Secret History of the Credit Card

On March 17th (in most markets) PBS's Frontline will feature The Secret History of the Credit Card, a documentary that looks at how credit cards came to be a nearly ubiquitous part of our lives.

Talking to kids about vaping

Even though you're competing against peer pressure and million-dollar marketing campaigns, research has shown that kids are less likely to get involved in smoking or vaping if they've discussed them with their parents. Talking to our kids about tobacco and cannabis advertising will help them to recognize when they're being advertised to and identify the tricks companies use to normalize teen smoking and vaping, and make their products seem safer and less addictive than they really are.

Here are some tips on talking to kids about vaping, tobacco and cannabis advertising.

Hooked on classics

A recent issue of Entertainment Weekly was devoted to a list of so-called “new classics,” a top one-hundred list of the best movies, books, TV shows, and so on, published since 1983. The lists themselves are liable to provoke discussion (Die Hard is #9, ahead of Goodfellas, Schindler's List and Unforgiven?) but perhaps a more interesting question is whether, in the Media Age, the very idea of a “classic” still means anything.

Best practices for improving crime reporting

To counteract the structural biases and sensationalist tropes that currently dominate crime coverage, newsrooms must deliberately shift their practices toward accountability, context and the humanization of those affected. Improving crime reporting requires journalists to articulate a new journalistic purpose and prioritize structural analysis over episodic details.

The Podcast Industry

The podcast industry has seen remarkable growth, with the number of active podcast programs climbing from 550,000 to 750,000 between 2018 and 2019. More than a third of anglophones in Canada listen to podcasts, and just over a quarter of francophones.

Child Studies

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.

Science

“Science and technology both exist in a broader social, cultural, and economic context. They are affected by the values and choices of people and governments and in turn have a significant impact on local as well societal issues.” K-6 Science and Technology Curriculum (2004)

Media and digital literacy enable students understand the ways in which science and technology affect and are affected by their social contexts by helping them to develop critical thinking habits and skills and to interpret the ways in which they gain information about the world around them.

Mathematics

In the NWT, students follow the same program of studies that can be found on the Alberta website.

In Alberta, the following strands in the Mathematics curriculum have connections to digital and media literacy:

K-9:

• Statistics and Probability (SP)

10-12:

Science

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.