| MediaSmarts

Canada's First Web Awareness Day to promote Internet literacy resources for parents

National initiative launched by Canadian public libraries with Media Awareness Network, the Canadian Library Association and Bell Canada

Media Awareness Network Receives International Internet Awareness and Education Award

Ottawa, ON, March 8, 2004—Canada’s Media Awareness Network (MNet) was honoured today as a global leader in Internet safety education by WiredSafety. The WiredKids Excellence in Internet Awareness and Education Award is part of a new international awards program established by U.S.-based WiredSafety, the world’s largest online safety, education and help group.

Understanding the Rating Systems

Rating systems can be helpful when trying to choose appropriate movies, but with many different systems in use in Canada, they can also be very confusing. To help make sense of the differences, here's an overview of all the systems currently in use.

Television

That’s Not Me: Addressing diversity in media

Teachers who include media literacy in their classrooms often face issues that don’t arise in other subjects. Nothing illustrates this better than the issue of diversity in media. It’s not unreasonable for teachers to see the topic as a can of worms and be concerned about offending students and their parents – not to mention worrying about what the students themselves might say. At the same time, it’s a topic that is simply too important to be ignored: what we see in media hugely influences how we see others, ourselves and the world. As a result, an ability to analyze media depictions of diversity is not only a key element of being media literate, it’s essential to understanding many of the social issues and concerns that we face as citizens. That’s why Media Awareness Network has developed That’s Not Me – a new online tutorial for professional development to help educators and community leaders approach this issue through key concepts of media literacy.

Diversity in Media, Indigenous People, Parents, Persons with Disabilities, 2SLGBTQ+ Representation, Religion, Stereotyping, Television, Visible Minorities

Tweets from Birmingham jail

Malcolm Gladwell's recent New Yorker article “Small Change” has set the blogosphere buzzing with its strongly stated argument that social networks such as Facebook and Twitter will not usher in a new age of social activism, as some digital evangelists have proposed, but that they and the relationships they foster are actually detrimental to real social change. As Gladwell puts it, "The instruments of social media are well suited to making the existing social order more efficient. They are not a natural enemy of the status quo."

Events, Human Rights, Internet & Mobile

Teaching Privacy Ethics

With younger children, the best approach is to have a clear and consistent set of rules, both at home and at school, about sharing other people’s content.

Online Ethics

2SLGBTQ+ Representation in Advertising

As in other media, 2SLGBTQ+ people have gained a greater and more widely visible presence within the advertising world, with ad agencies courting the “Pink Dollar.” This is not surprising, considering that the 2SLGBTQ+ audience is estimated to be worth around $917 million in buying power.^[1]

Diversity in Media, Marketing & Consumerism, 2SLGBTQ+ Representation, Stereotyping