To provide the current student generation with an innovative online learning method, podcasts with science fiction short stories are introduced to marketing education. Findings from neurology and psychology point to positive effects of storytelling for gaining knowledge and developing interpersonal skills. Science fiction stories challenge common…

This article introduces an assignment that will help instructors effectively teach media grammar and convergence to their students. Hybrid letter writing (HBL) is an experiential learning assignment where students learn about media grammar and convergence by experiencing it. The current modus operandi of teaching convergence and media grammar is…

Several stereotypes exist that perpetuate negative viewpoints of black hair. Although media literacy scholarship and resources have focused on media representations of race and body image, fewer have specifically centered on media representations of hair type. In this lesson, students will learn how media reinforce negative stereotypes that…

Audience analysis is essential for creating successful messages across communication fields. The audience persona is an effective tool for understanding the characteristics and needs of a target audience. Through this unit activity, students experience the process of persona development, build skills in data collection and analysis, and gain…

Courses: Introduction to Communication Behavior, Health Communication, Public Communication Campaigns, Persuasion, Public Relations. Objectives: Students gain practice determining various components of a health communication campaign (e.g. selecting appropriate target population(s), media channels), while noting the need for synergy across key…

James Loewen has revised "Teaching What Really Happened", the bestselling, go-to resource for social studies and history teachers wishing to break away from standard textbook retellings of the past. In addition to updating the scholarship and anecdotes throughout, the second edition features a timely new chapter entitled…

The semester-long activity described herein uses an integrated instructional approach to media studies to introduce students to the research method of qualitative content analysis and help them become more critically vigilant media consumers. The goal is to increase students' media literacy by guiding them in the design of an exploratory…

A common observation on college campuses today is "students do not look up when walking on campus." It is often thought that such attachment to communication devices demonstrates a lack of connection to the "real world." This perspective exemplifies the need for faculty to connect with the "digital generation" and do…

Today's students tweet, text, and navigate apps up to 12 hours each day, but they may not know how to effectively analyze a TV show or website. Award-winning author Renee Hobbs demonstrates how to incorporate media literacy into the secondary classroom, providing the tools teachers need to: (1) Effectively foster students' critical thinking,…

Many public health students receive little, if any, formal training in communicating health information to the public. Public health practitioners, however, are regularly asked to use communication strategies to convey health information. The lesson plan was designed to teach students mass communication strategies in the context of sexual health…

"The Media Teacher's Handbook" is an indispensible guide for all teachers, both specialist and non-specialist, delivering Media Studies and media education in secondary schools and colleges. It is the first text to draw together the three key elements of secondary sector teaching in relation to media study--the "theoretical",…

Argues that the mass media deprivation experience is a potent means with which to sensitize students to the seductive, yet iron-fisted, grip of the mass media. Offers advice with respect to guiding the experience; describing typical before and after reactions; and identifying theoretical discussion issues. (SR)

Written to appeal to a general audience that wants to think more deeply about the nature of the media, their messages, and their effects on both individuals and society, this book serves as a broad introduction to the thinking that ties educators together in the common goal of educating a media literate generation. It is written from a critical…

Describes a course for upper-level undergraduates entitled "AIDS, Mass Media, and Cultural Politics." Describes the course's 10 units, also listing screenings and readings. (SR)

This program provides a new framework and approach for breaking the cycle of blame surrounding violent imagery in the culture and promotes an informed and rational public conversation about the topic. The goals of the program are to: (1) reduce exposure to media violence; (2) change the impact of violent images that are seen; (3) locate and…