Archive for February, 2008

Starting Today: New York International Children’s Film Festival

Friday, February 29th, 2008

For the next three weekends (2/29-3/16), be sure to check out the New York International Children’s Film Festival, showcasing original films from all over the world.  Some films are shorts, some are full-length; some are animated, others are live action; some are for toddlers, others for teens.  If you’re looking for something fun to do with your kids, this is a great option–it’s high-caliber work that parents will enjoy just as much as their young ones.  You can also browse films by age group to find what’s appropriate for your family.  Films are shown at various locations in Manhattan, and tickets can be purchased online.

Don’t miss this opportunity to make media a family affair!

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Google, Common and Two Great Contests

Wednesday, February 27th, 2008

It’s not often that contests come along where the winning prize includes making a positive difference, but right now there are two just like that which we think all kids, parents and educators should know about.

You know how when you visit Google on various holidays, they’ve done something really fun with their logo to commemorate the occasion?  With their contest, Doodle 4 Google, kids from kindergarten through 12th grade are invited to have some fun with their logo using the open-ended theme of, “What if…?”.  A panel of judges will pick 40 of their favorites, and then the general public votes for 4 national finalists, and one overall winner is selected from that group.  The school attended by the student with the winning entry will win a $25,000 grant towards the establishment or improvement of a computer lab, while the individual winner will receive a $10,000 college scholarship, a laptop, a trip to the Googleplex and a t-shirt with their drawing printed on it.  The folks at Google have even come up with ways to incorporate their contest into existing lesson plans for all age groups.  If your school, or your child’s school, is not yet participating, you have until March 28th to register.  Be sure to visit the contest’s website for details.

Grammy-winning artist Common is at the front of a contest with MTV’s It’s Your [Sex] Life campaign.  The contest, called A:Minute, asks anyone between the ages of 13 and 25 to write one minute of original lyrics in any musical style about why people should get tested for HIV.  Common will then perform the winning lyrics on all MTV networks.  In addition to MTV, the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Common Ground Foundation are also sponsoring the contest.  Lyrics can be submitted by video, audio or in writing, but they have to be in by midnight on March 27–exactly one month from today.

Well, what are you waiting for?  Pick up those markers, paper, pens, crayons, mics and cameras and get going!

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The Google Generation

Thursday, February 21st, 2008

A new study has been released by the CIBER center, a think-tank with the University College of London, which suggests that the “Google generation” does not know how to search the web.  Defined as anyone born after 1993 and therefore having little to no knowledge of a world without Internet, the Google generation seems to lack the critical and analytical skills needed to perform research.  The increased access to technology has not kept pace with increased teaching of how to challenge information find on the web, nor with effective teaching of how to best use search engines.  It seems that even though young people may know how to speak the language of the Internet, that doesn’t mean they really understand it.

The study is important because it asserts the need for and importance of media literacy.  It tells us that information is absorbed but not necessarily processed–clearly problematic since the ability to gather and use data and research is a key component of the learning process.

If you haven’t done so already, please sign up your child for one of our media literacy classes (see ‘Programs’ at the top of the page).  Also, be sure to check out our workshop called On the Web, which is targeted to adults who want to learn more about the Internet.  Media literacy is important for the younger generation, but it’s also important for the adults who raise them.

Click here for an article about the study.

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New videos posted on our YouTube channel!

Sunday, February 17th, 2008

New videos from our Pilot Program workshops are now available to view on our YouTube channel.  Click here to see our students in action, and don’t forget to hit ‘Subscribe’ when you visit!

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Sarkozy’s Ban

Thursday, February 14th, 2008

Back in January, French President Nicolas Sarkozy announced a ban on advertising on 4 state-run television networks.  He says he’s doing this for a “cultural revolution in public broadcasting,” and essentially wants to move closer to the ad-free model used by Britain’s BBC.  To make up for the  roughly 800 million euros of advertising which would be transferred from the public to the private sector, private stations will be taxed to support their public counterparts.  However, critics allege that his plan serves only to benefit his friends in the private television sector, based on the general assumption that shares in public TV stations will go down when they can’t gain revenue from ads (indeed, shares in France’s two largest commercial broadcasters went up the same day as his announcement).  He’s being compared to former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi who kept media on a tight leash during his reign, and even before this decision one of Sarkozy’s nicknames was “Telepresident.”

So what does this have to do with us?  We’re writing on this now because French public radio/television workers went on a 24-hour strike yesterday in protest of Sarkozy’s ban, but it’s also a good time to check in about what exactly ads are for: revenue.  A world without advertising would not necessarily be a good thing!  Entertainment is a very important part of our popular culture, and it is largely fueled by advertising.  Sure, advertisers do a lot of things to make us want something, or even suddenly think we need something, but with media literacy you can make smart choices.  An educated consumer is a good consumer–and we are all, adults and children, consumers.  In my opinion, banning advertising creates more problems than it solves (see our earlier post about this).  The real answer is to understand the media around us.

One way you can do this is to sign up for our workshops starting this month at the Prospect Park Y.  Choose ‘Programs’ from the menu above for exact dates and times, and email info@thelampnyc.org to register.  Even if your child has taken a class before, he or she will undoubtedly learn something new the second time!

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Findings from the Geena Davis Institute

Friday, February 8th, 2008

When you turn on the TV, watch a movie or play a video game, you can be sure that at least one thing will happen: the male or female gender will be represented.  As such, it’s important for you and your children or students to understand that the way women and men are presented on screen is not always truthful, but instead they’re seeing something highly conceptual.

For example, the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media released an overview of their findings today that males outnumber females at the rate of almost 3 to 1 in films.  It should come as no surprise they found that women were far more likely than men to be hypersexualized in kid-targeted media. However, it is also worth noting their findings regarding the portrayal of men in animated media, specifically the frequency with which men are drawn as having unusually large chests or having an impossibly muscularized body.

Their statistics happen to come out at the same time that Guy Trebay of the New York Times published an article about male models getting thinner and thinner.  (You’d think the media could at least stay on message–which is it, should men be skinny or ripped with muscles?)  Of course, none of this renders the issue of skeletal female models any less urgent, but it serves as a good reminder that both boys and girls are receiving conflicting messages telling them how they “should” look.  For a mildly humorous example of just how conflicted these messages can be, check out this piece about CosmoGirl’s latest attempt at being responsible.

Take some time to sit down with your children and students, and talk to them about what they see.  It’s unrealistic to expect them to never watch another movie, but help them understand the difference between air-brushed entertainment and healthy men and women.

(For tips from Commonsensemedia.org on how to take an active role in your child’s media habits, click here.)

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Kids and Advertising

Thursday, February 7th, 2008

Given the recent posting about the Target ad, the recent discussion on the Park Slope Parents website about kids and commercials, and our upcoming LAMP workshop, “Make a Commercial/Break a Commercial,” for 7-10 year olds, I thought it would be a good idea to say a little something about advertising.

An ongoing concern for many adults, mostly parents, advertising is considered by many to be one of the evils of our commercial media system because of its potential effects on children.

There are lots of things to talk about when talking about ads on TV:

  • how they represent females and people of different ethnicities;
  • how they encourage junk food habits;
  • the subtleties of product placement in television programming that “naturalize” brand names within narratives, etc.

All of these are worth discussing at length.

Some parents try to avoid these issues by banning television altogether, or at least commercial television.  While each family has its rules and its reasons, something I encourage is watching commercials with children (of all ages, though there is some evidence that children 5 and under can’t readily distinguish commercials from other types of programming on TV).  When you watch commercials with children you have a great opportunity to critique the methods of persuasion being used, especially in commercials aimed at them.

Images, sounds and words are used in incredible combinations to attract and excite children about toys, food and lots of other goods and services.  By watching together and talking about why some commercials are appealing,  adults are given a chance to sharpen their own critical thinking skills, and children are given a terrific opportunity to learn from the adults around them.

And let’s face it, kids are surrounded by advertising everywhere, so even if they aren’t watching commercials, they’re exposed to advertising in all kinds of other places, indoors and out.  It’s best to give them sharp skills early.  With an adult’s help, TV can be a good teaching aid for kids.

Recently, Bob McChesney, a leading media scholar, interviewed Sut Jhally, founder of the Media Education Foundation, about children and commercialization.  The discussion is about the larger issue of what it means to grow up in a commercialized world.

You can hear the radio interview at: http://www.will.uiuc.edu/media/mediamatters080106.mp3

And register your child for our Make a Commercial/Break a Commercial workshop at the Park Slope YMCA for 7-10 year olds, starting Monday, March 24th.

Katherine

Education Director, The LAMP

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Super Tuesday

Tuesday, February 5th, 2008

As we await the final results of tonight’s expansive Presidential Primary, we thought it would be good to remind you (and perhaps show you how much they are in tune with the general pulse of the nation) who kids picked as the nominees for each major party.

Linda Ellerbee (an Advisory Board member for The LAMP) has put together a fantastic website over at Nickelodeon. In voting that concluded on January 18th, over 80,000 kids have chosen Barack Obama (D) and John McCain (R) as their respective party’s presidential nominee.

We here at The LAMP are excited to see just how much this reflects how the registered voters end up deciding. Make sure you keep checking in with Nick’s ‘Kids’ Pick the President’ as they will continue to run features that involve and excite our youth in this crucial part of our political process.

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