CMCH Suggestions: Practice Media Literacy

Teaching your children to think critically

A good place to start practicing critical thinking skills is to look at advertisements with your children. Advertisements work in this way:

1. First, the ad grabs your attention with techniques like bright colors, big text, a catchy tune, or a celebrity appearance.
   
2. Next, the ad makes you feel like you lack something, usually the lifestyle that they are showing such as a warm and sunny beach or a carefree relationship.
   
3. Then, the ad sells you their product since you can't buy the lifestyle itself. If you see a woman in jeans riding a horse and laughing, you probably can't buy a horse or find the free time to ride it, but you can buy the jeans.

To start thinking critically about advertisements with your children, find a magazine ad or look at a TV commercial that you can rewind. Talk about these kinds of questions with your child:

• Who created this ad?
• What grabs your attention?
• What lifestyle are they selling you?
• Will buying the product really get you that lifestyle?

Next: Knowing how media is created

 

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