Students challenge media labels - Winning entry in national podcast contest addresses the issue of youth stereotyping

Ottawa, February 27, 2007 – Media Awareness Network today announced the winners of its first MyMedia video podcast contest for Canadian students in Grades 7 to 12. The MyMedia contest was designed to help young people consider ways in which certain members of society are portrayed in the media and how audiences perceive and respond to these representations. Using camcorders, digital video recorders, Web cams or cell phones, youth from across the country submitted 2-minute video podcasts on the topic of media representation.

Manitoba

 

Photo credits

USE, UNDERSTAND & ENGAGE: A Digital Media Literacy Framework for Canadian Schools - Overview

USE, UNDERSTAND & ENGAGE provides a road map for teaching digital media literacy skills in Canadian schools. The framework draws on nine framework topics of digital media literacy and provides teachers with supporting lessons and interactive resources that are linked to curriculum outcomes for every province and territory.

Outcome Chart - Saskatchewan - Psychology 20 – Social Psychology (Grade 11)

Outcome Chart - Saskatchewan - Psychology 20 – Social Psychology (Grade 11)

Responses and Solutions in the Classroom

There are two main strategies for addressing online hate and cultures of hatred in the classroom: teaching youth to recognize and deconstruct it, and empowering them to intervene by answering back to it.

Authenticating Information, Internet & Mobile, Online Hate

Talking to Youth about Online Gambling

Research shows that only a third of parents have discussed gambling with their children, perhaps because parents are generally unaware of their kids’ participation in these sorts of activities. It’s important to talk about it, though: research has found that family members' views about gambling are a major influence on how likely youth are to gamble.

Internet & Mobile, Online Gambling, Video Games

Talking to kids about media and body image

Children are exposed to many unrealistic images of both men’s and women’s bodies through media. TV shows, music videos, ads, movies, video games, and social networks can communicate ideas about what their bodies “should” look like. Techniques for manipulating images – from old-fashioned techniques like airbrushing to modern technologies like filters – even make it possible for media images to go beyond what’s possible in reality.

Body Image

Helping kids get a healthy start with phones

Phones and other media are a big part of kids’ lives, and they can be a healthy part too. Here are some ways that you can make sure your kids get the best possible start when using media and digital devices.

Cell Phones and Texting, Digital Citizenship, Digital Health, Internet & Mobile

Use, Understand & Create: Towards a Comprehensive Canadian Digital Literacy Curriculum

Whether it’s to prepare for the future job market or just to manage the lives they already lead online, young Canadians need to be digitally literate. But what exactly is digital literacy, and how can we ensure that all Canadian youth are learning the digital skills they need?

Authenticating Information, Cyberbullying, Digital Citizenship, Digital Health, Internet & Mobile, Online Ethics, Resources

The Good Things About Television

Television is an inescapable part of modern culture. We depend on TV for entertainment, news, education, culture, weather, sports—and even music, since the advent of music videos.

Television