Topics | Media Education Lab

Media and Health

Katie Donnelly leads girl scouts in a body image activity

Tanya Jackson leads girl scouts in a body image activity.

Katie Donnelly and Tanya Jackson lead girl scouts in a body image activity.

Girl scouts work on a body image production activity.

Media literacy is a vital component of health education. Children and young people benefit from opportunities to critically analyze alcohol and tobacco advertisements. They can recognize and resist unrealistic beauty ideals. They can understand how media culture shapes our nutritional choices, including diet and exercise.

Events

Summer Institute in Digital Literacy
Online registration is now open! Join us in Providence July 14 - 19 for a hands-on, minds-on professional development program for educators and librarians.
Hobbs at the Association of Rhode Island Health Science Libraries
Renee Hobbs addresses health librarians on March 13, 2013 at the meeting of the Association of Rhode Island Health Science Libraries.
YALSA Teens and Libraries Summit, Jan 23 - 24, Seattle
Renee Hobbs participated in the YALSA National Forum on Libraries and Teens project, the Teens & Libraries Summit Jan. 23-24, 2013, in Seattle. The Summit featured two days of speakers,…
Exploring our Love/Hate Relationship with "Jersey Shore"
Renee Hobbs leads a discussion to probe into our love/hate relationship with MTV's Jersey Shore on Thursday, February 16 in Weldin Hall on the campus of the University of Rhode…

Curriculum Materials

The Media Education Lab is one of the leading providers of multimedia curriculum resources for K-12 media literacy education. Take advantage of our extensive collection of free resources below:

Digital and Media Literacy: Connecting Culture and Classroom
Learn the secrets of media literacy pedagogy in Grades 7 - 12 and maximize the power of mass media, popular culture and digital media for teaching and learning.
Foster Youth Program in Media Literacy
We're learning-by-doing to discover how media literacy analysis and production experiences can support the development of teens in foster care.
Media Literacy Smartphone
Available for purchase for the first time ever, the media literacy smartphone helps students learn to ask questions about what they read, see, watch and listen to
Tuning in to Media: Literacy for the Information Age
In this award-winning documentary, Renee Hobbs offers a compelling analysis of how news and entertainment covered the Rodney King beating and 1992 Los Angeles riots and introduces the key concepts…

Research and Scholarship

Some of the publications of members of the Media Education Lab team:

By Jonathan Friesem, Kelsey Greene, Lisa Provorova, Tim Tierney & Renee Hobbs. (2012, September). First Star URI RAM Academy. Kingston, RI: Media Education Lab.,
Morris, N., Gilpin, D., Lenos, M. & Hobbs, R. . (2011, July). Interpretations of cigarette advertisement warning labels by Philadelphia Puerto Ricans.. Journal of Health Communication, (16) 908 - 922.
Hobbs, R.. (2011, November). Digital and Media Literacy: The Pleasures and Perils of Online Pranking. ASCA School Counselor, 31 - 35.
Hobbs. R.. (2010, September). Empowerment and protection: Complementary strategies for digital and media literacy education in the United States.. Formare, (70) 1 - 17.
(2010, June). Media Education Lab 2010 End-of-Year Report. Philadelphia: Temple University
Hobbs, R. (2010, November). Digital and Media Literacy: A Plan of Action. The Aspen Institute, (Washington, DC)
Hobbs, R., Pruitt-Mentle, D. and others. (2009, July). Internet Safety and Responsible Behavior Online. Threshold, (7) 19-24.
Hobbs, R., Broder, S., Pope, H. & Rowe, J.. (2006, January). How Adolescent Girls Interpret Weight-Loss Advertising. Health Education Research, (21) 719-730.
Primack B.A., Gold M.A., Switzer G.E., Hobbs R., Land S.R., & Fine M.J.. (2006, January). Development and Validation of a Smoking Media Literacy Scale. Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine, 369-374.
Primack, B.A., Hobbs, R., Switzer, G.E., Land, S., Fine, M.F. & Gold, M.. (2006, January). Associations Between Media Literacy and Adolescent Smoking. Journal of Adolescent Health, (38) 93-94.