The focus of this lesson is to help students understand the impact that of the media in shaping one's intellectual and emotional responses. Students explore this central idea as they look at broadcast and web-based news sites to discern subtexts conveyed through the use of language, audio, and visual elements. Students also explore how experts view the media's impact on young minds. Ultimately, students will manipulate these elements themselves to create their own homepages. Resources, including links to related sites and downloadable activity sheets, are available at the website. (author/ncl)

Career-technical field classes in Arts and Communication, Marketing, and Human Services can use this lesson as an integrated project focused on the development of literacy skills. The lesson's information be used as a basis for writing, debating, and drawing conclusions about the effects of the media on children and society. Possible projects include creating child-friendly newspapers and web pages. Human Services students preparing for careers in Early Childhood Education pathway and Education and Training students can research violence in the media and the effect violence has on children. A homepage analysis tool for web sites is included. Working with their teacher, students can develop rubrics specific to evaluating media based on criteria important to the goals of their integrated project. (dam)