1. An analysis of the effect of media on teen culture.

2.  What drives teen culture? The teens or media?  Large media companies are increasingly controlling what teens see and purchase.  This activity meant to engage students to address the questions of who creates ‘cool’.

3.  Students will use this PowerPoint to begin exploration of issues related to media ownership and teen culture – the major question to answer is: Who controls what becomes ‘cool’?

4.  To begin, click this link to go online and watch the video “Merchants of Cool” by PBS FrontLine: Link

5. Which media conglomerates are discussed in the video? [Text]

6.  Choose one of the groups from Step 2 and elaborate on what media properties they own: Your response here.

7. Review the following resources: Mediachannel.org Media Reform Information Center Freepress.net List the most interesting fact you found here and explain why you thought it was interesting:

8. Read the section “What Teens Think” from the PBS website.What Teens Think What four opinions were expressed, which you thought were interesting.

9. Using the information gathered in this activity form your own opinion of who controls what becomes 'cool'? Explain. You should have: 1. A well written thesis statement 2. Five Paragraphs (at least) 3. Use at least 3 resources to support your arguments This essay will be posted as a comment to the blog entry at lessontrails.blogspot.com.lessontrails.blogspot.com

10. Category4321 Internet Use Successfully uses suggested internet links to find information and navigates within these sites easily without assistance. Usually able to use suggested internet links to find information and navigates within these sites easily without assistance. Occasionally able to use suggested internet links to find information and navigates within these sites easily without assistance. Needs assistance or supervision to use suggested internet links and/or to navigate within these sites. Organization Information is very organized with well-constructed paragraphs and subheadings. Information is organized with well-constructed paragraphs. Information is organized, but paragraphs are not well-constructed. The information appears to be disorganized. Paragraph Construction All paragraphs include introductory sentence, explanations or details, and concluding sentence. Most paragraphs include introductory sentence, explanations or details, and concluding sentence. Paragraphs included related information but were typically not constructed well. Paragraphing structure was not clear and sentences were not typically related within the paragraphs.

11. Congratulations! You have completed this activity. You should have posted your essay as a comment to lessontrails.blogspot.com.lessontrails.blogspot.com You should have completed the questions and activities in this presentation. Type your name on this slide and the Task slide and save it to your H:/ drive and then print a handout of this presentation and turn it in to show your work.

12.  PBS Frontline for “Merchants of Cool” posted on PBS.org. linklink  Rubistar for the rubric used for evaluation. Rubistar  Blogger used for posting essays as comments. Blogger