• John J. Pungente, SJ, President of the Canadian Association of Media Education Organizations and Director of the Jesuit Communication Project.
  
  
• Carolyn Wilson is the recipient of the Prime Minister's Award for Teaching Excellence and the President of the Association for Media Literacy in Ontario.
  
  
• Dan Blake has been an educator in British Columbia for 25 years and is currently the President of the BC Association for Media Educators.

• The more people complain, the more the CRTC is likely to act.
    
• With strong public pressure, the station will correct itself; otherwise it will face three options: loss of audience, loss of advertisers and sponsors, and potential loss of license.
   
• Avoid making your case into a "freedom of speech' or a "free press" case. Media agencies under public criticism often use the "free press" argument to defend their practices. They often try to depict your group as another special interest group trying to impose its views. This argument almost always works.
   
• Mobilize external support for your case. Turn to other professional and public interest groups to add legitimacy to your claims.
   
• Often the most biased programs are the open-line talk shows, in which the host allows callers to state their views. The conscientious host will try to cut off, or correct prejudicial callers immediately. Should she/he not, call the show's producer and the station manager immediately to protest. Avoid debating on the air. Chances are you will become defensive or irritated, which may present a negative impression of your case to the audience.
   
• If you are a group's representative invited to speak on a certain show, avoid those hosted by sensationalist personalities. These hosts often try to further distort the issue. Decline all invitations, and choose instead those stations with conscientious and professional hosts.

• Episode 1: A century of spin
  How spin began. The rocky relationship between the press and public relations is now 100 years old.
  
• Episode 2: The spindustrial revolution
  Countless "spindustries" have been spawned by our modern spin culture, including public relations, "earned media" and video news releases.
   
• Episode 3: Calling Dr. Spin
  How far can political spin go? "Just watch me."
   
• Episode 4: The spin doctor is in
  Twenty-four-hour TV news, increased competition in newspapers, the shrinking news cycle… they've all played a part in changing the way Canadian politics is covered. And in most cases, it's the spin doctors who have gained the upper hand.
   
• Episode 5: Spinning war
  Governments have long relied on stagecraft, spin and other tools of public relations to sell war on the home front. And they've also become increasingly sophisticated at using the press to accomplish that objective.
   
• Episode 6: Spinning into the 21st century
  The dawn of the Internet age poses significant new challenges for the press and PR industries. Will they even matter in a world where people can create their own media? What will be the future of spin?

Tonight, Thursday March 8, at 7pm and 10pm ET MuchMusic is featuring an hour long special program called Much Talks: Body Image. The documentary style program follows MuchMusic VJs Sarah Taylor and Devon Soltendieck as they talk to youth on body image issues—from plastic surgery to eating disorders, media pressure to self-esteem issues.

Initiate classroom discussion on the topic of body image in the media. Questions to explore with students can include:

• Why do you think there is so much focus on body image in Western societies?
 
• Where do our notions of an "ideal" body come from? (Examples can include media, family, peers, community, sports, etc.)

• How would you describe the “ideal” body as it is appears in various media? (Answers may include thin, young, muscular, digitally altered.) Why do you think these types of images are used? (Answers may include that there is often commercial implications such as being used to sell products.)

• What do you think are the messages associated with these types of images?

• How does the ideal image of men’s and women's bodies differ throughout the ages?

• Do you think teenage girls are especially vulnerable to these ideas? Do teenage boys feel similar pressures?

For background information on this topic, visit the Web page Beauty and Body Image in the Media or visit our Lesson Library for classroom resources. More information on Much Talks: Body Image can be accessed on the MuchMusic Web site.