Purpose:

• to increase student awareness of bias in the media
• to familiarize students with different media activism strategies
• to empower students to take an active role in changing the media

Activities:

1. Read "Watchdogs and Advocacy Groups."

2. Have students research the following media watchdog groups and decide which one they agree most with. If students do not agree with any of the groups listed here, they may investigate other advocacy groups.
   • FAIR
   • Project Censored
   • Adbusters
   • AIM
   • NCTVV

3. Form groups according to which activist group the students are interested in.

4. Thoroughly research the organization, paying attention to the issues they support and their activism strategies.

5. Pick a media issue that needs to be addressed and raise awareness about it using the same strategies as the organization you chose. For example, if a student picked an issue supported by AIM, they could write a newspaper column or radio script about it.

Questions? Comments? Post them to the Teacher's BBS.