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The Five Key Questions of Media Literacy are the cornerstone of CML's pedagogy, the MediaLit Kit™. This kit is a comprehensive collection of 25 instructional lesson plans (five for each question):

Five Key Questions that can Change the World

The following articles provide background for teaching the questions.

General Articles About The Questions
•    Canada Offers Ten Classroom Approaches to Media Literacy
•    CML Publishes Start-up Curriculum for K-12 Media Literacy
•    Five Key Questions Form Foundation for Media Inquiry
•    How to Conduct a ‘Close Analysis' of a Media ‘Text'
•    How to Use Technology To Make You More Aware And Alive
•    Questioning the Media — Plus Essential Questions for Teachers
•    Video Basics and Production Projects for the Classroom
•    Where Media Literacy Fits in the World of Education
•    Words of Wisdom: Teaching CML's Five Key Questions

KQ#1 Who created this message?
•    Birth of the Sound Bite
•    Camera Always Lies, The
•    CML Pilots Media Literacy Unit for Obesity, Nutrition Education
•    Creating Cosby: The Power of Television
•    How to Analyze an Advertisement
•    Key Question #1: Who created this message?
•    LP #1C / The World in 22 Minutes: Constructing a TV News Lineup
•    LP# 1E Maps and Pictures in our Head
•    Military Doublespeak: How Jargon Turns Gore into Glory
•    When Kids are Watching: Confessions of a SitCom Producer

KQ#2 What techniques are used to attract my attention?
•    Camera Always Lies, The
•    How to Analyze an Advertisement
•    Images of Men in Advertising
•    Key Question #2: What creative techniques are used to attract my attention?
•    LP# 2E 10 Ways to Sell an Idea: The Basics of Persuasion
•    LP# 2A Basic Visual Language I: Three Building Blocks
•    LP# 2B Basic Visual Language II: How to Analyze a Visual Text
•    Military-News Complex: What Determines What We See and Hear
•    Photo Ethics: Aim High When You Shoot
•    Pictures in the Parlor
•    Power of Images: Creating the Myths of Our Time
•    Re-Touching Reality: Can Pictures Lie?
•    Rise of the Image Culture
•    YOUTH: Media Models Say Muscles Make Men

KQ#3 How might different people understand this message differently from me?
•    Decoding 'Dallas' Overseas
•    Defining Media Violence: It's Not so Easy!
•    For 200 Years: Alternative Press Voices Dissident Views
•    Gulf War: The More We Watched, the Less We Knew
•    Key Question #3: How might different people understand this message differently from me?
•    LP# 3B Silent Symbols Speak Loudly: Brands, Icons, and You
•    LP# 3D Ads-R-Us: Understanding Target Marketing
•    LP# 3E Valuing Different Views: Taking a Stand on Media Violence
•    New Heroes for a New Age
•    No Two Countries See the Same Olympics
•    One Journalist's View: Informed Voters Must Reach Beyond Images
•    Photolanguage: Philippines
•    We Are What We Watch: We Watch What We Are
•    When Kids are Watching: Confessions of a SitCom Producer

KQ#4 What lifestyles, values, and points of view are embedded in this message?
•    "...And the Company President Is a Black Woman"
•    Beauty...and the Beast of Advertising
•    CML Pilots Media Literacy Unit for Obesity, Nutrition Education
•    Eve's Legacy: Burden of Blame
•    Filling Gaps in the News
•    Guidelines for Process Reporting
•    How to Conduct a Gender Survey of Your Local Newspaper
•    How to Evaluate Media Images of Women
•    How to Evaluate War Movies
•    Images of Men in Advertising
•    J.R. in Hell: Sin and Salvation on the Small Screen
•    Key Question #4: What lifestyles, values and points of view are represented in, or omitted from, this message?
•    LP# 4E What's Missing? Making Room for Multiple Perspectives
•    LP# 4C Media Stereotypes: How Differences Divide
•    Marketing the Military: Should Soldiering Be Sold Like Soap?
•    Measuring ‘Jolts Per Minute'
•    PASTORING: What Gender is God?
•    Photo Ethics: Aim High When You Shoot
•    Pictures Without Bias
•    War is Hell... Pass the Popcorn

KQ#5 Why was this message sent?
•    Advertising: Hit or Myth?
•    All Power to the Conglomerate
•    From Savers to Spenders: How Children Became a Consumer Market
•    GLOBAL: It's a Small World For Pop Conglomerates
•    Gullible Statistics Exercise
•    How TV Works
•    Key Question #5: Why is this message being sent?
•    Like Money in the Bank: Understanding Media's Investment in Violence
•    LP# 5A Why We Communicate? Three Basic Tasks
•    LP# 5C Hidden Messages: The Growth of Product Placement
•    LP# 5E Power, Persuasion and Propaganda: Exploring Multiple Motives
•    Play Ball/Pay Ball: Money and the Future of Sports
•    Starting Point: My Father was a Salesman
•    The Bribed Soul: Ads, TV and American Culture
•    What are You Worth? Audience for Sale
•    When Creativity Isn't Enough: What Makes Ads go Bad?
•    Women's Magazines Won't Bite the Hands That Feed Them