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Obesity as many of us know, is a growing problem in the United States. It is extremely prevalent among the younger generation, as kids are more susceptible to advertisements on television and on the Internet. As this article states, children have a great influence over the food their parents buy. To put it bluntly, children can be annoying. They can scream and yell, essentially embarrassing you into buying them whatever they want. Years ago, discipline amongst parents was much stricter and a child who mouthed off would be subject to corporal punishment. However, society has greatly evolved, and in many families, the power balance among children and adults has shifted. Fast food advertisers are aware of this and take full advantage by placing commercials during popular television networks like Disney channel and Nickelodeon. Also, as the Internet has become more popular amongst young adults, advertisements for sugary snacks and greasy fried food have also increased. Obesity will continue to be a big issue in the United States but we can no longer only place the blame on the lack of options in supermarkets or parents themselves but rather advertisements in media that are negatively influencing children causing them to make bad decisions.

Learning by observation' is a tried and tested success mantra with children; this school in Japan augments this approach by substantiating it with complementary architecture and a wholesome environment. Check it out and leave us your views...

In an increasingly visual world, and one in which anyone with a laptop, Web connection and camera can be a producer of media, children (and the occasional prisoner) need to understand how what they see and watch is created as much as plain old reading, writing and arithmetic.

This article talks about how it is essential for young children to be educated in Media Literacy so they can thoroughly evaluate and analyze bias' in this technological age that these kids become increasingly immersed in as the grow older. The author of this article suggests that the education of Media Literacy should be universally implemented into school's curriculums to train these children to become critical thinkers in the Media World

"I can't afford to pay any amount. It's not a matter of won't, it's a matter of I can't." In Minnesota, this is the response that Jammie Thomas-Rasset made about paying 1.5 million dollars for the illegal sharing of music online. Each of the 24 songs that she illegally violated copyrights on is $62,500. Her defense is that she can't afford to pay that kind of money, especially since she is the mother of four children. Sharing over 1,700 songs on Kazaa, a file-sharing site, the Recording Industry of America, on numerous occasions, had tried to settle with the woman at $5,000. The stubborn Thomas-Rasset refused and was criticized for not taking responsibility for her actions. Due to all these problems, Jammie was taken on trial and was proven guilty. Jammie persistently denies her use of Kazaa and is willing to keep fighting. Many people are in the same position as Jammie, and as the saying goes, "Don't do the crime, if you can't do the time."

@ Scholastic removes Bratz branded products from school book clubs - a campaign by the CCFC helped mobilize parents to complain. Note comments about reading in the later paragraphs.

"Where once morality and meaning were available as part of our free cultural inheritance, now corporations sell them to us as products." "This is basically the commercial exploitation of spirituality," he says, adding that as a result Disney and other corporations "inhabit our imagination".

Imagine if the media covered this in reality. Do video games actually prepare teenagers for real life?

Media literacy is the ability to sift through and analyze the messages that inform, entertain and sell to us every day. It's the ability to analyze all aspects of the media like music videos, online environments and the many advertisements in sports. There are three stages of media literacy. 1: BE AWARE. Know what you watch and limit the amount of time on the internet, television, games, and other forms that market to the masses. 2: BE ABLE TO QUESTION AND ANALYZE THE MEDIA. Learn to analyze what you are watching by observing what is in the advertisement and what is left out. 3: KNOW BACKGROUND INFORMATION. Ask questions like who produces the media we experience and for what purpose? Who profits? Who loses? And who decides? This analysis allows us to understand who drives our global economy and ultimately allows us to make better decisions based on our own opinions.

My article is about what specifically media literacy is and how we can implement it into classrooms to give children a better understanding of our society. The article features 7 excerpts from other articles about media literacy, such as "The 3 Stages of Media Literacy", which states "the principles and practices of media literacy education are applicable to all media- from television to T-shirts, from billboards to the Internet". I believe that media literacy, while it is something that is not needed, can greatly enrich a person's life, especially in the society that we live in today that focuses so much on advertising and different forms of communication.