Inspiring Youth Through Media Literacy & Diversity Awareness

1. The Youth & Mentors Curriculum:A Successful Pilot Program in Teaching Critical Media Skills, Bullying Prevention, Diversity Appreciation, and Leadership Skills for Diverse Middle School Students

2. Lynne Azarchi Executive Director, Kidsbridge Tolerance Museum SPECTRUM DIVERSITY LLC Paula C. Rodríguez Rust, PhD Sociologist, Diversity Educator

3. Kidsbridge Tolerance Museum- • Mission and History • Only youth dedicated tolerance museum on college campus in the US • Created in 2006, serves 1500 youth/yr. • Pedagogy – small group discussions with college students as docents • Mission- character ed, diversity appreciation and media lit • Outcomes – statistically significant improvements in empathy, stereotype knowledge and aspiration to college

4. The Youth & Mentor Program • Three Core Topics: • Media Literacy • Cyber Bullying • Diversity Awareness • Structure: • 100 students from 4 middle schools participated; two located in socioeconomically privileged areas, and two located in socioeconomically disadvantaged areas • Schools paired across socioeconomic lines • Each pair of schools visited the museum twice / eight contact hours • Students rotated through multiple activities in small groups • Activities led by docents • Each small group contained 2-4 students from each school, so students worked in small groups with students from schools that differed socioeconomically from their own. • See Pages 1 and 2 of your handout

5. Procedure Details are provided on page 3 of your handout, where a number of the activities included in the media literacy phase of the Y&M program are described. See page 4 of your handout for the Action Plan that students completed at the end of their participation in the Youth & Mentor Program. In our presentation today, we will be focusing on five of the many activities the students engaged in during the Youth & Mentor program, time permitting

6. Focus Today on Five Activities • Video Clips. Use of video clips from popular shows to examine the role and effects of the use of violence and stereotypes in media messages • Media Statistics. Use of statistics on media usage, to improve math literacy, develop skills to critically consume statistics, and recognize the distinction between generalizations and stereotypes. • Even the News Spins. Use of news reports about a series of assaults in Denver to illustrate that media messages—even news reports—reflect different perspectives or “spin,” and cannot be taken at face value as unadulterated fact. • Bystander Empowerment. Variation on the “which side of the line are you on?” group participation activity, with enhancements to empower students as active bystanders when they witness bullying or prejudice • Social Class Stereotypes. Examination of stereotypes, using the “rich/poor” distinction, thereby asking students to examine, in groups composed of socioeconomically diverse peers, their own stereotypes of each other.

7. Video Clips: • Violence and Stereotypes in the Media • See handout pages 5 and 6 for complete docent instructions for conducting this activity with students. • First, to raise the issue of violence in the media, students were asked to: • List their favorite TV shows • Discuss why they found these shows attractive • Docents used guided questions to elicit the realization that many shows are attractive to viewers because of the violence they contain; often, these guided questions were unnecessary as the students promptly volunteered that violence was an attraction. • Read the abstract effects of warning and information labels on attraction to television (See Handout Page 7) • Critically examine the attraction of violence in the media.

8. Video Clips: • Violence and Stereotypes in the Media • Then, students viewed several video clips from popular TV shows, and were asked to discuss questions, including the following: • What examples of violence or stereotypy do you see in these video clips? • How is violence and stereotypy used to get your attention or to communicate messages to you? • Why do we laugh when people get hurt? • How are stereotypes used to dehumanize someone so that it is OK to laugh at them, or to be violent against them? • How is violence in cartoons different than violence between real actors? Is this violence less—or more—harmful? • What would happen if the acts of violence in these clips happened in real life? What are the consequences of violence in the clips?

9. America’s Funniest Home Videos

10. America’s Funniest Home Videos

11. American Idol

12. American Idol

13. South Park “Gingervitis”

14. South Park “Gingervitis”

15. Video Clips: • Violence and Stereotypes in the Media • Following the South Park clip, students discuss the role of violence in cartoons. • Student invariably comment that objecting to violence in cartoons is “silly” because it is “just a cartoon.” • At this point, students are asked to read the article “Ginger attacks at Calabasas School.” (Handout page 8) • Students are then asked to reconsider the influence of violence in cartoons, and the influence of violence in the media generally.

16. Media Statistics • Students are shown “How Does Generation M Spend Its Time?” (Page 9 of your handout) • Keep in mind that students are in small groups, composed of students from diverse socioeconomic areas and diverse racial/ethnic backgrounds. • Students were asked to look at the statistics and consider questions such as: • Do these statistics describe you? (e.g., do you watch 3:04 hours of TV a day? Explore concept of an average, distinguish concept of group average from individual behavior • Look at the racial differences in music preferences. Do you believe these differences? Do they describe you? Explore the distinction between a generalization which acknowledges human diversity, and a stereotype, which denies human individuality.

17. Assaults in Denver: Even the News Spins • Students read several articles from different news sources about a series of assaults that occurred in Denver. • Three of these articles are on pages 10-12 of your Handout. • The articles give very different perspectives on the attacks. The articles would leave readers with very different views of the crimes, including different understandings of why the crimes were happening, who was at fault, and who was at risk. • “Gang members targeted white victims in Denver attacks” – Assaults are described as racially motivated, “black on white” attacks arising out of racial hatred (fact that victims included Latinos not even mentioned!) • “Reports show downtown assaults were racially motivated” – Despite title, this report highlights the gang involvement, and implies that the assaults are primarily a turf war between rival gangs. • “Denver arrests may be part of trend…” notes that the attacks were videotaped, and indicates that the attacks are part of a national trend in violence for the sake of producing video clips.

18. Bystander Empowerment • A Variation on • “Which side of the Line Are You on? • Time permitting, this activity will be presented as an audience-participation activity.

19. Social Class Stereotypes • Time permitting, this activity will be presented as an audience-participation activity.

20. Pre & Post Assessment Results: Evidence of Effectiveness

21. Thank You