wfn.org | NCCCUSA Media Awareness Year

[CAROL_FOUKE.parti@ecunet.org]

National Council of the Churches of Christ in the 
U.S.A.
CONTACT: MARY BYRNE HOFFMANN
914/358-0624    FAX  914/358-0679
E-mail: MBH52@aol.com   

NCC3/6/97

MEDIA AWARENESS YEAR ENJOYS INTERNATIONAL SUPPORT
Communities across the country rally for media 
literacy

NEW YORK --- In response to Media Awareness Year, an 
initiative of the National Council of Churches to 
introduce the concepts and skills of media literacy 
into local communities and congregations, a wide 
range of faith groups, youth services, health 
agencies, educators and media professionals across 
the country have joined in the effort.  The Center 
for Substance Abuse Prevention (CSAP), a White House 
agency has enthusiastically endorsed and promoted 
Media Awareness Year.

In the midst of controversy over the media 
industry's recent TV ratings, Media Awareness Year 
circumvents politics in favor of a more pragmatic 
challenge: to inform the public of the implications 
of living in a media culture and taking 
responsibility for media choices.  With the 
dominance of many forms of electronic mass media, 
both adults and children are exposed to an average 
of 16,000 media messages a day.  Important values 
are transmitted in all these messages - some 
constructive, some destructive.  Media Awareness 
Year poses the question: Where is the parent, 
teacher, preacher and where are their values in the 
media culture?  

In order to assist local communities and 
congregations with these questions, Media Awareness 
Year is being launched with a special live 
teleconference, "Family, Community, and Media 
Values" on May 6, 1996, 7:30-9:00 PM ET from 
Nashville, TN.  The focus of the teleconference will 
be an examination of the impact of pervasive media 
messages on the changing roles of family and 
community.  In particular, a panel of international 
media literacy experts, health professionals, 
community leaders, and educators will discuss how 
media influences our lifestyles with a close look at 
the relationship between media and two defining 
issues of our times: consumerism and substance 
abuse.  Viewers will be invited to participate in 
the teleconference with call-in comments from 
satellite sites in the U.S and Canada.  The 
teleconference will conclude with an agenda of 
strategies to implement media awareness on both 
national and local levels. 

Media Awareness Year will also include the 
production of media literacy resources to introduce 
the key concepts of media literacy into the home, 
school, congregation and community environments to 
promote critical viewing and analysis of media 
messages on consumerism, substance abuse, racism, 
gender and global communications. The resources, 
designed as three curriculum packets to be 
distributed in the spring and the fall, will include 
learning activities and reproducible hand-outs as 
well as information on print and video resources, 
workshop kits, and organizations related to media 
literacy.  In 1998, the NCC will produce a video 
workshop kit that combines all three resource 
packets into a full curriculum.  
 
     Media Awareness Year coincides with the 
publication of three communication policy statements 
developed by the Media Education and Media Ethics 
and Advocacy Committees of the NCC: "Violence in 
Electronic Media and Film"; "The Churches' Role in 
Media Education and Communication Advocacy'; and, 
"Global Communication for Justice."  Consistent with 
its own directives in the statements, Media 
Awareness Year is a "call for a nationwide approach 
to media literacy."  For its part, the NCC intends 
to "provide leadership through congregations as 
centers of media literacy" and to assist families, 
congregations and seminaries in a more creative 
approach to the understanding and utilization of the 
media.

The designation of the Media Awareness Year 
compliments and underscores similar agendas in faith 
and civic communities that are concerned with the 
impact of media on values formation.  Supporters to 
date include the Evangelical Lutheran Church of 
America, Family Ministries and Human Sexuality, 
Media Action Research Center, Inc., National Council 
of Churches' Communication Commission, Presbyterian 
Church (USA), United Methodist Teleconference 
Connection (UMTC), Archdiocese of Baltimore: offices 
of Family and Youth Ministry, National Institute on 
Media and the Family, Oblate Media and Communication 
Corp., St. Anthony Messenger Press, Center for 
Religious Education: University of Dayton, National 
Association for Catechetical Media Professional 
(NACMP), Center for Media Literacy, Center for 
Substance Abuse: US Department of Health and Human 
Services, Entertainment Industries Council, JOIN 
Together, Loyola Pastoral Life Center (New Orleans), 
National Telemedium Council, Diocese of Lansing: 
Professional Pastoral Ministers Association, Wm. H. 
Sadler, Inc.
 
For more information about Media Awareness Year, 
please contact Mary Byrne Hoffmann, Program 
Consultant (NCC) at: Tel: (914) 358-0624; Fax: (914) 
358-0679; or E-mail: MBH52@aol.com   

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