Resources for Teachers - Television

Teaching Media: The Frame as Storyteller

In this lesson, students explore the ways in which the media frame is used to tell stories.

Video media industries

The commercial features and distribution models of the movie, traditional television, streaming video and online video industries each exert an influence on the type of content produced, how it's crafted and how audiences engage with it.

That’s Not Me: Addressing diversity in media

Teachers who include media literacy in their classrooms often face issues that don’t arise in other subjects. Nothing illustrates this better than the issue of diversity in media. It’s not unreasonable for teachers to see the topic as a can of worms and be concerned about offending students and their parents – not to mention worrying about what the students themselves might say. At the same time, it’s a topic that is simply too important to be ignored: what we see in media hugely influences how we see others, ourselves and the world. As a result, an ability to analyze media depictions of diversity is not only a key element of being media literate, it’s essential to understanding many of the social issues and concerns that we face as citizens. That’s why Media Awareness Network has developed That’s Not Me – a new online tutorial for professional development to help educators and community leaders approach this issue through key concepts of media literacy.

Teaching Media: Thinking About Media

In this lesson, children begin to think about basic concepts such as how audiences interpret meaning, and the constructed world of television and film.

Who's Telling My Story?

In this lesson students learn about the history of blackface and other examples of majority-group actors playing minority-group characters such as White actors playing Asian and Aboriginal characters and non-disabled actors playing disabled characters.