Ontario - Language 4

This outcome chart contains media-related learning outcomes from the Ontario, Grade 4 English Language Arts curriculum, with links to supporting resources on the MediaSmarts site.

Ontario - Language 5

This outcome chart contains media-related learning outcomes from the Ontario, Grade 5 Language curriculum, with links to supporting resources on the MediaSmarts site.

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

History's Mirror Revisited: Media education and movie history

Since at least the days of Birth of a Nation (1915), Hollywood has turned to history for material. A quick survey of this year's Academy Award nominations shows that this is as true now as ever, with five out of the nine nominees for Best Picture – Argo, Django Unchained, Les Miserables, Zero Dark Thirty and odds-on favourite Lincoln – based in history in some way. Their approaches vary, of course, with the history-as-backdrop approach of Les Miserables, the revenge fantasy of Django Unchained, the academic character study of Lincoln, the docudrama of Zero Dark Thirty and the history-as-thriller of Argo.

New Brunswick - English Language Arts 6

Strand: Interactions

Big Idea: Expression

Skill Descriptor:

Describe and contribute thoughts, feelings, and experiences, and compare to those of their peers.  

Achievement Indicators:

    Express observations, understandings, viewpoints and perspectives

    Compare and contrast observations, understandings, viewpoints, and perspectives that have been shared by others

Understanding AI and helping youth make the most of it 

Everywhere we turn, we’re hearing about artificial intelligence (AI). We already know AI is all around us – algorithms are suggesting what to watch and tools like ChatGPT and Midjourney are being used to generate the content we’re seeing.  But how many of us actually understand what algorithms even are? And if you’re a parent, guardian or teacher, are you prepared to teach youth how to use AI responsibly? 

Saskatchewan – Media Studies 20

This outcome chart features links to MediaSmarts lessons and activities that support the learning objectives for Media Studies 20.

The Economics of Gender Stereotyping

"We are experiencing a sea change with women and movies, a shift in numbers but also in consciousness. Female-driven movies, from women filmmakers and not, open weekly and are greeted as a matter of course rather than as aberrations; some dominate the box office, and a handful are enlivening the awards season. Despite continuing biases and barriers, women are now directing movies with a variety of budgets, topics and casts."

Indigenous people in the news

More than anything else in media, news coverage influences what people and which issues are part of the national conversation and how those issues are talked about.^[1] When it comes to Indigenous people and communities, constitutional issues, forest fires, poverty, sexual abuse and drug addiction sometimes appear to be the only topics are reported in the news.

Pop Quiz

People who make their living producing images, such as photographers, stylists, publicists, directors and pop idols, learn how to use those signs to convey the impression they want to make. Although teen girls who are trying to send a signal to their circle of friends and pop music producers who are trying to send a signal to an audience of millions are working on different scales, the principle is very much the same. Depending on your audience, you need to tailor the signals you send out very carefully. Even your age can have a certain amount of wiggle room when dressed in the right signs.