Help your students think critically about how media-induced fears and anxieties provide fertile ground for intolerance, and extremism.
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These questions can be used in different ways: as guideposts for class discussion, as a framework for smaller group discussion and presentations, or as self-standing, in-class writing assignments.
These exercises enable students to reflect on their media use and how media affects their worldview.
Lenore Skenazy
Author of Free-Range Kids
"I thought I knew all about how come parents today are so much more afraid than a generation ago. Then I watched The Mean World Syndrome and was blown away! Suddenly all the pieces fit together: Media. Money. Parents. Paranoia. I made my husband come sit and watch with me, it so rocked my world. And I'd like everyone else to watch it, too!"
Jack David Eller
Anthropology Review Database
"This smart and timely film explores the life and work of media and communications scholar George Gerbner, who linked media violence to the production of a cultural narrative and mythology and of the perception of a mean world in which people think and act in mean ways."
Take a look at one night of primetime television on the 24-hour news channels –CNN, FOX News, MSNBC, HLN and others. Track down the transcripts of these programs on Lexis Nexis to create a list of all the specific stories that aired in one night. Break your list into three columns – stories that you think have a positive effect on viewers, stories that you think have a neutral effect, and stories that you think add to general anxiety and fear. Write a response paper based on what you find and how it ties in to Gerbner’s analysis. What do you think would be some of the effects on your life if you watched these programs every night?
We hope you find this free resource useful for helping to start and guide meaningful discussions and open-ended conversation. The guide contains:
Section summaries & key points
Discussion questions
Sample assignments
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