National Education Association, Court TV Present Nationally Televised One-Hour Special on Media Literacy

News Advisory:

The National Education Association (NEA) and Court TV will co-produce a national television special to communicate with teachers,other education staff, and parents about media literacy. Medialiteracy initiatives are designed to help children and teensdistinguish between the positive and negative images that they seein all forms of media, to understand the real-world consequences ofactions that may seem inconsequential on screen, and to recognizeforms of manipulation.

The one-hour, commercial-free special, entitled "Mind Over Media:Helping Kids Get The Message" will air at several times:

-- On Thursday, May 24, at 2 p.m., the NEA, the nation's largesteducation employee organization, will use its Safe Schools NowNetwork to air the special via its satellite feed to schools acrossthe nation and public access television stations.

-- On Saturday, May 26, at 1 p.m., Court TV will air the shownationally.

-- Every Saturday in June, the special will also be transmittedto 85 percent of the nation's schools through Court TV's Cable inthe Classroom time slot at 4 a.m.

Guiding viewers through the show will be the following hosts:Rikki Klieman, Court TV anchor, Al Roker, of NBC's "Today" Show, andMaurice DuBois, news anchor on WNBC-TV in New York. Also featured onthe show will be nationally recognized experts, Renee Hobbs, aleader in the field of media education, and Ronald G. Slaby, alecturer of education and pediatrics at Harvard University.

The special is being produced as part of the NEA's Safe SchoolsNow Network, created to continue to keep schools the safest placesfor kids, and of Court TV's, Choices and Consequences programming.The show includes four pre-produced segments offering real-worldexamples of promising classroom education and community programsbeing used by NEA educators in Worcester, Mass., Capitol Heights,Md., Concord, N.H., and Salinas, Calif.

"Young people absorb thousands of negative media messages aboutviolence, sex, race, gender, ethnicity, and other critical socialissues every single day," said Bob Chase, NEA president. "The NEAmay not be able to change the media, but, we can teach our childrenhow to view the media critically. Teens must learn to make sense ofthe messages being promoted -- sometimes even directly to them --via television, movies, Internet sites, video games, music lyrics,magazines, advertising and all other forms of media."

The NEA is providing a free resource guide for "Mind Over Media:Helping Kids Get The Message," including Tips for Parents andResearch on Media and its Effect on Students, at http://www.safeschoolsnow.org. Videotapes of the program will also beavailable at cost.

The National Education Association is the nation's largestprofessional employee organization, representing 2.6 millionelementary and secondary teachers, higher education faculty,education support personnel, school administrators, retirededucators, and students preparing to become teachers.

KEYWORDS:

ADVISORY, EDUCATION, MEDIA, POLICY