Over the last decade a new movement in education has steadily gathered momentum amongst concerned parents and teachers world-wide:  the drive to teach "media literacy".  The movement is founded upon the recognition that media is pervasive; that it is not going to go away; and that the producers of media have greater access to the minds of young-adults, and more opportunity to shape the patterns of their thinking, and values, than parents or teachers have.  These enlightened educators are desperate for course materials which will sharpen their students' ability to think critically about the media to which they are exposed.

"Mind Over Media" will empower young people by unmasking media methods and purposes.  The program was designed on three principals:  First, that the power of media to manipulate thoughts and feelings rests upon a limited number of techniques which students can learn to identify.  Second, that the purposes for which any particular media piece was created may also be identified.  Third, that refocusing students' attention on the techniques and purposes behind a piece of media will detach them from it's message.  When students learn to examine media, to expose its means and agenda, they undermine it's power over them, and begin to liberate their minds.

The latest interactive multimedia technology is the ideal medium for teaching media literacy.  "Mind Over Media" will enable students to stop the action, to replay, and to analyze media sequences at a pace that permits consciousness of production techniques.  It will use the blue-screen, and masking-overlay capabilities of computerized multimedia to literally point t objects on the screen, or to highlight specific moments in the action, or to call attention to the wording of voice-overs:  in short, to focus the student on the particular production technique being examined.  The program will also allow hyper-linking between topics, encouraging students to explore related issues, or to delve more deeply into subjects about which they want to know more.  And interactive quizzing of the user's comprehension of the presented materials will automatically tailor the program to each student, allowing them to move at their own pace, while maximizing learning effectiveness.  

Among the many topics covered in "Mind Over Media"...

• Visual and aural techniques to learn to recognize.  
• The "truth" of a media image:  pictures can lie.
• Psychology as it is consciously applied in media production.
• The myth of objectivity in news:  impartiality and bias.
• Media and democracy.  One network, one vote?
• How advertising is different from other media, or isn't.
• Social and environmental costs of media-influenced values.
• Consumerism:  the new source for "spiritual" gratification.
• The sexualizing of practically everything.
• Did someone say "violence"?
• National character, national self-image, national actions.

"Mind Over Media" will also present interviews with producers, directors, advertising agents, and media technicians in every specialty covered, and will feature behind-the-scenes views of these professionals at work.  These will make the program more fun and involving while calling students' attention to the often forgotten fact that every aspect of a media production is the work of human beings, and serves a particular, and conscious, human purpose.

A teacher's guide will be available, with a course outline, and suggested classroom exercises and homework assignments.  A typical assignment would require students to survey their actual exposure to media over two days, or to count the number of times that a particular media technique is employed in two hours of television programming.

"Mind Over Media" will exploit the new functionality of multimedia to create a learning experience which would be impossible to duplicate in any other medium.  Only the new media is technologically nimble enough to enable students to stay a jump ahead of the more pervasive, older-technology media around them.  

Parents will love "Mind Over Media" because it will un-fetter their children from the mass media mindset.  Teachers will be grateful for the program because it will foster independent, critical thinking amongst their students.  And students will appreciate that the program values and respects their right to think for themselves.  "Mind Over Media" has clear commercial potential, whether sold to schools, to parental organizations, or to the home market.