Media Education Week - Think Critically, Act Ethically

For the past three years, November 3rd until the 7th, has been designated National Media Education Week by the Canadian Teachers' Federation and the Media Awareness Network. This week works to spread and encourage media literacy among Canadian students and teachers - working more media content into both elementary and high school curriculum.

This year’s public service announcement featured the slogan "Think Critically, Act Ethically" in response to bullying. Relevantly, these ads deal with technology and bullying, featuring text messaging threats and instant messaging conversations. These campaigns shed light on the dehumanizing nature of bullying through such technological outlets, holding that technology doesn`t have a conscience. This raises the interesting issues of unaccountability and irresponsibility that is implied by the faceless nature of this type of bullying. Importantly, this campaign emphasizes that students do not feel any kind of guilt for this type of bullying, and furthermore we must realize these unethical actions. We need to think critically about what we say, spread, hear and pass-on about others and act ethically in response.

This public service announcement addresses very relevantly some of the most common and degrading forms of bullying among students today - placing into context the importance of thinking critically and acting ethically towards media information that we are presented.