Contents:

1. What is a Critical Media Literacy activity?
2. Raising Critical Media Literacy (CML) awareness
3. CML activity and project ideas
4. Helpful reminders
5. Multimedia Fairuse Guidelines and Copyright Issues

1. Engaging in a critical media literacy activity can be the described as being one or more of the following:
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1. a critical analysis of a media selection
2. learning about the technical processes of using media tools and constructing media content
3. combining (A) and (B) in order to critically analyze the media as content via the media as tool

2. Raising Critical Media Literacy awareness:
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Some questions that may help to generate discussion:

• What is the media? What types of media do you consume? What types do you not consume? Why?

• How does the media make you feel? Has anything/any information you received from media angered you, made you mad? Made you feel really good?

• Do you feel represented in the media? Do parts of you? Which parts? (e.g. your race, sex, age, talents, strengths, weaknesses, background, ethnicity.)

• Who is visible and who is invisible within the media?

• Are there certain issues or groups of people represented more often than others in the media? If so, why do you think this is the case?

• Do you think the media stereotypes certain people and/or places? If so, who? where? how? Are stereotypes ever helpful? Harmful?

• If you take a piece of media out of historical context and place it into another time period, would it have the same meaning?

• Who owns the media? If it is a business, what other companies and products does this business own? What do you think this means regarding issues of control and power?

3. CML activity and project ideas:
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Suggested projects and activities:

• Make your own videos, radio shows, scrapbooks, magazines, books, newspapers.
• Write your own TV show or re-write an existing TV show (or movie, magazine, newspaper,etc).
  -For example, what would you change or leave the same and why? (i.e. What would you include or exclude if you were to re-write a script?)
• Discuss a TV show, radio segment, video, billboard, newspaper article, or magazine. Bring up issues of gender, race, class, age, disability, and geographical locations.
  -For example, what is this television show saying about gender? What does this mean for society? Who is visible and who is invisible in this text? Who is the text speaking to? What is it saying? How does the text make you feel and why do you think this is?
• Role play talk shows, theatrical scripts, musicals, or commercials.
• Make a collage of political statements, environmental issues, or social problems.
  -For example, cut out words, slogans, or images that are used in political campaigns. What are the messages that the candidates are trying to send?
• Set up a debate.
• Make comparisons of different media forms over a single issue; this can also be done over time.
  - For example, make a timeline highlighting the usage of radio, television, computers, newspapers from the early 1900s to present.

4. Helpful Reminders:
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• Is this topic appropriate to the age and maturity of students?

• Will my students have equal access to the types of media I would like them to research with? If not, are there alternatives I can offer to them?

• How will my students present, share, and/or use their findings?

• What types of materials will I need, and my students need, to carry out this activity?

• Are there copyright issues that may arise? Do I know what the multimedia guidelines and copyright laws are? Do my students?

5. Links to Multimedia Fairuse Guidelines and Copyright Issues...
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• Fairuse & Copyright
• Copyright Issues
• Copyright Clearance Center, Inc. Online
• Potential Pitfalls In Multimedia Media Product Development: Clearning the Necessary Content Rights
• NetLaw - USA
• SOFWeb - Using the Internet