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Project Look Sharp To Conduct Media Literacy Institutes: July 14-18 & Aug. 4-8
Project Look Sharp's week-long, intensive workshops on integrating media literacy into classroom curricula at all grade levels and subject areas — are open to interested K-12 teachers or support staff, college faculty members, and community educators. All participants will work with a "coach" to develop a media literacy integration project to implement and present during the coming year. The 2003 Institutes will be held at Ithaca H.S. in Ithaca, NY and the cost is $400. For more information, please see the Project Look Sharp website or contact them directly at looksharp@ithaca.edu or 607.274.3471.

FEATURED TEACHING RESOURCES

Check out these Hot New Titles! This month, CML is adding 8 new resources to our online catalog, including:
• a re-release of Len Masterman's Teaching the Media
• a video and print history of the TV talk show
• Alissa Quart's engrossing Branded: The Buying and Selling of Teenagers
• and a look at African American identify in photography

For complete details on all eight titles, click here to go to our July 2003 edition of "New For You!"

'Assignment: Media Literacy' Brings Media Education into the Elementary Classroom
The elementary edition of Renee Hobbs' acclaimed teaching package, Assignment: Media Literacy is the first U.S.-based comprehensive curriculum connecting media literacy in all subject areas. Teachers in grades K - 5 will find everything needed to integrate media education into subject areas such as language arts, math, health and social studies. The program features a 162-page curriculum guide, 27 classroom lesson plans that align with Maryland standards and rubrics, 56 reproducible worksheets, and a 40-minute video with 11 segments supporting hands-on activities. Click here to review a study on the program's effectiveness in fulfilling the goals of media literacy instruction. A CML-exclusive!

Len Masterman's Classic Back-In-Print & Available Exclusively Through CML
Attention all educators and students of the media — the groundbreaking classic by England's Len Masterman, Teaching the Media is back-in-print and available only in limited quantities from CML! This comprehensive rationale of media education provides chapters on media determinants, rhetoric, ideology and audiences — all in an engaging and reader-friendly paperback edition. Essential for anyone seeking guidelines for classroom practice, Masterman also describes ways to develop media education across the curriculum. More than just a collection of lesson plans or activities, he explores general principles of teaching across the media which apply to any age range — and illustrates them with a range of practical classroom examples and suggestions. One of the book's key purposes is to help teachers understand the processes of media educaion so that they will feel confident in designing their own media programs. Order your copy soon as our stock supply is sure to sell out quickly and there are no plans to reprint again.

Naomi Klein's 'No Logo' Receives Updated Sub-Title and Cover
Though No Logo's wonderful content on corporate marketing and branding remains the same — its sub-title has changed to "No Space, No Choice, No Jobs" and its cover has been given a modern "facelift." High school media, economics and social studies teachers will find this material especially useful in classroom discussions on branding, global marketing and consumerism. If you don't already have a copy, be sure to pick one up for your school library, today!

CML To Offer Special NMEC 2003 'Conference Collection'
If you can't make it to the upcoming National Media Education Conference, don't worry because CML will soon bring a "conference collection" of titles to you! After the conference is over, the Center will release a special collection of titles related to the theme of "Literacy & Liberty: Rights, Roles and Responsibilities in a Media Age." These "best of NMEC 2003" books are written by the conference's featured speakers and presenters. We will announce how to find and order these new titles in next month's edition of CONNECT.

SPOTLIGHT ON CML

CML Founder Featured in Symposium on Famous 'Vast Wasteland' Speech
To commemorate the 40th anniversary of the most famous speech in broadcasting, the Federal Communications Law Journal dedicated its May 2003 issue to a collection of essays revisiting former FCC Chairman Newton Minow's "vast wasteland" speech to the National Association of Broadcasters. Called a "shot across the bow of television complacency," his speech helped to shape 40 years of thinking about the public interest, broadcast violence and the special needs of children. CML Founder Elizabeth Thoman is among the list of distinguished contributors to the special issue which also includes Zoe Baird, Kathleen Q. Abernathy, Edward O. Fritts, Nicholas Johnson, Richard E. Wiley, U.S. Rep. Edward J. Markey, Charles E. Firestone, and the late Fred Rogers. We've posted her provocative article, "Screen-Agers...And the Decline of the 'Wasteland." on the CML website.

CLASSROOM CONNECTIONS

Lesson Plans Teach 'Rights, Roles and Responsibilities in a Media Age'
In honor of the official 2003 National Media Education Conference theme, this month we highlight lesson plans tied to "Literacy & Liberty: Rights, Roles and Responsibilities in a Media Age." Several of the following resources will also begin to prepare your students for analyzing issues surrounding democracy, media and the impending Election 2004.

• "The Great Debate and Beyond: The History of Televised Presidential Debates" is an interactive, multimedia celebration of 40 years of television and politics from The Museum of Broadcast Communications. Included are: background on the first television debate between Kennedy and Nixon; history of "the television debate" (spanning 1960 to 1996); exploration of the impact of television; and curriculum resources tied to politics, history, debate and communications.
  
  
• "The PBS Democracy Project" goes "behind the scenes of the 2000 presidential election to explore the world of campaign managers and consultants." Two lesson plans from this project provide high school students with an opportunity to explore political ads and the media's role in campaigning. In Analyzing Political Ads young people view political ads (see The Living Room Campaign video below—the perfect accompaniment) and learn how they incorporate persuasive devices. Presidential Campaign Stop helps students plan their own campaign — including how to handle the media and assess its impact.
  
  
• Also part of "The PBS Democracy Project" is "The 30-Second Candidate: Look inside the world of political advertising" which provides: a historical timeline of presidential ads, exploration of the step-by-step creation of an ad campaign, and political commercial "tricks of the trade."
  
  
• The New York Times Learning Network's Hail to the Chief looks at the 2000 presidential race and allows children in grades 6 to 12 to explore how the New York Times has represented victories throughout the 20th century on its front page.
  
  
• A timely lesson on media ownership from the Professional Cartoonists Index involves cartoon analysis, discussion questions and learning links to current information about FCC regulation.
  
  
• Secondary educators looking to help students become more thoughtful consumers of media messages about politics should remember to check out the Media and Democracy Institute's website for a wealth of teaching materials on "media and democracy" created by 2002 teacher participants.

Related Resources:

• The Living Room Campaign – video history of political ads up to 1988 — featuring a wealth of original campaign footage
• Citizenship in a Media Age – a classic collection of lesson plans on analyzing campaign ads, polling and election coverage
• The Making of Citizens – young peoples' judgments of how social and political issues are represented
• The News Media Under Fire – video-based program teaching critical analysis of the news

Also, for extended learning, be sure to check out CML's website Focus Page on News, Politics & Democracy which features a wealth of articles and readings on this subject area. And check out the Media&Values archive for Issue #44 and Issue #58 on themes of media and politics.

DOWNLOAD THIS

Reporter Provides First-Hand Perspective of War Involvement
Although the primary fighting in "Operation Iraqi Freedom" is now over, war activity lingers overseas and questions remain about our military's experience in this confrontation. The online version of The Christian Science Monitor contains a fascinating section titled Assignment: Iraq which provides questions to and answers from a reporter who was "embedded" with military units in Kuwait and southern Iraq. During the war, readers were able to pose questions about conditions in the region and how U.S. troops were faring. His responses to inquiries from people across the country remain on the site and provide an intimate glimpse of day-to-day wartime activity.

MEDIA LITERACY AROUND THE WORLD

Article Explores How Children's 'Multi-Channel World' Is Made Manageable
Will we soon rely on technology to help make or limit our media choices? A recent Newsweek article describes how this may be appealing to some parents worried about programs their children are watching. "Tending Tots With TiVo" describes a time in the not-too-future when large numbers of digital video recorders (DVR's) such as TiVo and ReplayTV will provide pre-selected line-ups of shows recorded each week for kids. Another function of some DVR's is to "commercial-skip" — thereby avoiding bombardments of toy ads.

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The CENTER FOR MEDIA LITERACY is a non-profit organization established to promote critical thinking about the media and to provide leadership, training and resources for media education in schools, religious and community organizations.

In the global media culture of the 21st century, we believe in empowerment through education for children, young people and adults. We rely on tax-deductible grants and individual donations to sustain and expand our work. Thank you for your support.