This paper discusses the role of media in presenting information to society and emphasizes the need for English teachers to incorporate critical media awareness into education. Four postulations are identified that are at the core of teaching media as a form of textual construction: (1) all media are a construction, which represents conscious and unconscious decisions about what knowledge is valid and valued; (2) audiences negotiate meaning; (3) the curriculum represents ideology and values and has social and political implications; and (4) the nature of media messages can affect social attitudes and behavior. A group of 20 teachers attending a media literacy workshop at Pennsylvania State University in the summer of 1994 were asked to rate the frequency with which they undertook certain core critical media literacy activities; results revealed that teachers were not aware of what they could do about media in their language arts classrooms and that nonprint media are still an isolated phenomena in schools. The workshop encouraged teachers to work towards integrating forms of media literacy into their teaching and covered analysis of codes and conventions, personal experience, cultural and ideological meanings, and commercial overtones and economic strategies. A table depicts the teachers' ratings on media practice in the classroom. (Contains 12 references.) (AEF)