Media Literacy and Consumerism

Media Literacy Grade 5
Teacher Created Resources

This 144-page lesson plan book helps students learn to think critically about the thousands of media messages they encounter each day via art, music, video games, radio, TV, websites, newspapers, magazines, ads, and packaging. Standards-based lessons require students to deconstruct, examine, discuss, and create media messages.

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Don't Buy It: Get Media Smart
PBS Kids

This media literacy website encourages young people to think critically about media and become smart consumers, featuring activities designed to provide the skills and knowledge needed to question, analyze, interpret and evaluate media messages.

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The Lesson Library
Media Awareness Network

This site offers a variety of K-12 lesson plans on topics such as stereotyping, violence, privacy, marketing to children, the portrayal of diversity in the media, and online hate.

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Fast Food Nation
Eric Schlosser 

This 183-page book is an expose of the fast food industry, with a section focusing on how junk food is marketed to youth. 

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Green America

Green America's mission is to harness the strength of consumers, investors, businesses, and the marketplace to create a socially just and environmentally sustainable society. The website includes programs, publications, and action campaigns on topics such as living green, fair trade, climate action, green energy, and socially responsible investing.

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Marketing Power
The American Marketing Association 

This website focuses on marketing, providing a history, best practices, and a code of ethics.

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The Consumer’s Guide to Effective Environmental Choices
Michael Brower and Warren Leon

This 304-page guide, published by the Union of Concerned Scientists, details simple things that people can do to save the planet.

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Adbusters Magazine
Adbusters Media Foundation

This not-for-profit, reader-supported magazine raises awareness about the erosion of the physical and cultural environment by commercial forces. The website includes selected articles and spreads, videos, guidelines for submitting ideas to the magazine, and information about campaigns such as "Buy Nothing Day," "Mental Detox Week," and "True Cost Economics."

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Commercial Alert

Commercial Alert aims to prevent commercial culture from exploiting children and subverting the higher values of family, community, environmental integrity, and democracy. The website includes information on topics such as media violence, childhood obesity, and ads in schools and on school buses, and also features urgent campaigns and action alerts.

Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR) 
 
FAIR is a national media watch group working to invigorate the First Amendment by advocating for greater diversity in the press and by scrutinizing media practices that marginalize public interest, minority, and dissenting viewpoints. By exposing neglected news stories and offering well-documented critiques of media bias, the website encourages people to become media activists rather than passive consumers of news.

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Independent Media Center

IMC is a network of collectively run media outlets offering grassroots, non-corporate news coverage. The website includes features, newswires, and live web radio in different languages from Independent Media Centers around the world.

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