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In this lesson, students are introduced to the idea that what they see in media can be deceptive. They explore the idea that media are “framed” by their creators and consider what parts of the world are left out of the frame.
On the internet, it can be hard to tell what’s true and what’s false—but we have to make a lot of decisions based on how reliable we think things are. In Reality Check, you’ll learn how to find clues like finding where a story originally came from and comparing it to other sources, as well as how to use tools like fact-checking sites and reverse image searches.
Time Management
The Digital Literacy Training Program for Canadian Educators workshop provides an overview of essential digital literacy skills and key concepts of media and digital literacy, familiarizes participants with the digital experiences of Canadian youth, and introduces the resources and tools that are available through MediaSmarts’ USE, UNDERSTAND & CREATE digital literacy framework.
A Guide for Trusted Adults is based on YWCA’s consultation with Canadian girls and young women about their concerns and the issues they face online and on social media platforms and the ways they want the adults in their lives to support them.
In this lesson students look at the less obvious methods used by advertisers to reach consumers: humorous, self-depreciating ads, product placement, product association with celebrities, ads promoting empowerment and affirmation and ‘advocacy’ advertising.
In this lesson students explore gender roles in advertising by taking an ad campaign they have seen which is specifically directed to one gender, and redesigning the campaign to target the opposite gender.
In this lesson students identify how we associate social status with designer and brand name products, and how we believe others perceive us by what we wear.
This introductory lesson helps students understand how pervasive and influential advertising is in our culture and how teenagers are actively targeted by advertisers.
This activity helps teenagers develop an awareness of marketing tactics aimed at teens through the creation of their own mock advertising campaigns.
In this lesson students explore what’s hidden behind advertising messages by analysing and creating parody advertisements.
This lesson helps teens become active consumers by encouraging them to ‘talk back’ to advertisers when they have concerns.
In this lesson, students deconstruct gender portrayal and depictions of boys and girls in the media.
This opening video to the Key Concepts of Media Literacy video series introduces students to the idea that the word media – which they may already know in the sense of the media industry (“the media”) – means channels of communication between a person or persons and their intended audience.
In this lesson, students watch a video introducing the media literacy key concept that media are constructions. They then explore this concept by considering a pair of cereal boxes and identifying the different elements of the box and the purposes they serve. In an optional final task, students pick a target audience and create their own cereal box to appeal to that audience.