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 ArtsPhotography  | 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.

Media Arts Word Bank | Artopia
Media Arts Word Bank | Artopia

Document

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
Media Arts: Photography Word Bank | Artopia

Document

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
Critical Viewing: Cigarette Ads | Artopia

Photo

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
Photography - Women's Rugby Game | Artopia

Photo

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
Photography - Tetons and the Snake River | Artopia

Photo

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
Photography - Rosa | Artopia

Photo

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
Photography - Parisian Boulevard | Artopia

Photo

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
Photography - Icy Night | Artopia

Photo

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
Photography: Harvest of Death | Artopia

Photo

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...