Ideas for teaching how the media influences sense of self

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Permalink Reply by Nicole Welding on August 26, 2008 at 11:40pm

The Merchants of Cool is a video about the influence of mass media advertising on youth. I believe you can purchase the video or view it online--I'm not sure it would be appropriate for students younger than 9th grade--you would want to preview it... You can find it on PBS here...

There are many resources on the web regarding mass media, advertising, etc.

Also, you might consider using some of Michael Wesch's videos--he is a really cool anthropology professor that created the famous The Machine is Us/ing Us video, and he has a relatively new video The anthropological introduction to Youtube, and I think you may be able to use it. It is pretty long, but it is an unusual perspective as to how we view ourselves and how we become ourselves through social media like Youtube.

Sounds like a great way to start the year!

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Permalink Reply by Jeffrey on August 27, 2008 at 9:21am

The resources from Dove showing films of "photoshopped" models is great, I used it in my classroom and it really created some great discussion.

The Video "Before the Music Dies" is awesome for showing how pop music is fabricated and marketed to youth.

I also have to echo about the "Merchants of Cool". I have used it for years and it is fantastic. Be sure to preview the sections for 9th grade. There is some content you will probably have to edit or get signatures before viewing (ICP stuff).

The last thing I would recommend it Franklin/Coveys "the great discovery" project. It is in the 7 habits books, but there is a web interface I use with my students (just do a google on Covey, the great discovery). It creates a personal mission statement that is a really good tool to create some discussion.

Hope that helps.

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Permalink Reply by Ashley Quark on September 14, 2008 at 2:48pm

This did help. I want to use the "Great Discovery Project" but I'm having trouble finding the web interface version. I found it a few weeks ago when you suggested it, but now that I want to use it tomorrow, I can only find pdf documents and word documents. I really liked the web version. Can you send me a link for it?
Thanks!

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Permalink Reply by Nancy Bosch on September 14, 2008 at 2:55pm

Is this it?

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Permalink Reply by Ashley Quark on September 14, 2008 at 4:38pm

No. But thanks. The one I was looking at was more geared towards teens.

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Permalink Reply by Greg from LessonGateway.com on September 14, 2008 at 7:53pm

Hi Ashley,

The Media Awareness Network has tons of excellent resources around this area. Many great lesson plans with supporting materials (worksheets, overheads etc), some lessons require students to have computers - some are completely classroom based. A searchable database helps you to find appropriate lessons quickly.

I see from your profile that you are from Canada - it's a Canadian site so you can actually search for resources directly supporting your course - for those outside Canada the resources are still great as they are not specific to Canada, they discuss media literacy in many contexts.

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