Advertising helped financial institutions convince consumers that incurring debt was not only reasonable, but a wise choice. We discuss the role of consumer credit in the U.S. economy, and how advertising and other media have kept us reaching for that credit. We also analyze the strategies that advertisers use to enable audiences to bypass their rational minds as they make purchasing decisions.
Connections Newsletter Archive
-
Publication Date:October, 2011Download Newsletter:Topics:
-
Publication Date:September, 2011
Most researchers agree that children are able to understand the persuasive intent of advertising by the age of 8. But that doesn’t mean they arrive at that age with the media literacy skills they need to adequately respond to the sophisticated strategies food advertisers use to draw their attention.
Download Newsletter:Topics: -
Publication Date:August, 2011
The Voices of Media Literacy project, sponsored by Tessa Jolls and Barbara Walkosz, features interviews of 20 early pioneers who shaped the field into what it is today. As Executive Editor Tessa Jolls comments, “These people know what media literacy is, and are able to articulate it and express it because they lived it and helped invent it.”
Download Newsletter: -
Publication Date:July, 2011
In this issue, we discuss the work of the Waters Foundation and the movement towards the use of systems thinking tools in K-12 education and the strong connections to media literacy. We explain what systems thinking is, trace the connections between systems thinking and media literacy, discuss the research which supports the use of systems thinking in K-12 schooling, and discuss how systems thinking can be used to solve real-world problems.
Download Newsletter: -
Publication Date:June, 2011
Gateway Media Literacy Partners has been able to sustain an ongoing conversation about the importance of media literacy education across the St. Louis region. Researchers at the MacArthur Foundation imagine the directions learning institutions might take in response to the exponential growth of informal learning online.
Download Newsletter: -
Publication Date:May, 2011
This issue introduces the use of comic books and graphic novels as tools for media literacy. We demonstrate how readers of comic books and graphic novels make complex choices to construct meaning from text, illustrations as conventions of the medium; demonstrate how comic books can be appreciated as works of storytelling art in their own right; and how writing and producing comics can help students develop complex literacy skills.
Download Newsletter: -
Publication Date:April, 2011
This issue focuses on the network of informal learning institutions, particularly museums and libraries, through which media literacy learning often takes place and we examine the evolution of these institutions in a digital world, illuminating the learning opportunities which these developments make possible.
Download Newsletter: -
Publication Date:March, 2011
In 2007, Bennington College President Liz Coleman led a re-structuring of the entire curriculum. With its renewed focus on problem-solving and empowerment, Bennington is joining a growing number of educational institutions which are fashioning a curriculum radically different from what’s been taught in 20th century schools. First, we survey the structure and curriculum at several schools to arrive at an overview of New Curriculum principles. Next, we reveal how media literacy instruction embodies them.
Download Newsletter: -
Publication Date:February, 2011
Advertising sends contradictory messages to young people about food, dieting and fashion. We look at a recent survey regarding teen girls and their attitudes toward media and fashion. We also report on new research from the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media on the representation of women in family films.
Download Newsletter: -
Publication Date:January, 2011
The role that parents play in teaching children about the positive, directed use of new media technologies could not be more critical than it is at this time. In May 2010, the Pew Center for Internet and Society released new information on cyberbullying. Also includes an interview with Anne Collier, editor of NetFamilyNews.org.
Download Newsletter:
