HCRHS Media Lit

"After all, the logic goes, millions of Americans see violent imagery in films and on TV every day, but vanishingly few become killers. But a growing body of research indicates that this reasoning may be off base. Exposure to violent imagery does not preordain violence, but it is a risk factor. We would never say: "I've smoked cigarettes for a long time, and I don't have lung cancer. Therefore there's no link between smoking cigarettes and lung cancer." So why use such flawed reasoning when it comes to media violence?"

"How young is too young to talk about sexism? Because according to my just-turned-3-year-old, mommies aren't strong-daddies are. Her certainty of this hit me square in the gut; it didn't help that immediately after she declared she didn't want to be a mommy because "they have to go to doctor's appointments and go shopping." Oof."

"Yesterday, two events relating to institutional racism coincided and competed for headlines.  A federal judge ruled New York City's infamous stop-and-frisk policy unconstitutional because it amounted to racial profiling by targeting African-Americans and Latinos. And US Attorney General Eric Holder announced an end-run around "draconian" Congressional drug laws by ordering the Justice Department to discontinue aggressive pursuit of low-level, non-violent drug offenders."

"As an avid watcher of Lifetime ("Drop Dead Diva" what what?), I see a lot of commercials for women. And, you know, it really annoys me how patronizing ads meant "for the ladies" are. If you don't believe me, take a look at this hilarious parody."

"As today's students become ever more involved in using technology as a resource for daily life, it is crucial that we develop students' critical thinking skills to help them decipher the barrage of information available to them and use this information in their"

"The dark side of materialism as a tonic is that shopping bags aren't a great replacement for friendships. Loneliness can make us materialistic. Feeling isolated makes us anxious, which makes us less likely to get up the energy to make and maintain connections that would make us feel less alone. So, in the hunt for immediate pleasure, some people turn to shopping. But medicating our loneliness at the mall can make us lonelier, over time, as shoppers begin to learn that it is challenging to form a meaningful relationship with a wristwatch or brag about one's children to a porcelain vase."

"Reddit is the self-proclaimed front page of the Internet -- a community of people who submit links and vote them up or down based on their quality, novelty or general ability to generate amusement."

"It's tiring (and insulting) to watch video after video of fully-clad men sing, while naked and semi-naked ornamental women gyrate sexily around them. Like decorations. Like baubles. Like the tinsel on a tree..."

"Earlier this week, at the biggest video game conference of the year - the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) - Microsoft unveiled a number of new games for their Xbox One video game console. After the presentation, Anita Sarkeesian, of Feminist Frequency, correctly observed that none of the games featured had a female protagonist."

"The idea that you can't buy happiness has been exposed as a myth, over and over. Richer countries are happier than poor countries. Richer people within richer countries are happier, too. The evidence is unequivocal: Money makes you happy. You just have to know what to do with it. So what should you do with it? Stop buying so much stuff, renowned psychologist Daniel Gilbert told me in an interview a few years ago, and try to spend more money on experiences"

"This video educast provides a brief sampling of resources in PBS LearningMedia that can support the enhancement of students' media lit skills in three ways- Analyzing Media Evaluating Websites Exploring Different Types of Media"

infographic on media consolidation

"To get a closer look at the cohort coming up behind the millennials, CJR in March asked the students in Esther Wojcicki's classes at California's Palo Alto High School how they view the news ecosystem.  As ninth grader Jamie Har put it: "By the time I hear the news, the story has already passed through several people. I cannot know whether the information is completely accurate or how much opinion is in what I hear. Most of the time, the news does not interest me enough for me to go look up more about it." Sounds like a normal teenager, right? All their essays are linked below."

"While we can all agree that desperate poverty is hideous, there is a broadly held view that after a certain level of income (around $75,000, say), more money doesn't buy more well-being. But it's just not so. Economists Betsey Stevenson and Justin Wolfers have been arguing for years that, yes, richer families tend to be happier, and no, there is not an automatic cut-off point. In other words: Mo money, fewer problems. "

"Media Literacy is the ability to access, analyze, critically evaluate, and produce communication in a variety of forms. It is similar to information literacy and involves many components of technology literacy as well. "

"Marketing increasingly plays to consumers' insecurities by perpetuating the myth that we can -- and should -- drink without gaining weight. At the same time, researchers have noted a disturbing trend, especially among college students, that combines the worst of drinking and dieting. They call it "drunkorexia," which is colloquial for skipping meals or exercising heavily to "save" or burn calories, making room for drinking at night. After decades of marketing alcohol by objectifying and mistreating women, the adult beverage world has suddenly discovered female consumers.  "There's no question that the alcohol industry is presenting their goods to women as though they're diet products," he said. "Because that's what sells."

"Douglas Rushkoff, who spends his days thinking, writing and teaching about media culture, says it's time for people to stop chasing every ping and start using technology in a way that makes us feel more free. Rushkoff's latest work is called Present Shock: When Everything Happens Now. He joined NPR's Audie Cornish to talk about the book."

"If we can learn about the ancient Romans by studying their drinking songs, surely we can learn about ourselves by studying our TV shows"