• Announcing Media Construction of Presidential Campaigns
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• Action Item of the Month

Announcing Media Construction of Presidential Campaigns!

CML is proud to work with Ithaca College's Project Look Sharp to bring Media Construction of Presidential Campaigns to you right at the time it is needed. As school gets underway, nothing could be more important than the upcoming election. This exciting new classroom resource brings the history of presidential elections to life in an interactive document-based multimedia kit for integrating critical thinking and media literacy.


• Unique, interactive approach to American history and presidential elections
  
  
• Reinforces both critical thinking and media literacy skills throughout the middle and high school (and college!) U.S. history curriculum
  
  
• The kit provides teachers with what they need to engage in classroom analysis of 146 campaign documents from 26 elections between 1800-2000.
  
  
• Packed with original documents such as the song lyrics to Happy Days Are Here Again from FDR's 1932 campaign and web site comparisons between the Gore and Bush campaigns from the 2000 campaign, all with lesson plans that provide a unique interactive approach to American history and campaigning.
  
  
• Produced by the gifted teachers at Project Look Sharp
  
  



"Media Construction of Presidential Campaigns is a brilliant teaching tool that empowers students to understand how our electoral system actually works in the era of big media. Very professional and engaging, this is media literacy at its very best and should be mandatory in classrooms across the nation."
—Robert W. McChesney, author, The Problem of the Media


Also from Project Look Sharp is a Media Construction of War: A Critical Reading of History. Through an examination of Newsweek covers, this product explores media coverage of the Vietnam War, the Persian Gulf war, and the war in Afghanistan. This excellent high school curriculum is aligned to social studies standards and provides assessments and analysis skills through document based-questioning. Combines visual literacy, critical thinking and core social studies content.

Find out about other new resources in the latest New For You!

CLASSROOM CONNECTIONS

Special Election Focus! Lesson plans and resources help to bring the discussion of the role of media in campaigning and elections to the classroom. The New York Times and Bank Street College have produced a series of lesson plans that explore the role of media in campaigns using New York Times articles as resources.
• "Bush Re-Election Campaign Revisited: Comparing the Presidential Campaigns of 1992 and 2004"
• "Hollywood Candidate: Creating Biographical Films for Current Political Candidates' Campaigns"
• "Fighting Fire with Satire: Examining the Political Humor of "Fake News"
• "Making Headlines: Examining Journalism Through the Eyes of Campaign Politics"
• "It's an Ad Eats Ad World: Creating Presidential Campaign Advertisements"


Another lesson looks at "The Recognition of Advertising Propaganda Techniques" (Social Education, NCSS, September 2002).

To go along with these lessons, CML has identified a number of election related resources in our online catalog:

Teaching resources related to this lesson are:
• The Living Room Campaign: Video exploring how political TV ads have transformed American politics. Includes a wealth of historical and contemporary campaign commercials.
• The Spot (3rd Edition): Delves behind the scenes to reveal the creation and execution of the political spot. Includes actual scripts of famous spots since Eisenhower.
• Celebrity-in-Chief: How Show Business Took Over the White House: Accessible politics and media history goes beyond gossip to explore the symbiotic influence of Hollywood on Washington -- and vice versa.
• The Press Effect: Politicians, Journalists, and the Stories That Shape the Political World: An insightful analysis of political "spin" and how it shapes both news coverage and the events themselves.
• Democracy and the News: Insightful exploration of the "decline" of critical news analysis in the US, including thoughtful suggestions for a "healthier" news media and a more informed citizenry.
• The Making of Citizens: A fascinating study examining young people's interpretations of news.
• We Interrupt This Broadcast: Updated hardcover book and two audio CD's covers 43 historical events. A great primary resource!

October 11: Deadline for proposals for the 2005 National Media Education Conference, sponsored by Association for a Media Literate America, in San Francisco! Submit proposals in order to share and showcase your work with others in the field. Plan now to attend this extraordinary conference to see what's new and what others are doing. June 25-28 - put it on your calendar AND in your budget - now. To find out more about the conference including the proposal form, visit the newly updated AMLA web site - online all the time.

October 14-15: Project Look Sharp's "Literacy in a Media Age: Integrating Critical Thinking and Media Production across the K-12 Curriculum" conference with workshops on "Media Literacy and Presidential Campaigns" and "Media Construction of War." For more information on the conference, visit http://www.ithaca.edu/looksharp/.

November 19-21: National Council for the Social Studies Annual Conference, Democracy and Diversity: Social Studies in Action. If you plan to attend the conference, don't miss the media literacy sessions including the pre-conference workshop on "Integrating Media Literacy and Critical Thinking into K-12 Social Studies" by Cyndy Scheibe and Chris Sperry of Project Look Sharp and sessions on "Presidential Elections through Media Documents in American History" and "Media and the Middle East."

ACTION ITEM OF THE MONTH

Ask students to assess the media coverage of the Presidential campaign and local campaign in their local media. Suggest that they make a list of issues that are of interest to them (such as after school programs, concerns about the war and terrorism) and rate how the different politicians do in addressing their concerns.

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