Media Literacy Websites

Compiled by Diana Satin

Unless otherwise indicated, all sites are at a high level of English.

About-Face
http://www.about-face.org/
A site focused on the impact mass media has on the physical, mental, and emotional well being of women and girls. Highlights include galleries of offensive and positive ads; a forum for posting essays, projects, and having discussions; resources for parents and teachers; tips on how to hold companies accountable; fact sheets, book lists, and links.

Adbusters Culture Jammers Headquarters
http://www.adbusters.org/
Adbusters produces a print and Internet magazine with articles, spoof ads, and "uncommercials" on fashion, tobacco, alcohol, food, and other areas. They offer a guide to creating your own spoof ad. You can view their material on this site and learn how to get involved in their campaigns.

American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) Video and Film Library http://www.afsc.org/nero/nevlib.htm
The AFSC houses a collection of 900 videos and slide shows on peace and social justice issues. They lend videos across the United States. Borrowing fees for classroom use range from $15 - $20 (plus shipping, if applicable). A complete catalogue of holdings is available online.

Center for Commercial-Free Public Education
http://www.commercialfree.org/
This site has pages on Commercialism in the Schools, including The School Tour, an interactive page to see where advertising infiltrates schools. The section called Take Action! describes ways to get involved in the fight against such infiltration.

Center for Media Literacy
http://www.medialit.org
The Center is a clearinghouse on media literacy resources and teaching materials. You can search their extensive catalogue and order materials online.

Center for Research on the Effects of Television-CRE TV
http://www.ithaca.edu/cretv/
Ithaca College and Cornell University support this project of archived videotaped samples of television programming since 1983. They will assist people interested in researching the samples, either by doing a requested study or by copying samples appropriate to the topic for those interested in doing their own study. Contact them regarding fees.

Dads and Daughters
http://www.dadsanddaughters.org
DADs provides tools to strengthen fathers' relationships with their daughters and to transform the pervasive messages that value our daughters more for how they look than who they are. This site offers many ways to become actively involved in monitoring media and campaigns.

FAIR (Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting)
http://www.fair.org/
FAIR uncovers and publicizes bias and censorship in the media. They work towards representation of the variety of voices that exist in the public and which are omitted from the media. The Activism section has numerous resources, including FAIR's Media Activism Kit, FAIR's media contact list, and Challenging Hate Radio: A Guide for Activists. The FAIR bookstore has books, audiotapes, and videotapes.

Hype: Monitoring the Black Image in the Media
http://pan.afrikan.net/hype/cover1.html
This site of the Center on Blacks and the Media studies and reports on portrayal of African-Americans in different forms of media, and offers resources, including many links, to empower the Black community and others to critically think about media.

Media Awareness Network - English Home Page
http://www.media-awareness.ca/eng/ In French: http://www.media-awareness.ca/fre/ Parents, educators, and students will find resources and useful links on this excellent, comprehensive site. Resources include lesson and unit ideas, discussion groups, suggested books, videos, and speakers. Though aimed at the K-12 community, much of this material can be adapted for use in adult education.

Media Channel
http://www.mediachannel.org
MediaChannel.org analyzes global media issues. The site offers special reports organized by theme, action toolkits, online discussion groups, and links to hundreds of similar groups and a search engine "constituting the single largest online media-issues database."

Media Education Foundation
http://www.mediaed.org/
The MEF produces many videos within the subtopics of media: gender and culture, race diversity and representation, commercialism, globalization and media, and skills, literacies and strategies. There are study guides for several of the films, which can be downloaded with no charge. Video list, ordering, and previewing information is available on their Web site and in a catalogue.

Media Literacy Online Project
http://interact.uoregon.edu/MediaLit/HomePage
There are extensive resources on this site, including links to other media literacy organizations, professional collaboration discussion groups, events, readings, contact information to the media industry, and a Parents Corner. Section A includes Teachers Desk, links to Lesson Plans and Course Syllabi, Instructional Media, and other related resources. K-12, but many lessons are useable/adaptable for adult students.

National Institute on Media and the Family
http://www.mediafamily.org/
Offers resources for families and educators including: resource kits, fact sheets, monthly activities and quizzes, even a searchable rating system tool to help decide if a TV program is appropriate for you child. Also available are a list of Web resources for parents, educators, and kids, and a Research Library section on research findings.

National Organization for Women's Digital TV Project http://www.nowfoundation.org/communications/tv/
This is a group that organizes for more responsiveness from media corporations to public needs. It also advocates for inclusion of the feminist viewpoint in the media, and works to take charge of the way women are portrayed and the ideas they can express in the media.

New York Times on the Web Learning Network Teacher Connections http://www.nytimes.com/learning/teachers/lessons/mediastudies.html
Daily lesson plans are currently available for grades 6-12, but some have aspects that could be used with adults who are at lower grade level equivalents.

PBS TeacherSource
http://www.pbs.org/teachersource/
Here you can find many lesson plans and PBS resources related to media literacy. Click on Search and then type in "media literacy" in the keyword search box.

Scanning the Movies
http://www.bravo.ca/events/scanningthemovies/
Bravo Canada, the cable TV company, posts study guides to accompany movies, mostly modern. The guides are written by a curriculum consultant with the Toronto District School Board who is also a speaker and consultant in media and communications technology.

Stay Free!
http://ftp.oit.unc.edu/stayfree/
Stay Free! is a magazine that addresses topics related to commercialism and American culture. Several issues are online, as well as a discussion board.

Diana Satin teaches ESL and computers/ESL at the Jamaica Plain Community Center's Adult Learning Program in Boston, MA.

New England Literacy Resource Center
44 Farnsworth Street Boston, MA 02210
(617) 482-9485

Updated 10/01 Questions, comments, or problems please contact Steve Quann