Becoming Media Savvy

You've seen the bumper stickers urging you to go TV-free for a week, or to kill your television. You've heard the reports about advertising seeping into classrooms and luring kids on the Internet. But with young people viewing an average of 20,000 ads a year, and, according to the American Medical Association, spending "more than twice as much time learning from the media as they do from the combined time with parents and teachers each year," it's unlikely there will be many candidates for the cold-turkey solution.

A more realistic response for most families is to build up kids' resistance to the negative influences of media by innoculating them with knowledge. "Media literacy" the process of deconstructing and critically viewing the media has been part of the curriculum in Canadian schools for years. In the U.S., where we spend enormous resources helping students read and analyze the printed word, there's still comparatively little emphasis on understanding the newer media, such as television and the Internet.

Take a Critical Look
Fortunately, there are some excellent resources for families to develop critical- viewing skills at home. Frank Gallagher, project coordinator for Cable In the Classroom, which seeks to provide commercial-free educational programming in the schools, believes in the value of taking the time to become media savvy. "If you are able to recognize when you're being manipulated," he says, " then you can take some action against it."

In partnership with the National PTA, the cable industry initiated "The Family and Community Critical Viewing Project," which provides workshops nationwide to train presenters in media-literacy ethics. Parents can also request training materials directly and free of charge, including a guide called Taking Charge of Your TV and a companion video hosted by Rosie O'Donnell.

Try It Yourself
One way to understand the media is to become involved in it. Many high schools now operate closed-circuit stations and there are plenty of internships at community-based newspapers and radio stations. Ann Manubay, program coordinator for Youth Voice Collaborative, a Boston-based media literacy initiative, finds that initially, the teens she works with are very excited about the idea of creating their own programming. "But when they actually sit down and watch what they've produced, they're disappointed," she says, "because it's a lesson in itself to see what your production will look like if you don't have the money."

Student-produced spots are frequently used by professional organizations such as cable news channels, and they're eligible for various competitions. All the training and information in the world can't shield young people from the hard-sell, violence, stereotyping, and misinformation that are pervasive in the media, but a little knowledge can go a long way.

As Manubay points out, most young people get psyched to learn more about the media when they realize that in many ways, they are already experts. The goal is really making them stop and think about what they're viewing.