Passages 11

Web Links

Unit 4 Media Mix

New Forms of Advertising (three articles by various authors)

• Glossary of Media Terms
  Encourage students to visit this site at the beginning of the unit to become familiar with the media terms it lists.
• Commercial Alert
  This is the official Web site of Commercial Alert. Students can write an essay about whether consumer-watch groups are important.
• Get a Life
  On this Web page, by clicking the "next" button, your students can read a comic book (25 frames) that encourages them to be critical of the media. The comic book, designed for teenagers, is about the airing of Channel 1 News in classrooms across the United States. The comic raises several issues and will provoke good discussion about what students expect from TV, and what advertisers want from consumers. Encourage students to consider how the artists have used text and graphics effectively to deliver a message.
• Adbusters
  Encourage students to visit the Web site for this popular magazine and read several articles. Discuss the magazine's mandate and how students feel about its articles.
• Common Advertising Strategies
  This Web page from the Media Awareness Network lists some common advertising strategies. Discuss these as a class, and encourage students to suggest examples of commercials they have seen that represent each strategy. Would students add any other strategies to this list?
• Advertising Codes
  This Web site includes information about Canadian advertising codes. Discuss these codes as a class, and how these codes affect advertisers, their clients, and their customers.

• Organization's Home Page
  This is the Abhivyakti home page, where students can discover more about the organization that wrote the poem. Students can write an article for one of these communication journals.
• Media Awareness Network
  This page from the Media Awareness Network tells four stories of how youth activists have challenged the media. Ask your students to use these stories as models and develop their own campaign to challenge an aspect of the media over an issue that concerns them.
• Center for Media and Public Affairs
  This American Web site offers several studies reflecting representation in the media-of sex, violence, politics, and race. Visual imagery of some pieces on this site can be mature, so you may want to read articles with students. Discuss the parameters and conclusions of one study, and what the study reveals. Encourage students to choose an area of representation that they wish to investigate and complete their own media-monitoring study.

• Bondar Bio
  This Seneca site includes an extensive biography that students can search to find out about Bondar's career as an astronaut.
• Canadian Museum of Nature
  Encourage students to visit this museum's site (the museum that arranges for the display of Bondar's photos) and investigate the various components of this site. They can consider upcoming exhibits, and how they are publicized.
• About Passionate Vision Exhibit
  This site, designed to list potential speakers, includes information about Bondar and her exhibit. Students can compare the structure of, and information on, this site with the original interview. They can also consider the purpose and usefulness of this site.

• Duarte Site
  A complete Web site of all that is Duarte: links, biography, fine arts, oil on canvas, digital photos, et cetera. Some images include nude figures or mature subject matter, so you may want to select appropriate images for students to view, perhaps selecting several images from the various media represented on the site
• Podevin Site
  Jean-Francois Podevin's personal Web site includes information about her, her exhibits, as well as sketchbooks and artwork. The Web site is a great example of the genre, with crawling and shifting images. Again, choose appropriate images for students to view-much of her artwork is too sophisticated for this level. However, she has many intricate pieces that perfectly show the layering effect she creates in her artwork.

• Saroyan Bio
  Students can find out about William Saroyan's life and work at this site, which includes a photo of the Saroyan. Discuss how someone earns the title "humanitarian."
  Challenge students to read another of Saroyan's works, or to view one of the movies based on his work.
• Saroyan Writings
  This Web site includes images and quotations from Saroyan's works. Encourage students to click through its pages and then come up with a list of five words they would use to describe Saroyan.
• History of the Phonograph
  This Web site provides students with a detailed history of the phonograph. Challenge students to create the content and design the layout for a similar site for the CD player or another new music technology.

• About Lauryn Hill
  Students can check out this profile of Lauryn Hill to find out more about one of the singers mentioned in the article. Discuss why students think Hill's sole album was such a success.
• Profile of Ahmir Thompson
  This profile of Ahmir Thompson, singer featured in article, provides further insight into the singer's music and beliefs. Ask students to write about how Thompson and his followers are changing the sound of Hip Hop.

• Peanuts
  Encourage students to explore this Web site dedicated to the Peanuts strip, especially the History link, which links to a Schultz tribute. Some parts of the site might be too young for this level.
• Cartoon Hall of Fame
  Students can read a profile of Schultz at the Cartoon Hall of Fame site.
• You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown
  This site provides some information on original stage play. Discuss how students might turn another contemporary cartoon strip into a stage play.

• TV Facts and Figures
  Ask students to check out this Web site and identify its bias, purpose, and audience. Discuss who produced it and its impact on the students and others.
• TV Turnoff Network
  This site provides information about an organization that encourages reading over watching TV. Invite students to write an essay in response to the information and ideas on this site. How do they feel about this issue?

• Jaws
  This site provides information on the movie Jaws, which is mentioned in the article. Encourage students to use its links to find out more about the cast and crew. Note that this is a commercial site, and its ads may not always be appropriate.
• Movie Reviews
  This site is an excellent source of current movie reviews, and can be used to find dozens of reviews of the same movie. Encourage students to choose one current "block buster" movie and read several movie reviews of it. They can discuss how the reviews are similar and different.
• Behind the Big Screen
  Students can visit this Web page to find out about the career (the filmogrophy) of Steven Spielberg. They can use the organizing buttons at the left of the screen to sort Spielberg's films by genre, awards, ratings, votes, et cetera. Encourage students to link to Spielberg's biography through this page.
  • Challenge students to use the alphabet link at the bottom of the biography page to find the biographies and then the filmographies of other people mentioned in "Box Office Beasts." Students could also input the name in the search field of this site to find filmographies and biographies. Discuss the purpose, audience, and creators of this Web site.

• Raised on the Net
  This Web site provides the survey results of University students who were investigating the validity of Don Tapscott's conclusions about the Net Generation. Students can read the results of this survey, and then conduct their own research project on the same topic.
• Growing Up Digital
  Visit this Don Tapscott Web site and print out some of the material about the Internet and teenagers for students to read, or some letters and notes from the forums. Note, because of the links from this site, it is not suitable for students to use independently.
• Youth Culture Inc.
  Encourage students to review this Web site for Youth Culture Inc. Discuss the purpose of this organization. Challenge students to design a survey to discover a buying habit for their age group.