For young people to thrive in a media and technology saturated society, educators and parents must help students to develop their critical thinking skills. Specifically, teaching teens to be media smart about drug and alcohol advertising enables them to:

• Distinguish between commercial and noncommercial content;
• Recognize the persuasive intent of advertising;
• Weigh conceptual and perceptual information;
• Understand varying levels of vocabulary;
• Make informed choices; and
• Build their resilience against using drugs and alcohol.

The Media Straight Up! offers educational opportunities and gives educators, prevention specialists and others these tools to teach media literacy. These teacher tools are available from Drug Free Pennsylvania at no cost. They include:

• The Media Straight Up! 12-Lesson Curriculum - It helps teach young people how to analyze media messages and how to use key communications concepts and technologies to produce their own anti-drug spots.

• The Media Straight Up! Teacher Manual – This resource supplements the curriculum and includes tactics and tips for teaching media literacy, strategies for teaching media production, and how to get the media involved with your students’ project.

To request more information, go to the Contact Us section.