Media Education and Critical Thinking

Media education is all about critical thinking and happily, critical thinking is contagious.

Media messages, however, are designed to discourage thinking and encourage feeling. Our feelings are often more vulnerable than our brains. Once a person learns to think critically in one area, it is like an epidemic of the best kind.

Seattle Washington Middle School students were interviewed after completing a unit on media. One reported: "I used to be able to just watch TV and relax. Now I have to think about it."