

Printable activities for younger children
These printable activity sheets introduce basic media literacy skills and concepts and are suitable for use in homes, schools and libraries. They can be completed independently, but children will learn more if you discuss the activities with them. Younger children may need help reading the instructions and completing some activities.

Interactive Media - Introduction
Interactive media, such as games and social media, use many of the same "rules of notice" as visual and video media, but also use “rules of action” that both allow users to make choices but also limit and influence those choices.

Rules of notice in social media
Historically, broadcast media followed a hierarchical model where a small elite group of wealthy producers shaped the public sphere and sent one-way communication to a much larger mass of receivers, often promoting views favorable to the status quo.

How rules of action shape social media use
Where all media communicate through rules of notice, interactive media are fundamentally defined by their structural possibilities – what might be called "rules of action " – which significantly influence how users communicate and behave.

The social media industry
The social media industry represents a profound transformation of the traditional media landscape, moving from hierarchical, one-way communication to decentralized, interactive digital networks.[1] Today’s dominant platforms are best defined as "two-sided platforms that primarily host user-generated content distributed via algorithms, while allowing for interactions among users.”[2] This highly interactive and networked environment has created immense wealth for the platform operators while simultaneously establishing