“But Miss. Women like to be controlled by their men. It says so in that Mary J Blige song.”
This was an actual comment spoken to Shae at one of her groups this week. Ironically, it was while they were covering media literacy! We therefore thought that this week’s youth work session plan idea should provide some media literacy activities for young people.
What is media literacy?
Before you start running any of these activities, ask your young people “What is media literacy?” To help them define this, split the phrase into its two separate words and get them to define both “media” and “literacy”.
When defining media, get the youth to list all the different types of media they come across – music, TV, movies, newspapers, internet, magazines, billboards, adverts, video games, apps, etc.
Once they’ve defined what “literacy” is, get them to put the two definitions together so that they have a better understanding of the answer to “What is media literacy?”
Next, look at these different types of media and explore some of the messages that they communicate. Have the young people think critically about these messages:
Do they have some kind of bias?
What message are they sending?
Is their message true?
Why might this type of media not tell the truth about a situation?
Do you think they have any ulterior motives
Can you trust this type of media?
Media Literacy Activities – Music
There are all kinds of songs that you could use to explore media literacy. One example we thought might be useful is Poker Face by Lady Gaga, as you can use it to explore the issue of media literacy and sexuality due to the lyric:
And baby when it’s love if it’s not rough it isn’t fun
Ask your youth what message this lyric is sending about sex. Is it true? Go through the other questions listed above.
Media Literacy Activities – Internet
When Shae was doing a lesson on alcohol awareness this week, she told them that contrary to popular belief, alcohol doesn’t make you sleepy. One of the young people responded “That’s wrong – it does make you sleepy. Just check on the internet”.
Although we joke that “you can’t trust what’s on the internet”, to a large extent we do trust what’s on there. Here are a few ideas though of ways you can explore with your young people whether they can trust what’s on the internet:
Facebook status updates of friends
Twitter trends about celebrity deaths
Banner ads that say you’ve won a special prize
Blogs
Wikipedia
Media Literacy Activities – News
In theory, news can fall under all different types of media – internet, TV, newspapers, etc. – so this can be looked at from many different angles.
One suggestion for exploring this issue is using newspapers. Get copies of newspapers that provide a contrast to the political divide. For example, in the US you could use the Wall Street Journal for a right-wing outlook and the New York Time for a left-wing outlook. In the UK, you could use the Telegraph for right-wing and the Guardian for left-wing.
Find a story (preferably with a political slant) that’s reported in both newspapers. Have your young people identify what aspects of the story are the same in the papers and what aspects are different. Are opinions presented as facts? Is there emotive language used to make an argument to the readers?
To generate further conversation, ask your young people what killed Whitney Houston. Many of the early news reports stated that it was due to drug abuse, so this is what’s often believed. The coroner’s report though stated that although cocaine use was a contributing factor to her death, she died from accidental drowning. Ask your youth why news reports were so keen to suggest that her death was due to drug use rather than as an accident.
Media Literacy Activities – Advertising
There are so many examples that you could use with your youth, but here are a couple to get you started:
1) Nutella – There was recently a class action lawsuit against the makers of Nutella, as one of their adverts was deemed to have falsely given the impression that it was more healthy and nutritional than it actually is. I know, a chocolate spread with nuts in it isn’t healthy?! Here’s more about the story with a 2 & 1/2 minute video explaining what happened.
2) Smoking – Looking back, TV ads about smoking were ridiculous but at the time many people believed they were safe/had health benefits. Show the video below to your young people and see what they think about it. Can they think of any adverts nowadays that seem to espouse benefits that they think are untrue?
Media Literacy Activites – Movies
Again, there are all kinds of different movies that you could use to explore the messages that they send. Depending on the issues you’re working on with your young people though, this could be a good opportunity to address the issue of porn and how it affects their perception of sex and relationships.
Do they think porn movies accurately reflect relationships? If working with males, ask them if they think that women like to be treated the way that they are in porn.
Question: What media literacy activities would you run with young people? We’d love to hear your suggestions in the comments below.
Edit: Since publishing this post, it looks like the resources we’ve referred to are no longer available on the Romance Academy website, so we’ve removed the links. Sorry that this means that the session idea isn’t as helpful as it once was.
However, sometimes someone else is doing something so amazingly well, why not share the good work they’re already doing. We’ve mentioned Romance Academy before in a previous session plan idea about talking to teenagers about sex.
The Romance Academy is based in the UK. It’s a 12-week program based on biblical principles, but isn’t Christian in its delivery or content. Here is what makes it distinct from other youth sexual health programs like The Silver Ring Thing.
The Romance Academy has a downloadable session plan resource which introduces you to the Romance Academy program, but also provides a great resource for looking at sex and relationships with young people. If you’re in the UK, check out their academies. If you’re around the world, get in touch with The Romance Academy and try to create some demand for their fantastic services worldwide!
You can also check out their blog for information about teenage sexual health issues and conversation starters with your youth. They recently did a five-post series that was really interesting and informative, even without knowing which TV show it is.
Questions: Have you run a Romance Academy at your program? How did it go? Would you recommend it to others? If you’ve never done a Romance Academy, what other ways do you recommend for creating a session plan about sex and relationships?
I was sat in the bar at the hotel, watching myself on TV. And then it happened.
They left it in?! It wasn’t edited out????
A couple of months before, I’d been a contestant on The Weakest Link. They filmed two or three episodes a day, with them being broadcast a few months later.
I was away on business the day my episode was shown, so I was sat with a colleague in the hotel bar watching expectantly. In case you’re not familiar with the show, the presenter Anne Robinson gives every contestant a hard time, trying to push their buttons to either make them embarrassed or mad.
I went in prepared – or so I thought. Shae and I met on the P.O.D. message boards back in 2003, so I was expecting Anne to grill me about meeting my wife online, as it was before sites like Match.com had taken off. I was all prepared for questions like, “So, did she turn out to be a bow-legged, cross-eyed, sweaty 500 lb man instead of the 23 year old beauty in the photos?” I should be so lucky to get a question like that.
What did she ask me – and what actually got broadcast at 6pm on BBC2 to millions of people in the UK?
“How would you rate the first time with your wife out of 10?”
Yeah, I wasn’t expecting that either!
When working with youth, we have to expect the unexpected – and the embarrassing. Youth – like Anne Robinson – have an uncanny ability to ask questions that can leave you flustered if you’ve not given any thought on how to answer them.
OK, so if they ask you to rate your first time with your husband or wife, it’s obviously fine to explain that it’s not appropriate to discuss that kind of thing with them – it’s important for youth workers to have boundaries. Other questions aren’t so easy to deflect though:
Have you ever smoked?
Have you ever got drunk?
Have you ever done drugs?
Did you have sex before marriage?
Have you ever watched porn?
Have you ever stolen anything?
Have you ever been in a fight?
These are all questions that could easily crop up, so it’s important to consider now how you’d answer them. Young people aren’t dumb – if they ask you a question like these and you reply “Erm…..er…….did you see X Factor last night?”, they’ll know the answer is yes.
Be honest
Youth are more likely to respect what you have to say if you’re real and honest with them. If they ask whether you’ve done drugs and you have, tell them so. You don’t have to glamorize it – the fact that you’ve had this experience can help you guide them away from taking drugs. As you’ve had first-hand experience of taking drugs, you can explain the negative effects with far more authority than others would be able to.
Make it personal
It might feel uncomfortable, but make your experiences personal. Instead of just saying that you stole from your parents, explain the impact and what natural and logical consequences this had – how it took ages to gain back their trust, the punishment you received.
Young people – and adults – often do things without thinking through the consequences. Having these spelled out can help crystallize the reality of what their actions may lead to.
Don’t judge
If a young person asks you a tricky question like those listed above, I can almost guarantee they’ve either done it themselves or are seriously thinking about doing it – that’s why they’re asking. If your answers to the above questions are no, try not to appear judgmental when answering their question.
If they want to know if you had sex before marriage and you reply, “Of course not”, chances are the young person will clam up. You don’t necessarily know what they’ve been through – what happens if they’d been sexually abused and they’d been about to open up about it? Your answer would probably mean they wouldn’t feel safe disclosing the abuse to you, in case you judged them.
So make like a Scout and Be Prepared! Think back through your past to anything that would make you flustered if asked. Work out an honest answer to give if youth ever ask about the situation and how you can use your experience to guide them into making positive choices.
Question: Have you ever had an embarrassing situation like this? How did you deal with it? Let us know in the comments below.
p.s. I’m sure you’re wondering what my reply was to Anne Robinson. I think it was something along the lines of “Um…..er……du……em…….I…..um……..y……..well…….erm…..th………”
I was sat in the bar at the hotel, watching myself on TV. And then it happened.