The Media Me And The Reality Me
Participants examine the way teens are portrayed by the media, and compare these portrayals to the ways that they would describe themselves.

Images of Men in the Media
There are many discussions in the media about the targeting of females and the ways in which females are presented in media. On the other hand, the media spend little time examining the portrayal of men, which should also be a matter of some interest.

Images of Women in the Media
This lesson focuses on a concept known as “self objectification” where girls learn to think of and treat their own bodies as objects of others’ desires. Sexually objectifying images of women can be regularly viewed across all types of media that teens consume from their music and the barrage of images available via the Internet to TV programs and movies they watch and magazines they read.

Presenting Ourselves Online
Social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook are becoming increasing popular among youth. Many people, however, do not spend time examining why and how they choose to present themselves in their profiles (i.e., the reasons why they are joining particular groups, presenting photos and/or videos, using certain applications, etc.). These pages, however, communicate a lot to viewers. Self presentation plays a large role in the development and maintenance of these pages and these mediums are an interesting place to analyze strategies for the reasoning behind self presentation.

Talking Back to the Ads
Women and girls are the subject of highly sexualized portrayals in all forms of media. The messages to young women through all types of media they consume from the music video they watch , the video games they play, the magazines that they read, the TV and movies they choose to the ads and other material plastered all over the Internet are subjects of great concern. Expert opinion and findings from researchers studying the impact of these media are summarized in the 2010 report of the American Psychological Association Task Force on the Sexualization of Girls. Much of the Task Force’s report focuses on media and its influence on our young women.