
CHESTER HIGGINS, JR. A Closer Look Rosa is a picture within a picture. At first we see a person in costume, make-up and sunglasses. But there is another picture. Reflected in the lens of the glasses...
Photography - Parisian Boulevard | Artopia

Photo

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Photography - Parisian Boulevard | Artopia
LOUIS DAGUERRE A Closer Look This Daguerreotype of a Parisian Boulevard is an early experiment by Louis Daguerre. His pictures required a very long exposure time. That's why the street seems empty -...
Photography - Icy Night | Artopia

Photo

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Photography - Icy Night | Artopia
ALFRED STIEGLITZ A Closer Look Icy Night has many of the qualities of the sort of photograph Alfred Stieglitz and his fellow “Pictorialists” liked to take. They believed the photographer could shape...
Photography: Harvest of Death | Artopia

Photo

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Photography: Harvest of Death | Artopia
TIMOTHY O'SULLIVAN A Closer Look Who are the men in this photograph? In Gardner's Photographic Sketch Book of the War, Alexander Gardner describes them as Confederate soldiers. However, there is...
Photography - Couple in Raccoon Coats | Artopia

Photo

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Photography - Couple in Raccoon Coats | Artopia
JAMES VAN DER ZEE A Closer Look James Van Der Zee once said, "I tried to pose each person in such a way as to tell a story." In the studio he used elaborate backdrops and scenery but in this...
Photography - Cotton Sharecropper Family | Artopia

Photo

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Photography - Cotton Sharecropper Family | Artopia
DOROTHEA LANGE A Closer Look Dorothea Lange has been called the greatest American documentary photographer, in part because her pictures gave dignity to people who had lost everything. This family may...
Photography - Copia # 16 | Artopia

Photo

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Photography - Copia # 16 | Artopia
BRIAN ULRICH A Closer Look This picture, like all the photos in the Copia series, is candid, meaning it isn't posed. Brian Ulrich shot the series using a waist-level viewfinder so that he did not have...
Radio - The War of the Worlds | Artopia

Audio

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Radio - The War of the Worlds | Artopia
Orson Welles and H.G. Wells A Closer Look Today it’s hard to believe Orson Welles’ broadcast of The War of the Worlds caused a nationwide panic. We are used to media productions that are not what they...
Photography - Icy Night | Artopia Radio - This American Life | Artopia

Audio

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Radio - This American Life | Artopia
IRA GLASS A Closer Look This American Life first aired in 1995 on public radio station WBEZ Chicago. The producers write on their website, "We're not really formatted like other radio shows at all...
Radio - John F. Kennedy Inaugural Address | Artopia

Audio

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Radio - John F. Kennedy Inaugural Address | Artopia
John F. Kennedy Inaugural Address (1961) A Closer Look John F. Kennedy rode to his inauguration with the outgoing president, Dwight Eisenhower. Robert Frost read one of his poems at the ceremony...
Newport Commercial | Artopia

Video

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Newport Commercial | Artopia
LORILLARD TOBACCO CO. A Closer Look This TV commercial for Newport menthol cigarettes aired during the 1960s. Today these old ads can tell us something about who tobacco companies were selling their...
Magic in the Air | Artopia

Video

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Magic in the Air | Artopia
JAMISON HANDY A Closer Look The man trying to buy a ticket to a ball game at the beginning of Magic in the Air was an unusual person for his day -- he owned a TV set. This industrial film does a good...
I Like Ike Campaign | Artopia

Video

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I Like Ike Campaign | Artopia
ROY O. DISNEY A Closer Look A poll taken in 1952 found Dwight D. Eisenhower to be the most admired living American, a World War II hero who played a key role in the victory of the Allied Forces. In...
Photography - Icy Night | Artopia Spider-Man | Artopia

Video

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Spider-Man | Artopia
The Peril of Doc Ock (2004) A CLOSER LOOK Some words of wisdom from the makers, SPITE YOUR FACE PRODUCTIONS. Tim: Really, the best way to learn animation is to just play around until it looks good...
Photography - Icy Night | Artopia Nosferatu | Artopia

Video

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Nosferatu | Artopia
A Symphony of Horrors (1922) A Closer Look F.W. Murnau shot much of Nosferatu on location in the Carpathian Mountains of Romania, using real landscapes and towns and an actual castle. This was unusual...