Site of the Week Archive:
Great links to 4+ years of
media literacy education-related Sites of the Week

What was the world like before advertising? Few alive today can answer that question.

Media messages push us to buy things, but we’re already over-consuming the finite resources of this planet. And, corporations have mastered public relations spin so that much of what passes for news programming is actually “under-the-radar” advertising disguised as credible, unbiased reporting. Learning how to spot and deconstruct advertising and p.r. is one of the most important aspects of media literacy education, especially for young people.

Check out these organizations, online resources and business/trade links on these subjects.

Organizations (Educational, non-profit, etc. related to media literacy)

Adbusters Media Foundation Based in Vancouver, B.C., Canada, "we are a global network of artists, activists, writers, pranksters, students, educators and entrepreneurs who want to advance the new social activist movement of the information age." Check out their Spoof Ad Gallery. Adbusters publishes Adbusters magazine and has an advocacy advertising agency. Signup for their email action alert.

Campaign For A Commercial-Free Childhood is a "national coalition of health care professionals, educators, advocacy groups and concerned parents who counter the harmful effects of marketing to children through action, advocacy, education, research, and collaboration."

Center for Media & Democracy An outstanding organization serving social change activists, journalists, researchers, policymakers and the public. Sponsors these projects and much more:

• PR Watch, which investigates and exposes how the public relations industry and other professional propagandists manipulate public information, perceptions and opinion on behalf of governments and special interests. Sign up for the weekly “spin” alert.
• Spin of the Day, which offers web-based daily reporting on public relations, propaganda and media spin.
• SourceWatch, an Internet-based "open content" encyclopedia of people, groups and issues shaping the public agenda.

Center for Media Literacy. This is an educational consulting organization based on the former non-profit of the same name. The company's website still has the excellent CML Reading Room, with excellent articles on issues related to advertising, public relations spin and more.

Center for Science in the Public Interest has the Campaign for Alcohol-Free Sports TV, which seeks to reduce the amount of alcoholic-beverage advertising to underage children and young adults, who tune into televised sports for fun. CSPI's website has many links to research and articles about both alcohol and food advertising, including how children are targeted by junk food companies in schools, stores, home and through the media.

Commercial Alert Founded by Ralph Nader and Gary Ruskin, Commercial Alert's mission is "to keep the commercial culture within its proper sphere, and to prevent it from exploiting children and subverting the higher values of family, community, environmental integrity and democracy." This group does a great job shining the spotlight on egregious corporate attempts to market to children and to commercialize our schools and other public institutions. Be sure to click on the hard-to-tell-they're-links: Culture, Education, Government, and Health. Sign up for their email alerts.

Media Channel is "concerned with the political, cultural and social impacts of the media, large and small. MediaChannel exists to provide information and diverse perspectives and inspire debate, collaboration, action and citizen engagement."

Media Education Foundation. Outstanding videos and DVDs, primarily for older teens, college students and adults. Titles include Advertising and the End of the World, Constructing Public Opinion, Mickey Mouse Monoply, No Logo, The Overspent American and Toxic Sludge is Good for You.

Media Literacy Project (formerly New Mexico Media Literacy Project). Resources, workshops, conferences and training, with a strong focus on advertising. Teaching materials include CD-roms packed with examples of advertising for use in classroom learning.

Online Resources

Media Literacy Clearinghouse. Lots of good material here, with links off the home page (yellow navigation bar on the left) to Advertising, Alcohol Advertising, Celebrities In Ads, Commercialism, Counter Advertising, Credit Card Ads, Drug Ads, Political Advertising, Product Placement, Sports & Advertising, and Tobacco Advertising.

Stay Free!  A print magazine, a blog and other great resources on mass media and consumer culture from Carrie McClaren. Free curriculum materials for high school level.

Business/Trade Links

Advertising Research Foundation. Publishes the Journal of Advertising Research. Some of this group's activities, such as its Youth Council, give good insight into how the industry perceives human beings as laboratory subjects to be examined for how they react to advertising.