"Why Does Seventeen Magazine Have a BMI Calculator? And Why Does It Say that Being Underweight Is Healthy"

"The idea that consumerism creates artificial desires rests on a wistful ignorance of history and human nature, on the hazy, romantic feeling that there existed some halcyon era of noble savages with purely natural needs. Once fed and sheltered, our needs have always been cultural, not natural. Until there is some other system to codify and satisfy those needs and yearnings, capitalism--and the culture it carries with it--will continue not just to thrive but to triumph."

"We all remember Malcolm Gladwell's influential article on cool hunters, the one he wrote in 1997.  And the late 1990s did seem to be the hay day of the species. " So what killed the cool hunting?  Three things, possibly. 

Media literacy handouts

"Project Look Sharp is a media literacy initiative of Ithaca College that develops and provides lesson plans, media materials, training, and support for the effective integration of media literacy with critical thinking into classroom curricula at all education levels."

"ompanion Website for The Teacher's Guide to Media Literacy: Critical Thinking in a Multimedia World."

Full Video "Consuming Kids throws desperately needed light on the practices of a relentless multi-billion dollar marketing machine that now sells kids and their parents everything from junk food and violent video games to bogus educational products and the family car. Consuming Kids pushes back against the wholesale commercialization of childhood, raising urgent questions about the ethics of children's marketing and its impact on the health and well-being of kids."

"Yet another way in which boys are apparently becoming just like girls: They are obsessed with their bodies, according to this front page New York Times story today. They are obsessed to an unhealthy degree. They count calories, drink weird powdery shakes instead of eating normal meals, take pills that alarm their pediatricians. We have thinness. They have "muscle enhancement."  We have the well-dressed skeletons in the H&M ads. They have The Situation, who, since rehab, lifts up his shirt a little less this season but still enough to make masses of American teenage boys jealous."

"If you find yourself watching the hit Fox sitcom 'New Girl' tonight, don't feel bad if your mind wanders to your smartphone or tablet during the show. Fox actually wants it that way. Instead of trying to capture your full attention the old-fashioned way, Fox Broadcasting has created a series of aps to provide extra content on your smartphone or tablet, to allow you to follow along during their broadcast shows. And on the sitcom "New Girl," the network is even trying to sell you stuff. David Wertheimer is the president of digital at Fox Broadcasting, and he explains that, for example, Cece (one of the characters on the show) will be wearing a set of bracelets, and they'll show up for sale on your second screen."

"Psychologist Tim Kasser discusses how America's culture of consumerism undermines our well-being. When people buy into the ever-present marketing messages that "the good life" is "the goods life," they not only use up Earth's limited resources, but they are less happy and less inclined toward helping others. The animation both lays out the problems of excess materialism and points toward solutions that promise a healthier, more just, and more sustainable life."

"During the last week of the 2012 presidential campaign, Fox News and MSNBC both took a dramatically negative tone toward President Obama and Mitt Romney, respectively. 68 percent of MSNBC's coverage of Romney was negative during from Oct. 29-Nov. 5, up from 57 percent in October. That doesn't sound too surprising, except that Pew found 5 percent of MSNBC's Romney coverage was positive from Oct. 1-28, while it found no positive coverage of Romney when it looked at the final week's stories. It also found no negative coverage of Obama."

"Can shopping save the world? The Story of Change urges viewers to put down their credit cards and start exercising their citizen muscles to build a more sustainable, just and fulfilling world."

"A research team at the University of Oregon's School of Journalism and Communication put 48 college students on a "complete and extended media fast for 48 hours." More cruelly, it required them to write "multiple-page essays" about their experiences. Among the reactions, shared in a press release about the study, called "Turn Off Everything: The Challenges and Consequences of Going on a Complete and Extended Media Fast":"

Free Press works to ensure people have a seat at the table for important policy debates and decisions in Washington, D.C., and beyond.  Want proof that our media needs changing? Look no further than Free Press' thorough analysis of the state of Internet freedom, journalism, public media, election coverage and media ownership."

These "persuaders" use a variety of techniques to grab our attention, to establish credibility and trust, to stimulate desire for the product or policy, and to motivate us to act (buy, vote, give money, etc.) We call these techniques the "language of persuasion." They're not new; Aristotle wrote about persuasion techniques more than 2000 years ago, and they've been used by speakers, writers, and media makers for even longer than that. Learning the language of persuasion is an important media literacy skill. Once you know how media messages try to persuade you to believe or do something, you'll be better able to make your own decisions.

" In part two of a three-part series based on a Q&A with former Post Register Managing Editor Dean Miller, we look at how the Internet can be used intelligently. Miller is the director of the Center for News Literacy at Stony Brook University on Long Island, New York."

"Affluenza is a one-hour television special that explores the high social and environmental costs of materialism and overconsumption. Here you can learn more about the show, get an Affluenza diagnosis and check out resources for treatment. Don't miss our Teacher's Guide, available only on this Web site."

"n this new, highly anticipated update of her pioneering Killing Us Softly series, the first in more than a decade, Jean Kilbourne takes a fresh look at how advertising traffics in distorted and destructive ideals of femininity. The film marshals a range of new print and television advertisements to lay bare a stunning pattern of damaging gender stereotypes -- images and messages that too often reinforce unrealistic, and unhealthy, perceptions of beauty, perfection, and sexuality. By bringing Kilbourne's groundbreaking analysis up to date, Killing Us Softly 4 stands to challenge a new generation of students to take advertising seriously, and to think critically about popular culture and its relationship to sexism, eating disorders, and gender violence."

"MissRepresentation.org and Common Sense Media have partnered to create Media Literacy Conversation Starters with a gender lens, for young people and families."