100 Family Media Literacy Activities, Ages Pre-School through Teen Years

Are You a “High Hopes” Parent?

Attending to Our Children’s Attention Span

Building the Foundation for Resiliency Skills

Live and Play in Your World: Stimulus Addiction and the Growing Brain

Looking for Meaning in All the Right Places

Parenting Today: The World Has Changed, Have We?

Parenting as a Living System

Reading the Screen

Screen Time and Obesity

Screen Violence: Impact on Self as Relational Being

Teaching Children Gratefulness

100 Family Media Literacy Activities (cont.)

 6.         Which product, which show?
Have your teen think about how advertisers appeal to certain audiences for specific shows—such as advertising beer and video games for major sports events on television. Ask him/her to list two products that might be advertised on each of these shows:
Basketball game
Daytime soap opera
Evening news
Cartoon show
Golf tournament
MTV Reality Shows
It may be interesting to have your child track advertisers' patterns over time and explore what insights were gained from the activity.

7.         Commercials in other parts of the world.
What kind of advertising is on TV in other areas of the United States and in other countries? Your teen can find out in any library or through web-based research. Ask your teen to consider such questions as: “How and why are foreign commercials different from what you see at home? Are the differences merely in the kinds of products and services being sold, or are different appeals made to foreign audiences?” This is a great activity to do when your family is planning a trip abroad.

Screen News

8.         Distinctions and similarities between News and Talk Shows.
Ask your teen to watch for one week and list all the topics covered by one talk show and one news program. Then discuss such questions with him/her: “How many of the topics covered had to do with strange or abnormal human behavior? sex? crime? abuse? Which had more of these, the news program or the talk show? Which would you recommend watching on a regular basis? Why?”

9.         Examine Public Broadcast News.
After your teen watches a Public Broadcasting Service news program and another network's news program, have him/her think about the differences between the two. Discuss what might accounts for the differences and what a viewer gains from each type of news program.

Stereotypes

10.       Is advertising turning you into a stereotype?
If teens follow their friends who follow the latest fads promoted by popular culture, does that mean that your teen is being stereotyped without him or her knowing it? Explore this issue with your son or daughter and how she or he may feel about appearing to be an industry-generated stereotype.

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