Resources for Teachers - Television

Taking Charge of TV Violence

In this lesson, students become aware of the types and amounts of violence in children's programming, and how media violence influences young viewers.

Facing Media Violence: Counting & Discussing Violence on the Screen

This lesson helps children become aware of the types of violence that appear in the media, the frequency with which these acts occur, and how they respond to these acts. It begins with a guided discussion about the different types of violence and then, how violence is portrayed in the media. Using worksheets, students then survey the shows they enjoy for acts of violence and then, as a class, compile and discuss their findings.

Watching the Elections - Lesson

In this lesson students look at how elections are media events.

Reality Check

This public awareness program, created in partnership between MediaSmarts and the Facebook Canadian Election Integrity Initiative, focuses on authentication of online information.

Watching the elections

Joe McGinniss’ book The Selling of the President had a shocking title for 1968, suggesting as it did that in the television age the presidency had become nothing more than another product to be packaged and sold. MediaSmarts’ resource, Watching the Elections (a lesson for Grades 8-12), shines a light on how the different aspects of an election – from the debates to political ads to the candidates themselves – are actually media products.