30-second-action: Do you think challenging representations of gender and race in entertainment media should be a crucial aspect of media literacy — and of a media justice agenda?

I do. (That’s what there’s a “Fun with Media Literacy” chapter in Reality Bites Back, and section on this site.) And media literacy advocate, novelist and media producer Sofia Quintero agrees. We’re excited to present this session at the 2011 National Conference on Media Reform — but we’ll only be able to do so if you VOTE FOR THIS WORKSHOP, BY THE END OF THE DAY MONDAY, OCT. 25 to make it to the NCMR program:

Keeping It Unreal: Decoding Gender, Race and Reality TV—A Media Literacy Workshop

Weepy, white Cinderella-wannabes in network-assembled harems compete for the attentions of one horny “Prince Charming” on dating shows such as “The Bachelor” (ABC), “Joe Millionaire” (FOX), and “For Love or Money” (NBC), whimpering that their lives will never be complete without husbands. On cable series such as VH1’s “Flavor of Love,” “Real Chance of Love” and “For the Love of Ray J,” scantily-clad women of color are depicted as real-life music video vixens, providing lap dances, sexual favors, and maid services to “win” dates with Black bachelors cast as modern day minstrels, thugs, and buffoons.

Why is reality television built on such blatant gender and race stereotypes? Why are women and people of color represented so harmfully, and with so much bias, in popular culture? What is “Frankenbite” editing, how many hours of tape are shot for every hour of reality TV aired, and how much cheaper is it to produce a reality show than a scripted program? Is it true that networks are simply “giving people what they want,” or is reality TV really the result of media consolidation, media economics, and stealth

advertising?

Learn how to decode sexism and racism in reality television—and in broader popular media—during this interactive media literacy workshop with media critics and media literacy activists Jennifer L. Pozner (author of Reality Bites Back: The Troubling Truth About Guilty Pleasure TV and founder and director of Women In Media & News) and Sofia Quintero (novelist and cofounder of Chica Luna Productions, Sister Outsider Entertainment, and Conscious Women Rock the Page curriculum).

With wit, multimedia reality TV case studies, and group games, this workshop offers tools and resources participants can use to debunk media bias, become active, critical media consumers, and spread the media literacy gospel among their friends, peers, kids, colleagues and community.

TODAY is the last day of voting, and our workshop will only be included in the NCMR if it gets enough votes. So, VOTE NOW — and blog the link, tweet it, post it to Facebook, Tumblr, and anywhere your friends will see it. Only one more day before the voting’s done. So, rally the troops for this feminist, antiracist media literacy program!