The Nova Scotia English language arts curriculum includes expectations that incorporate media education themes. These are found throughout the three strands: Speaking and Listening, Reading and Viewing and Writing and Other Ways of Representing.
Because social media makes us all broadcasters, we have a responsibility not just to avoid sharing misinformation but to take action when people in our network share it.
Media components are found in all three goals of the Saskatchewan Arts Education curriculum: Creative/Productive, Critical/Responsive strand and Cultural/Historical.
In the Nova Scotia child studies curriculum, media literacy outcomes are included under the general outcomes requiring students to integrate knowledge, skills and practise required by caregivers to influence the welfare of children; explain the importance of providing healthy food choices for children; and explore how children develop and learn through daily experiences.
The British Columbia Science curriculum has a number of expectations relating to digital and media literacy, primarily in connection with recognizing and correcting for bias, testing hypotheses, and using digital media for scientific investigation.
Canada’s Broadcasting Act, last amended in 1991, outlines industry guidelines for portrayal of diversity.
It’s hard to clearly define the effect media violence has on consumers and young people. This is mainly because terms like “violence” and “aggression” are not easily defined or categorized. To a child, almost any kind of conflict, like the heated arguments of some talk-radio shows or primetime news pundits, can sound as aggressive as two cartoon characters dropping anvils on each other.