Teaching media literacy helps Turn Beauty Inside Out, Maine

• What is media literacy?

• Web sites for media literacy

• Media literacy activities

• Don't like something you've seen or heard in the media? Do something about it!

Reflections of Girls in the Media, A two-part Study on Gender and Media (Available www.childrennow.org) finds that from an early age girls are active participants in the media community. They watch over twenty hours of television a week, see 20,000 advertisements a year, listen to radio and CD’s, watch music videos, read fashion magazines, newspapers and play video games.

On one hand media, offers girls strong, positive role models when women in media are shown dependent first upon themselves to solve their own problems and achieve their goals. (34% of women and 30% of men on TV are shown using their intelligence.) At the same time, research demonstrates that media sends girls limiting messages about their priorities and potential. Appearance and relationships are stressed for women while careers are most important for men.

This research suggests that media has a cumulative impact and can become one of the most powerful forces in adolescent development. Girls are bombarded with messages that they need to be prettier, thinner and sexier to be ok. This creates a toxic environment for developing young girl’s self-esteem and body image. Turn Beauty Inside Out helps girls and women think about what it means to be all they can be in today’s culture by redefining true beauty as good hearts, great works and activism. We can help girls and women recognize the impossible media-created images of beauty and give them skills to think critically about their media diet.

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What is media literacy?

• Media literacy expands the definition of literacy beyond reading and writing to include the ability to read the messages we see and hear through the mass media: television, movies, music and advertising.

• Media literacy is education about how the media work, how they produce meaning, and how they construct reality.

• Media literacy is an informed and critical understanding of the nature of mass media, the techniques used, and the impact of these techniques on the consumer (especially young people). 

• Media literacy is the ability for each of us to choose and select, the ability to challenge and question, the ability to be conscious about what’s going on around us and not be passive or vulnerable. 

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Web Sites for media literacy

For Parents Internet Safety: www.getnetwise.org A public service of Internet industry corporations and public interest organizations. Helps ensure that families have safe educational and/or entertaining experiences on the Internet. Contains information about age appropriate Internet use and advice on forming contracts with one’s children for Internet use. Movies: www.moviemom.com  Movie Mom offers general guidance to parents about current movie releases and classic videos. www.screenit.com  A detailed guide to current films, videos, and music with information on profanity, sexual references, violence, and behavior children are likely to imitate. www.commonsensemedia.org   Common sense media reviews for kids and families with ratings for language, sex, and violence. www.mediafamily.org Rates movies, videos, television programs, and video games for age appropriateness, violence, illegal behaviors, fear, nudity, language, and sexual content. www.dadsanddaughters.org Information about the latest media issues and a forum for taking action. A free e-mail newsletter is available. Music: www.lyrics.com Preview the lyrics of kids' favorite songs before allowing children to purchase CD’s. For Kids: www.pbskids.org/dontbuyit Colorful, interactive Web site to visit with your kids to help them discover advertising tricks. Also includes tips for parent/child discussions about media.

For Teachers www.tbio.org Information about the latest national Turn Beauty Inside Out campaign. www.mindonthemedia.org Information about awareness and activism. Linked to New Moon magazine and the national Turn Beauty Inside Out campaign. www.medialit.org Source for practical classroom tools and visuals, and the media literacy link to the Maine Learning Results information. Search by grade level for appropriate resources to teach media literacy. www.nmmlp.org The New Mexico Media Literacy Project specializes in media literacy training and education for teachers. They also provide a variety of interactive curriculums for a wide age range on CDs. www.cqcm.org Kid’s First includes reviews and research articles about media’s affect on young children. Good ideas about sponsoring a Kid’s First Film Festival and a Junior Film Critic Program. Suggested Resources for Preparing Presentations: www.mediaed.org Source for educational videos with study guides. Provides a handout that integrates media literacy into various classroom topics and learning results. www.adbusters.org Best know for their clever ad parodies. www.adflip.com An archive of print ads from 1940 to the present. Searchable by year, brand name, and category. www.pbskids.org/dontbuyit A colorful interactive Web site for students. Has a link to a guide for teachers and a design your own cereal box curriculum.

For Pre-teens: www.pbskids.org An interactive site for youth with colorful graphics and examples of what advertisers do to get people’s attention. Perfect for middle school students with laptops. For Teens: www.facetheissue.com Site is animated and narrated by Halle Barry, Jennifer Lopez, and other celebrities addressing issues such as drugs, anorexia, bulimia, abuse, and alcoholism. Resources for more information and how to get help are included.

Let us know what great resources you and your students find. E-mail us through our web site at genderproject@umext.maine/edu.

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Media literacy activities

1. Media Discussion Questions 
   Needed: Magazines or newspaper advertisements.
   
   Provide students with advertisements (smoking and alcohol advertisements are great for this) from magazines then divide them into groups of four and have them answer the following questions to identify the values embedded in the ads. Ask them to report back to the larger group.

1. What is this? How is this put together? (What story is this ad telling?)

2. What do I see, hear, smell, touch or taste? What do I like or dislike about this?

3. What might other people think and feel about this?

4. What does this tell me about how other people live and behave? Is there anything or anyone left out?

5. Is this trying to sell me something? Is this trying to tell me something? 

Adapted from www.medialit.org 

2. Choose or Lose!
   Needed: Magazines.
   
   Ask the students if they ever remember a time when they saw something on TV and thought, “OH, I wish I had that!”? How about if they ever experienced seeing something on TV and then when they did finally get it, it wasn’t what it seemed? Television commercials and magazine ads use tricks to make us want things. Here are a few examples:

• Photographers smooth out faces so you can’t see blemishes. This is called “airbrushing” and it happens all the time! See examples on this web site www.pbskids.org/dontbuyit/advertisingtricks/

• It isn't too tough to make a mouth-watering burger at home. But could you make it look delicious even after it sits for hours under bright lights in a photo studio? Here's what the experts go through:

RECIPE: 3lbs Ground beef, Vegetable oil, Brown food coloring or molasses, 100 hamburger buns, 2 cases of lettuce, a dozen tomatoes, paper towels, Superglue, tweezers, paintbrush, waterproof spray, glycerin and water (glycerin is a syrupy, sweet liquid made from oil). The tweezers are to place the sesame seeds exactly where they look best. And the glue is to keep them in place. Still think it looks delicious? Imagine taking a bite- Yuk!

Take a look at some advertisements in the magazines. 

• What do they want you to buy? 

• Are they using any tricks?

3. Say What?!
   Needed: paper, pencils, students ready to share!
   
   Who are some artists that are saying positive things about women and men? Who are some artists who aren’t? List songs, books, and poems that support girl’s inner beauty and a boy’s rights to have a full range of feelings. Share the lyrics, excerpts, and stanzas with each other. Let the group discuss their feelings around these issues. It may be difficult for some to criticize an artist they have always enjoyed, and now realize is being disrespectful.
    

4. Record your Exposure!
   Want to know how much time you spend listening to what the media tells you? And it is not just commercials. Even when your watching a TV show, little pieces of information are being planted in your head! What this means is this… Your home watching Friends, Monica looks great in a new top and she is getting compliments on it. Just so happens Abercrombie sells it in their stores. This is called ‘product placement’ and it is happening more and more in movies and television shows. The same conglomerate company owns the network, and the store and they orchestrate the whole thing! Phew, it gets pretty confusing, but I think you get the picture. People are trying to sell you something, and you may be increasing media advertising with every dollar you spend. 
   
   Try creating a tally sheet with your group and write down every hour you spend in front of the TV, computer, radio, or just flipping through magazines. Try it for a day, a week, or longer! Be specific. Start each entry with the date and in complete sentences answer the following questions:
   
   a. The type of media
   b. What the media message was…
   c. How it affected you
   d. Why it affected you

For more information about deconstructing media messages, go to
www.pbskids.org/dontbuyit/advertisingtricks/

5. Wondering how to get involved and help spread the word?
   How about trying these ideas….

   1. No Logo Day. Go a day wearing clothes without any brand-name logos. 

   2. Turn Off Your TV Day Go. a day without TV. 

   3. Buy Nothing Day. Don't spend any money for a day.

Developed and compiled by the Gender Project, University of Maine Cooperative Extension

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Don't like something you've seen or heard in the media?
Do something about it!

Here are some ways to make a difference. Talk back: write a letter, send e-mail, or make a call!

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