Resources for Teachers - Television

Just a joke? Helping youth respond to casual prejudice

One of the barriers to youth pushing back against prejudice is not wanting to over-react, particularly if they feel their peers were just ‘joking around.’ Humour, however, can often be a cover for intentional bullying and prejudice. In this lesson, students analyze media representations of relational aggression, such as sarcasm and put-down humour, then consider the ways in which digital communication may make it harder to recognize irony or satire and easier to hurt someone’s feelings without knowing it. Students then consider how humour may be used to excuse prejudice and discuss ways of responding to it.

Teaching Media: Media Techniques

In this lesson, students learn how different media use different techniques to communicate meaning.

The Constructed World of Media Families

In this lesson, students identify the differences between TV families and real families by analyzing the conventions used by TV shows; and by comparing the problems and actions of television families to real world families.

Governance of Television and Radio Communications in Canada

To introduce students to the organizations of the Canadian broadcasting industry, and to the codes, guidelines and issues relating to violence, ethics, representation, advertising and the accuracy of news in television and radio programming.

Facing TV Violence: Consequences and Media Violence

In this lesson, students explore the absence, or unrealistic portrayal, of consequences to violence in the media.