Helping Kids Become Media Smart about Substance Abuse
The positive influences of the mass media contribute richly to students’ formal and informal education. But the negative media influences can promote unhealthy, risk-taking behaviors among teens, including substance
abuse.
Drug Free Pennsylvania’s The Media Straight Up! Critical Thinking Skills for Pennsylvania’s Youth helps students become better decision makers by developing the critical thinking skills necessary for making informed choices.
The Media Straight Up! provides media literacy training for educators, prevention specialists, and others. The training focuses on integrating media literacy into core school curriculums, effectively using media in the classroom, and creating teacher-facilitated, but youth-produced
anti-drug messages.
Focusing on media literacy is timely and vital because…
- The volume of advertising to children has increased significantly;
- Privatization of children’s media use has increased;
- Advertising strategies are more invasive; and
- Studies show a substantial relationship between children’s viewing of tobacco and alcohol ads and positive attitudes toward consumption of these products.