Newhouse School to hold Media Literacy Day for local sixth-graders April 27

Newhouse School to hold Media Literacy Day for local sixth-graders April 27April 19, 2007Wendy S. Loughlinwsloughl@syr.edu

On Friday, April 27, a group of about 90 sixth-graders from Edward Smith Elementary School in Syracuse will visit the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications to participate in Media Literacy Day. Sponsored by Newhouse’s Diversity Committee, the event serves to increase communications understanding among primary school students.

“Children are bombarded with messages and images, and we see this as an opportunity to make them more critical consumers of media,” says Melissa Chessher, chair of Newhouse’s Department of Magazine and one of the event’s organizers. “We also see this event as a chance for those of us in Newhouse to be members of the community in which we work and live. As we build a relationship with this school in the University neighborhood, we are enlivened by seeing young kids walking through Newhouse and talking and thinking about the things we are passionate about.”

Students will arrive at Newhouse for a welcome at 9:30 a.m., after which they will split into small groups to attend three different classes on newspapers, television and advertising/public relations taught by Newhouse professors. The goal is to broaden student understanding of ads, television programs and newspapers and magazines as constructed media targeted at specific consumers.

Newhouse Ambassadors — current undergraduate students in the Newhouse School — will serve as tour guides for the Ed Smith School students and will eat lunch and discuss the day’s events with them at noon.

For more information about Media Literacy Day, contact Melissa Chessher at 443-4038 or mchesshe@syr.edu.