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THANK YOU TO THIS YEAR'S ATTENDEES FOR A GREAT CONFERENCE! We
will have more information on next year's conference available in the
coming months.
We only need to read daily newspapers, magazines, and Internet messages, as well as monitor the television and radio to realize that we are all bombarded with advertisements, movies, and television shows encouraging us to drink alcohol or smoke tobacco to relax from a trying day. We are also encouraged to take advantage of the many prescription and over-the-counter medications that will enable us to improve our health, such as lose weight, sleep better, and strengthen our physical beings. Young people have a tough time sorting out what is healthy and what is not. They need guidance from the adults they see regularly and respect- namely their parents and educators.
Drug Free Pennsylvania encourages the utilization and education of the media as method of teaching youth about the dangers of drug and alcohol use. Educating youth to become media literate will allow them to evaluate and understand the messages that they are receiving and the techniques that advertisers use to sell their products thus making them feel empowered to raise awareness, change behavior, and inspire action to prevent underage drinking and drug use.
To help adult influencers gain the tools that they need to teach media literacy education, Drug Free Pennsylvania
hosted the second annual Critical Eye on the Media Conference on April 2-3, 2009 in Harrisburg. The Critical Eye on the Media Conference featured two of the top authorities in the field of media literacy: Dr. Renee Hobbs from Temple University and Dr. Brian Primack from the University of Pittsburgh.
For more information on Dr. Hobbs and Dr. Primack please scroll to the
bottom of this page.
In addition, award-winning drug and alcohol consultant Deborah Beck,
M.S.W. served as the keynote speaker during the lunch session on April 2. Ms. Beck
presented on how grassroots advocacy can make a difference in Pennsylvania politics and law.
Conference attendees received materials to use with students, some lesson ideas from practitioners, resources, constructive advice, and a
FREE copy of Drug Free Pennsylvania’s newly revised 3rd Edition of The Media Straight Up! Critical Thinking Skills for Pennsylvania’s Youth curriculum.
To see highlights from the June 2008 Critical Eye on the Media
Conference, click here.
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CLICK ON IMAGES BELOW TO DOWNLOAD
CONFERENCE
BROCHURE, SCHEDULE & REGISTRATION FORM.
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Conference Brochure |
Conference Schedule |
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documents are PDF files and require Adobe
Reader software to view them. If you do not have Adobe Reader software installed on your computer, then please click on the following link to go to Adobe's website to download the
free software. |
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KEYNOTE SPEAKERS
Dr. Renee Hobbs
Renee Hobbs is a Professor of Communication at Temple University’s School of Communication and Theater in Philadelphia USA, where she founded the Media Education Lab. She created numerous award-winning curriculum materials, videos and multimedia games for K-12 English language arts students and provides consulting and staff development programs to educators all across the nation and around the world. Hobbs co-authored Elements of Language, the first language arts textbook in the US to integrate media literacy. Her new book, Teaching the Media: Media Literacy in High School English provides the first large-scale empirical evidence of the impact of media literacy education on adolescents’ reading comprehension skills.
www.mediaeducationlab.com
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Dr. Brian Primack
Brian A. Primack is Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. After graduating Yale University magna cum laude in 1991 with degrees in English literature and mathematics, Dr. Primack spent 4 years teaching adolescents and studying human development for his master’s degree, which he received from Harvard University. He subsequently graduated first in his class and summa cum laude from Emory Medical School and trained in Family Medicine in at UPMC Saint Margaret Hospital in Pittsburgh. Now, on the faculty of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Dr. Primack combines his expertise in education, technology, human development, and medicine by researching the effect of the mass media messages on health. Specifically, he focuses on the use of media literacy education in preventing adolescent smoking, underage drinking, and other harmful adolescent health behaviors. He is the recent recipient of the University of Pittsburgh Provost’s Innovation in Education Award, the New Investigator of the Year by the National Society of Adolescent Medicine, and the Robert Wood Johnson Faculty Physician Scholar Award.
www.pitt.edu/~bprimack
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Deborah Beck, M.S.W.
Drug and Alcohol Consultant
Deborah Beck brings over 30 years of clinical, policy and legislative experience working in the alcohol and drug treatment and prevention field to her positions as a drug and alcohol consultant and President of the Drug and Alcohol Service Providers Organization of Pennsylvania (DASPOP). She also serves as Policy Co-Chair of the State Association of Addiction Services, a national organization composed of state associations like DASPOP, is co-founder and Board Member of the National Alliance for Model State Drug Laws and a Board Member of the Pennsylvania Recovery Organizations Alliance (PRO-A).
Her work has led to the enactment of numerous laws regarding alcohol and other drug abuse and addiction prevention and treatment including: a law requiring coverage of addiction treatment in all group health and insurance plans, a law requiring provision of K-12th grade alcohol and drug prevention/education in the schools, a law establishing residential rehabilitation centers for the treatment of pregnant addicted women and women with dependent children and a law requiring state Medicaid to cover treatment of addiction in residential rehabilitation programs. Beck’s work has earned her awards from various local and statewide organizations.
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