Welcome to the Media Center
If we consider story-telling around camp fires and drawings on cave walls as media, then we can say children have been influenced by media since the dawn of civilization. The invention of printing, electrical power, radio, phonograph, movies, television, portable disc players, computers and the Internet has greatly expanded the province of media and its influence on the young. Since busy parents and care-takers use television as a nanny for children, TV becomes a bonded family member. It has produced changes in the way we process information and deal with authority.
As children approach puberty, music, magazines, and advertisements take on new importance, We are subject to some 3000 commercial stories and messages each day. Marketers target children and youth knowing they tend to remain brand-loyal. Consumption is part of our identities; consumerism part of our popular religion.
Analysis and discernment is needed to sort out the positive and negative aspects of media. Children and youth want more than our conclusions, they need tools with which to make their own healthy decisions. We hope to provide some tools and resources for this challenge.