Media has a powerful influence on our lives, and especially in the development of our children. It can shape young people's beliefs and aspirations, their sense of self and understanding of the world around them. . . By empowering our young people with a better understanding of the media, we can help them control their relationship with the vast array of media messages they receive in their everyday environment.

Hilary Clinton
1996 Conference on Media Education

Media Literacy education for youth promotes critical thinking skills and reduces the power media have on defining what is normal. The Alaska Injury Prevention Center and staff from Anchorage School District's Safe and Drug Free Schools designed a media literacy curriculum guide for teachers Creating Powerful Media. Its goals are to:

• Reduce death and injury resulting from underage drinking,
• Increase teens’ beliefs that they have choices about drinking
• Increase the odds that they will choose to not drink

Creating Powerful Media is a two part curriculum: Introduction to Media Literacy, followed by Using Media Literacy for Social Marketing.

• Intro to Media Literacy: The curriculum is fun, engaging and substantive, providing an introduction to media literacy skills that can be used in all subject areas, in all grades. Media literacy is the ability to critically analyze media that surrounds us, from cell phone ring tones to tee-shirts to TV ads. AIPC and SDFS provide training for teachers on the curriculum. The training provides take-away classroom activities that will reach students of all learning styles, in a context that will instantly engage participation, reflection and integration of knowledge in your discipline. Material covered is standards based for multiple disciplines.
  
  
• Social Marketing: If you already have a background in media literacy, this class will take it to the next level. It explores the use of social marketing strategies as a tool for youth created peer2peer messages. Many classrooms use culminating projects to help students integrate the knowledge they’ve learned and to promote something positive to their peers. This class will help students go beyond posters and power pointless presentations. We will provide teaching strategies and activities that help students tap into talents and skills that they already have, as a result of absorbing years of media messages. Now they can turn around what they’ve observed and tell their own stories with the power to engage their audience and make a lasting impression.

Here you can download the Media Literacy Teaching Manual. It is 89 pages.

Word doc (4.4 MB)

PDF Part I (300 KB)

PDF Part II (4.6 MB)