CMP Topic: Age

CMP Topic: Age
Please be advised, there may be media content within the CMP website unsuitable or inappropriate for certain age groups and audiences. Please be aware of this when choosing any content you may select to show students prior to use.
Critical Media Project (CMP) is a free media literacy web resource for educators and students (ages 8-21) that enhances young people’s critical thinking and empathy, and builds on their capacities to advocate for change around questions of identity. Their website contains content centered around the following topics: age, class, disability, gender, lgbtq, race & ethnicity, and religion. The resource linked here is focused on providing an overview, lesson activities, and media resources around one of the CMP topics: AGE.
Age is both a biological process and a facet of identity that depends on social and cultural ideas, values, and norms. Different cultures have varying expectations associated with ages and life stages, and these expectations also change over time. The labeling of different generations (“Baby Boomers,” “Generation X,” “Millennials”) is based in demographics–statistics that are associated with population-based data. These demographic and generational labels create and perpetuate certain ideas associated with different age groups. They also are used to directly target media consumers and audiences. Ageism is a form of discrimination based on age that can be seen in limited media representation and content produced for certain ages.