PROGRAM GUESTS George Lucas (Moderator) is the creator of the phenomenally successful Star Wars saga and Indiana Jones series, and is Chairman of the Board of Lucasfilm Limited, LucasArts Entertainment Company, and Lucas Digital Limited. In 1973, Lucas co-wrote and directed American Graffiti. The film won the Golden Globe, the New York Film Critics' and National Society of Film Critics' awards, and garnered five Academy Award nominations. Four years later, Lucas wrote and directed Star Wars -- a film which broke box office records and earned seven Academy Awards. In 1992 George Lucas was honored with the Irving G. Thalberg Award by the Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Background

The explosion of the scope and power of the entertainment and news media in the past decade is astounding. The Internet, 24-hour news services, tabloid journalism, and the growth of cable and satellite television have fundamentally changed both access and content in the media. With these rapid changes have come challenges, particularly in regard to the media's influence on children. Join important figures from film, print, journalism and multimedia as they discuss their thoughts on the role and impact the media has on modern society and young people. The program includes insights from Ben Bradlee, James Cameron, Rita Dove, Geraldine Laybourne, George Lucas, Bob Stine, and Bob Woodward.

People, Places and Events

Conduct a brainstorming session with your fellow classmates to generate a list of at least five individuals, from different aspects of the media, who have made a noticeable difference. Next identify a significant contribution or key event in their lives. And then determine the geographic location or place associated with that event.

	PERSON	PLACE	EVENT
1	______________	________________	________________
2	______________	________________	________________
3	______________	________________	________________
4	______________	________________	________________
5	______________	________________	________________

Pre-Program Explorations

Terms to Define

• Media
• Responsibility
• Society
• Emotion
• Violence
• Public Opinion
• Fantasy
• Reality

Topics to Research

• What are the different forms of media available in society today?
• How has the Information/Media Age changed access to the media and the scope of the media's coverage of society?
• How do young children determine the difference between fantasy and reality?
• Is there a proven link between violence and the media?
• Has the media's coverage of violence increased criticism of violence in the media?

Issues to Consider

• What is the role of the media, families, and schools, in raising and educating society?
• How does the entertainment media portray violence differently than the news media?
• What is the role of the news media in modern society?
• Is there a difference between traditional print and television journalism such as The Washington Post or ABC News and so-called ÒtabloidÓ journalism such as The National Enquirer or Hard Copy?
• Is violence an inevitable ÒpartÓ of modern society?
• What is the responsibility of the media to society?
• Has the concept of personal responsibility changed in the Information/Media Age?

Post-Program Explorations

ACHIEVEMENT EXPLORATIONS

• Achievement Television has defined six components of achievement: vision, preparation, integrity, courage, passion, and perseverance. Choose one of the featured guests and give examples of ways in which he or she embodies these traits.
• Choose one of the individuals listed in the first achievement exploration, and analyze his/her contributions, in light of our definition for achievement. Can he/she be described as an achiever?

Civics Education/Public Policy Explorations

• Research through local newspapers recent acts of violence and crimes committed in your community in the past few weeks or months. Compile information on the crimes, including age of those apprehended, category of crime (property, violent, etc.), and the public reaction to the crime.
• What pattern(s) can you determine?
• Can students link any individual act or pattern in the database to a media image or theme?
• Gather copies of different examples of media journalism including local and national newspapers, national newsmagazines, and Òtabloids.Ó
• Compare and contrast coverage of a specific topic, a crime, political contest, or social issue.
• Examine how specific facts and quotes are documented in the different sources?
• Compare the use of images from the event.
• Have students discuss the credibility of the different sources based on their exploration.
• How have developments in communications and computers been accelerated by the "standardization" of technologies? Could this same standardization actually serve to impede progress?
• Each society has many responsibilities to its members, yet money is a finite resource. How can we ensure that all members of society have access to the benefits of information technology?
• Explore the history of women in the fields of communications and computers. What contributions have been made, what obstacles exist (or existed), and how can their role be expanded?

CURRENT EVENT EXPLORATION (Web lesson)

Violence, V-Chips, and the media rating system

Outbreaks of seemingly random violence by and among youth have received a great deal of attention in recent years. Some politicians have blamed these terrible acts on different segments of the entertainment media, from movies and television to popular music, and called for government legislation to curb media violence. The entertainment industry, responding to this criticism and hoping to avoid government regulation, has instituted a system designed to give parents a measure of technological control over what their children view on television.

Every new television set sold in America now has a device known as a "V-Chip" that allows parents to determine the level of violent and mature content they want to allow their children to view. V-Chip technology works in tandem with a new television ratings system. The V-Chip can help parents "screen out" the programs with TV ratings they don't want their children to watch. This relatively new rating system, coupled with the traditional movie ratings system of: G, PG, PG-13, R, and NC-17, theoretically provides parents some control over the media influences their children are exposed to.

Question for Exploration

Are current technologies and rating systems sufficient to protect children from exposure to potentially harmful media images and programs?

Procedure

Collect background information. In order to formulate an answer to the "Question for Exploration" you'll need to conduct some research to gather pertinent information and data about the topics. Some suggested areas for research are listed below, but you may find that you need to answer additional questions to make an informed response. A list of Web sites is provided, at the end of the procedure section, to help jump-start your search. If you need to gather information from additional resources, be sure to evaluate their validity. Government and university sites generally have more reliable information than personal or commercial sites. Keep a record of the information you've collected, as well as the source of that material. Include both the Web site name and URL address.

• Review youth violence in America. Is it on the rise or falling? Are schools really safe?
• What are the effects of media violence on children?
• How does the media cover real-life violence?
• Describe the television rating system. What do the components of the content labels stand for and what are the specific ratings?
• How are the ratings determined?
• Compare and contrast the television ratings system with the Motion Picture Association of America's movie rating system.

Synthesize the information that you've collected to develop a response to the "Question for Exploration." The format for that response, (written, oral, Web-based, etc.) will be decided upon by your teacher.

PROGRAM GUESTS (CONTINUED) Benjamin C. Bradlee was executive editor of The Washington Post for nearly twenty years and is one of the most renowned figures in American journalism. After service in the U.S. Navy during World War II, Bradlee worked as a police reporter, State Department official, foreign correspondent, and national political reporter for Newsweek magazine. A close friend of President Kennedy, he regularly reported on inside stories of the White House. He joined the Washington Post as an editor in 1965. At the Post, he recruited dozes of talented reporters with national reputations, and exhorted his staff to tenaciously investigate all leads. As executive editor from 1969 on, he oversaw stories that changed the course of American history. The Post's investigation of the Watergate burglary and subsequent White House cover-up, led to the resignation of President Nixon and earned the paper a Pulitzer Prize for Public Service. James Cameron is a motion picture director, writer and producer, creator of Titanic, the most successful epic in motion picture history. Low-budget maestro Roger Corman first gave Cameron a chance to work as a model builder and production designer on his horror films. After two years with Corman, Cameron got his first crack at directing, Piranha II: The Spawning, but his career stalled until he wrote the script for The Terminator. With the international success of that film, Cameron won the director's chair for Aliens and went on to direct The Abyss, Terminator 2: Judgment Day and True Lies. Cameron's Titanic broke box office records all over the world and swept the Academy Awards, winning an unprecedented 11 Oscars, including statuettes for Cameron as Best Director, and for the film as Best Picture. Rita Dove is Commonwealth Professor of English at the University of Virginia at Charlottesville. Her book, Thomas and Beulah, (1986) a collection of interrelated poems loosely based on the life of her grandparents, won the 1987 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. In 1993, Rita Dove was appointed to a two-year term as Poet Laureate of the United States and Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress. She was the youngest person, and the first African-American, to receive this highest official honor in American letters. Other publications by Rita Dove include a book of short stories, Fifth Sunday, the poetry collections Grace Notes, Selected Poems and Mother Love, and the novel Through the Ivory Gate. Geraldine B. Laybourne is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Oxygen Media, a multimedia company producing branded content for television, the Internet and other media. A pioneer in creating innovative and high-quality television programming for children, Laybourne spent 16 years at Nickelodeon, and is widely credited for the cable network's enormous success. She has served as President of Nickelodeon/Nick at Nite, Vice Chairman of the MTV Networks, and President of Disney/ABC Cable Networks. At Oxygen Media, Laybourne is creating programming especially for women and children. Her partners in the enterprise include television producer Marcy Carsey and Oprah Winfrey. R. L. Stine had been writing for Scholastic magazines for 17 years, writing mostly humorous short stories for children, when his editor suggested he try writing a juvenile tale of horror. Scary stories for teenagers led Stine to experiment with spooky tales for even younger readers. The result was the phenomenally popular Goosebumps series for readers age eight to twelve. Goosebumps and the Fear Street series have made R.L. Stine the best-selling author in America. More than a million copies of his books are sold every month. Bob Woodward is Assistant Managing Editor of the Washington Post and the most famous investigative reporter in America. With fellow Post reporter Carl Bernstein, Woodward's dogged pursuit of the Watergate break-in story, in the face of a White House cover-up, led to the resignation of President Nixon and forever altered the relationship of government and the press in this country. He is the author or co-author of seven number one non-fiction best-sellers, including All the Presidents' Men, The Brethren, Veil, The Commanders and The Agenda. He has received every major journalism award, including the Pulitzer Prize.