CMCH Suggestions: Practice Media Literacy

Producing one's own media

Just as reading literacy includes the skills to write, media literacy includes the skills to produce. When you're on the other side of the book or the camera, you learn more about what it takes to create a good experience for the reader or the consumer.

Media production does not have to be fancy; use the tools most easily available to you. Here are some ideas for encouraging your children to create their own media:

• Have your children find a print advertisement with which they disagree in some way (Does it make the food seem nutritious when it isn't? Does it degrade women? Does it only show people of one ethnicity?).
  
  Ask them to create a new way to advertise the product by piecing together a collage of cutouts from other ads, by using a computer drawing program, or by using markers and posterboard to draw their ideas.
  
• Ask your children to create a five minute performance of their favorite television characters having a conversation with each other. If you have a video camera available, you or they could tape the performance.
  
  Just by playing the roles of these characters, they will think more about what makes them entertaining, as well as what qualities of these characters they like and dislike.

 

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CMCH resources for parents and teachers are made possible
by a grant from the American Legion Child Welfare Foundation.