I often talk to parents about teaching their children to become critical consumers of mass media, and I found these tips to be smart and helpful:

The average American child watches two to three hours of TV a day, and that doesn’t include the time they spend playing video games, sitting in front of the computer, and watching movies. Yet, few children are taught how to decode the messages that come wrapped in the media. Ellen Besen, an animator, author, and teacher, offers this help for parents and teachers:
* RECOGNIZE THE MOST BASIC CAMERA TRICK. “Framing,” the way that a camera focuses on a particular element or scene is often use to distort or enhance reality. For example, the shot of a crowd cheering or jeering a particular celebrity or politician that overflows the edges of the screen gives the impression of a mass turnout. Yet, if the camera were pulled back a little it could reveal a largely empty stadium or a relatively sedate street. “Teach your kids that what they don’t see if often as important as what they do, especially when their watching news or reality TV” says Besen.

* DO YOU REALLY WANT SHOE POLISH ON YOUR BROWNIES? Familiarize yourself with the ways in which many consumer products, especially food, are doctored to make them more appealing. Foods are often coated with paint, shoe polish, or oil to make them look brighter and more enticing. Also, portions sizes are often exaggerated.

* TURN OFF THE SOUND OCCASIONALLY. We often forget that with visual media there’s much more at work than the visuals. Encourage kids to notice the difference sound effects and music make in how they perceive what they are seeing by watching something first with sound and then without it. Then, encourage them to watch and listen for the effect of rhythm on perception. Rhythm can come from such elements as music or camera moves and can be used to make a story seem more exiting or more important.

* PLAYING ON FANTASIES. Ask your kids to think about what desires or fantasies certain ads tap into. For example, think of the SUV commercial that has the driver tearing off the road into the wilderness or the toothpaste commercial that ends with a beautiful woman fawning over a man.

* POW! CRASH! WHAM! DIFFERENTIATE BETWEEN FAKE AND REAL VIOLENCE. It’s particularly important to remind kids of just how highly staged most of what they see on TV is, especially when they’re seeing violence. Make it clear to them that fight scenes are among the most choreographed and manufactured and that while violence on TV or in the movies doesn’t leave lasting destruction, in real life it does.