Navigating Media in Turbulent Times

Every day we are bombarded with media content, whether it be on the TV news, radio, social media, or print. Our brains are constantly having to process and filter messages about the world around us through images, videos, and words at a faster rate than ever before. Weeding through conflicting news headlines, curated social media feeds, and endless notifications is leaving us feeling anxious, uncertain, and unsure of what to believe. As a result, many of us struggle to discern fact from fiction, and find ourselves lost in a sea of information that's more likely to confuse than clarify. This can lead to feelings of stress, burnout, addiction, extremism and disconnection from the world around us.

This course is designed to help you cultivate the skills and tools you need to navigate today's complex media environment with clarity, confidence, and wisdom. The practice of mindfulness offers a "3rd way" to engage with media. You don't have to just either have your head in the sand, or be at the whim of minute to minute urgent updates. The goal of this course is to have you become an empowered and balanced media-savvy citizen.

We will explore:

• How media is made and how our brains are vulnerable to media messaging

• Critical media literacy fundamentals

• How to develop a critical lens to analyze media content and platforms they originate from

• What mindfulness is and how it can improve our relationship to technology/media

• Practical mental and digital tools to use as a mindful media consumer

Please note: All the zoom sessions will recorded and available for review for 1 month following the course.