Good Media

My friend Amy and I were asked to start a book club/media club for an enrichment activity in our Relief Society. I thought I'd post my handout here as well, since I think it's a helpful resource for all families, and so at least one person might read it! Enjoy.

Ways to bring good media influence into your home

DVR (Digital Video Recorder) DVR is a method of recording TV and video digitally. DVRs have all of the same functionality of VCRs (recording, playback, fast forwarding, rewinding, pausing) plus the ability to pause "live" TV and resume without missing any part of a program. Advantages include being able to watch a show at your convenience, skip all commercials, and therefore spend less time watching TV. With a DVR, there’s no reason to ever channel surf again.

DVR service is about $6 per month, added to your satellite or cable bill, which I consider a small price to pay for having total control over what media enters our home. When our kids watch TV, they select from a list of pre-recorded shows, and skip all the commercials quickly and easily.

Podcasts are basically a way to subscribe to audio so you automatically get any updates. For example, you can subscribe to General Conference through www.lds.org, so next time they make MP3s available at lds.org, they'll automatically get updated by iTunes and show up on your iPod next time you sync.

All podcasts are free. Some are video (you can get either audio or video General Conference talks as a podcast). There's a ton of good stuff out there. There's iTunes University where you can download full lectures from places like MIT, mini-Med-school through University of Washington, lots of NPR and BBC stuff. Music lessons, talk shows, comedy, concerts, foreign language lessons, travel tips, etc. And just about anyone with a popular website also has a podcast -- for example, Pandora is a web radio site, but they also have a weekly podcast to teach you the basics of music.

Movie and other media reviews:
www.screenit.com An unbiased, easy to use, yet heavily detailed and complete look at popular entertainment your kids might see, rent, or buy. You don’t have to pay their subscription—they have a free version—just look for it.

www.commonsensemedia.org Reviews movies, TV shows, games, websites, music, and books. Our Mission: Common Sense Media is a non-partisan, not-for-profit organization. They provide trustworthy information and tools, as well as an independent forum, so that families can have a choice and a voice about the media they consume.

Computer safety for the family Keep the computer in a common area, not in individual bedrooms, where you can watch and monitor your family. Parental control software can block inappropriate websites, restrict the amount of time that your kids use the Internet and monitor their Instant Messenger chats to protect against predators. Top-rated Internet filters are Net Nanny Parental Controls, Safe Eyes (www.safeeyes.com), and CYBERsitter.

Where to find book reviews:
www.goodreads.com Goodreads is a community for book lovers. It's a great way to get book recommendations from your friends and others. You can keep a list of books to read, join book clubs, and even take the never-ending book trivia quiz.

www.guysread.com Mentioned in the recent Boy’s Life magazine, this website is dedicated to books that your boys would be interested in reading. Offers a list of books recommended by the webmaster, children's author Jon Sczieska, and others suggested by visitors to the website.

www.kidsreads.com Kidsreads is a userfriendly place on the web for kids to find info about their favorite books, series and authors. Reviews of the newest titles, interviews with the coolest authors and special features on great books are our specialties. And for even more reading fun they have trivia games, word scrambles and contests.

Clean book review blogs:
www.bookreviewsandotherstuff.blogspot.com

www.cleanreads.blogspot.com

BYU-TV BYU Television is a global satellite, internet, and cable service providing 24-hour BYU- and family-oriented programming. It includes special LDS church broadcasts, lectures, BYU Sports, original productions, and much more. My favorite way to start my day is playing a fireside or devotional or Music and the Spoken Word while doing housework. Available free on the computer at www.byutv.org or as part of most cable and satellite packages.

Be sure to bookmark these web sites for your family to use, which helps us bring good media into our home.