Media’s Portrayal of Father Figures

June 15, 2017 Update for Father's Day 2017! Author of  "All In," Josh Levs, offers this worthwhile related feature via MediaShift.org titled "An Online Battle to Correct the Media About Dads." He also created a handy mythbusting interactive "tool" shining light on facts vs fiction in the pop culture public arena of advertising and entertainment. Clearly dads are NOT "tools" … [Read more...]

Spider-Man 3: Web of Influence In Kid-Culture

There are plenty of spins on the Spider-Man 3 record-breaking $382 million worldwide “priciest movie ever made" buzz...so I’m going to take a deconstructionist view about summer box office biggies, and look at the impact of media hype-fests on kids. Not pickin’ on Spidey, here; haven’t even seen the flick yet, I’m talking about a global web … [Read more...]

Youth Culture Clash: When Parody Strikes & Adults Freeze

Keeping my finger on ‘whassup’ in youth culture can lead to ‘life’s most embarrassing moments’ in a keystroke. Case in point? I stay apprised with what’s circulating the net using a handy tool called Top Viral Videos to see what’s clicking through with 6 million viewers and such. Einstein, the amazing talking bird and sweet otters … [Read more...]

Food For Thought: Media to Digest for Healthier Kids

March is National Nutrition Month, so Shaping Youth is adding to the ADA's Eat Right web resources with some fun and worthy positive picks in food media to share with your kids, boost their media literacy IQ, and counter-market the cartoon pitches for empty calorie crud. Here goes: I've always loved the SmartMouth interactive site for kids, but my new discovery is the U.K.'s … [Read more...]

7 clues to a New Year’s riddle for the 7th year of 2000

This landed in my e-mail from some pals of mine, and it seems worthy to toss out there to get kids thinking along these lines and open up some dialogue. Yes, I’m being ambiguous on purpose so I won’t spoil the fun. To challenge yourself, write down your guess after reading each clue; then, after reading all the clues, see which (if any) of your guesses is … [Read more...]