Media Mindfulness

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5g8cmWZOX8Q

Not to belabor the point, but sometimes adults could use a good metaphorical spanking. Watch and listen as this child speaks from the heart about state of the world to a UN panel of so-called grown-ups.

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Anastasia Goodstein of YPulse and author of Totally Wired refers to a great article in Wired about how some classrooms are getting smart about incorporating online social networks rather than resisting them. At the center of this paradigm shift is an interesting software package, Elgg. I think the idea of a DIY social network […]

As the horrible tragedy in Virginia unfolds, we as media watchers must immediately guard against the tendency of the pundocracy to use this as anecdotal evidence for their various causes, especially those who demonize youth. MSNBC.com has a really good article on the ten myths about school shootings. Please read it via the link below. […]

I hope this is one Japanese trend that doesn’t catch on.
Advertising Age - Martin Lindstrom Video Reports:
TOKYO (BRANDFlash) — Kidzania, a theme park offering intense brand engagement with young children, is a new twist on branded entertainment. It charges a $30 admission fee to allow children to “work” in one of 70 different kinds of […]

USA writes about an interesting new youth media phenomenon: age compression. The article states:
Jill Brown almost cried the day her 9-year-old daughter sold several American Girl dolls at a yard sale so she could buy a Juicy Couture sweat suit.
It was a painful reminder that the emotional and psychological distance between childhood and the teen […]

Ciao! I though I’d alert all the readers out there that I have a new article posted on Understanding Media about the issue of “authenticity” and youth marketing. The site also has a short interview that explains a little bit about where my perspective comes from. Here’s a snip:
Understand Media -> Articles -> The […]

It’s no wonder that obesity and diabetes are growing so fast in the US:
* 34% of All Food Ads Targeting Children or Teens Are for Candy and Snacks
* Half of All Ads Shown During Children’s Shows Are for Food

New Study Finds That Food Is the Top Product Seen Advertised by Children - Kaiser Family Foundation:
New […]

Using the term digital ethnorati, Steve Wilmarth from The Center for 21st Century Skills presented at South By Southwest (SXSW) Festival in Austin. Here is a Flickr slide link to his interesting Digital Ethnorati panel presentation.
Also, check out AfroGeeks.

Technorati Tags: afrogeeks

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mldqfN7XCOk

Sometimes you can feel an idea in the air and grab it. Before Wired came out with it’s Media Snack Attack, one visionary educator in the UK had already thought of the concept. He observed that youth were like media snackers and went on to create an innovative training around this idea. The website is […]

For those of you interested in the media impact on kids, you can check out this streaming video talk by Sarah Banet-Weiser, ‘Kids Only: Nickelodeon, Youth & Citizenship.’ You may want to check out her up-coming edited volume, “Cable Visions: Television Beyond Broadcasting” (New York University Press).
UWTV Program: Kids Only: Nickelodeon, Youth and Citizenship:
USC Annenberg […]

Yet again the new cultural practices of kids are getting demonized by left and right. Geeze, adults can be so lame sometimes. One article in particularly really got under my skin, “Mirror, Mirror on the Web” by Lakshmi Chaudhry. She thinks kids are too narcissistic. This is how I responded in my letter to The […]

For all you youth media educators, I wanted to give you a heads-up on this terrific article that reviews many really good resources ranging from theory to practice. This is a primer that we’ll be referencing quite often (click the link for the full article).
Youth Media Reporter: The Ultimate Bookshelf for a Youth Media Educator:
Over […]

newsobserver.com | His sister in danger, 4-year-old plays hero.
A few weeks ago this story caught my attention. It’s about a four-year-old boy named Stevie Long who foiled a robbery by dressing as a Power Ranger and scarring of the attackers in his home with a plastic sword. It got me thinking about some of the […]

United Press International - Consumer Health - Media-savvy teens less likely to smoke:
PITTSBURGH, Oct. 9 (UPI) — Teens who are savvier about the motives and methods of advertisers may be less inclined to smoke cigarettes, finds a U.S. study.
Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine say thousands of adolescents each day are lured […]

As a mentor (no, not a member of that gawd-awful trash metal band of the ’80s who wore executioner hoods when performing live), I work with youth to guide and support their media activism. (You can read about it in the article I wrote in Clamor Magazine called, “School of (Punk) Rock.”) I hear many […]

Mark your calendars. It’s also on my 40th B-day!