Importance of media literacy education for our children

The theme of this year’s Media Literacy Week, “What’s Being Sold: Helping Kids Make Sense of Marketing Messages” is one I personally feel strongly about. After all, I’ve spent my entire career working in all aspects of marketing and communications. At the Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA), I’m responsible for the department filled with people who are experts in advertising and communications, social media and public relations.

Parents, Social Networking

Social networks: How Facebook changed the Internet

It's been a busy few months for Facebook: a government investigation, another in a seemingly endless series of changes to the site's privacy controls, a New Yorker profile of its famously publicity-shy founder and the upcoming release of The Social Network, a thoroughly unauthorized account of its early days. With all of the publicity and controversy around Facebook – not to mention its still-growing popularity – it's almost impossible to remember what online life was like before it. In fact, it's not much of an exaggeration to say that those who began using the Internet after the introduction of Facebook and its competitors do so in a way that is fundamentally different from older users.

Internet & Mobile, Social Networking

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.

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

Bias in News Sources

In this lesson students consider the meaning of the words “bias” and “prejudice” and consider how bias may be found even at the level of individual words due to connotation.

Diversity in Media, Indigenous People, Journalism & News, Persons with Disabilities, Privilege in the Media, 2SLGBTQ+ Representation, Religion, Stereotyping, Visible Minorities

Miscast and Seldom Seen - Lesson

In this lesson students consider how well their favourite TV shows, movies and video games reflect the diversity of Canadian society.

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

First Person

In this lesson students consider diversity representation in video games by identifying examples of diversity in the games they play, comparing their findings to statistics on diversity in the Canadian population.

Diversity in Media, Indigenous People, Persons with Disabilities, Privilege in the Media, 2SLGBTQ+ Representation, Religion, Stereotyping, Video Games, Visible Minorities

Who's Telling My Story?

In this lesson students learn about the history of blackface and other examples of majority-group actors playing minority-group characters such as White actors playing Asian and Aboriginal characters and non-disabled actors playing disabled characters.

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

The Privacy Dilemma

In this lesson students learn the ways that the apps they use are designed to encourage them to share more information—both with other users and with the apps themselves. They are then introduced to the idea of persuasive design or “dark patterns” and investigate whether these are used to make it more difficult to opt out of data collection on popular apps. Finally, the class creates a “rogues’ gallery” to help them identify dark patterns when they encounter them.

Digital Citizenship, Internet & Mobile, Online Marketing, Privacy, Social Networking

Parents’ Guide to Cyberbullying

For most youth, the Internet is all about socializing and while most of these social interactions are positive, increasing numbers of kids are using the technology to intimidate and harass others – a phenomenon known as cyberbullying.

Cyberbullying, Internet & Mobile, Online Ethics, Parents, Social Networking

New tool from Twitter for combatting trolls

One of the challenges of being a parent in a digital age is (a) keeping up with all the new tools and websites and social media channels our kids may or may not be using and (b) keeping track of new developments and updates within existing tools. Honestly, sometimes it feels like I’m trapped inside a 21st century hamster wheel!

Cyberbullying, Parents, Social Networking