Glencoe Health © 2007

Introduction:
Television, billboards, magazines, the Internet: just about everywhere you turn you are exposed to media images that can change the way you think about your health and your lifestyle. Advertisers covet your business and spend billions trying to pursuade more teens into lifelong loyalty to their brands of junk food, tobacco, and a vast array of other products that can affect your health. Even nonadvertising media images, such as TV shows, have an effect what you eat, whether you smoke, even your relationships with your peers. Learn how to be a savvy consumer of media at this Web site.

Links to Explore:
Teen Health and the Media: Media Literacy
http://depts.washington.edu/thmedia/view.cgi?section=medialiteracy

Directions:

1			Define media literacy.
2			How much money do advertisers spend each year to target teens?
3			How many hours a day, on average, are young people exposed to media images?
4			Teens watch a lot of TV. On average, what is the only activity that consumes more of their time?
5			How many commercials will you have seen by the age of 18?