media education

UConn's Neag School of Education hosts its 6th annual Northeast Media Literacy Conference April 11 2008. The event will see discussions from "an unusually diverse group of innovative leaders and topics in the study of the mass media and its great impact upon today’s young people and their thinking, priorities, decisions, actions, and their values."

In addition to keynote speaches from cultural anthropologist Dr. Michael Wesch and author Anatasia Goodstein, the event offers "twenty timely workshops based on key media literacy related areas – The Role of Today’s Advancing Technology, Mass Media’s Depiction of Today’s Culture and Values, Philosophy and Theory, Standards and Curriculum, Classroom Activities, Research and Evaluation, Teacher Education, and Media Production."

A new initiative to teach youth how to become "citizen journalists" has been launched at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and researchers are asking teachers to share curriculum and project ideas at a Wed., Sept. 26 focus-group dinner in Cambridge starting at 6 p.m. Individuals involved in video, journalism or new-media projects involving youth are welcomed.

The Radio-Television News Directors Foundation (RTNDF) offers high schools teachers and their students a broad spectrum of media support through their outreach program, The High School Journalism Project. Funded by a grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, RTNDF’s High School Journalism Project seeks to identify, inspire, train and challenge the next generation of diverse electronic journalists and First Amendment advocates.

Effective democracy requires equipping with citizens with information, including news, sufficient to make informed decisions at the ballot box and in civic affairs.

The NENF proposes to study the state of "media literacy" curricula in New England middle- and high-schools, then develop new ways for the region's media to engage with schools and students. View a concept draft.

Develop a web-based consumer guide to using and contributing to the news -- in collaboration with regional newspaper, broadcast and journalism organizations and academic departments.

MORE ABOUT THE GUIDE PROJECT