Vermont Independent offers KEYNOTE TALKS and WORKSHOPS on a wide range of critical media literacy education (CMLE) topics - see a list of our fun and interactive multimedia presentations here. Please email us for more information, or call Dr. Rob at 802.279.3364.
"Rob Williams engages any audience - whether in a classroom, ballroom, auditorium, or online - in ways that are surprising, important, thoughtful, and engaging. His talks are an alchemy of hard questions, challenging themes, interesting clips, humor, and energy. Rob is a gifted teacher and speaker - don’t miss him!”
"Rob’s talk on our "social media selves" completely engaged our middle and high school students. The students also really appreciated Rob’s candor and direct approach, and were very responsive to his honesty about both the drawbacks and benefits of social media and the associated technologies; they brought back his concepts and questions to our classes and helped frame an important conversation about the roles social media play in our school community.”
"I had the good fortune of attending a media workshop where Rob Williams was a speaker. I’m hard to surprise when it comes to talks about media, but in the space of 60 minutes Rob brought media education to life for me. I wanted to press “rewind" and hear it all again!"
#SocialMedia And Our Selves
Social Media are both a blessing and a curse, especially for our kids’ developing brains. This talk explores the "TOP 10 things everyone should know about social media and our selves” in a world where #confusion reigns.
Our Brains On Media
What happens when our 21st century brains move through the most powerful and pervasive media culture ever created? This fun and interactive talk explores the relationship between our developing brains and our digital media culture.
Beyond “Fake News”
Trying to make sense of our complex 21st century landscape of “news” and information? We explore the “Propaganda Model of News,” the ten "filters" that help us demystify the news business int the Digital Age.
Challenging Cool
Big Media create the concept of “cool” to market addictive behaviors and compulsive lifestyles to kids. How can we teach our kids to challenge corporately constructed “cool”? This interactive multimedia presentation features clips from a wide variety of popular programs and ad campaigns.
Making Sense Of Media
Instead of health, wealth, and wisdom, our mainstream commercial media culture promotes addiction, disease, and debt. This interactive multimedia presentation is a good introduction to our 21st century mainstream media culture.
Butts in Hollywood
Big Tobacco industry executives and Hollywood filmmakers conspire to target our kids with popular movies that glamorize and normalize smoking. How can we teach our kids to recognize this insidious relationship? This interactive multimedia presentation features clips from recent popular Hollywood movies.
Spin The Bottle
The alcohol industry is second-to-none in using commercial television to target kids with pro-drinking messages, sex-drenched advertisements, and insidious branding campaigns. How can we teach our kids to recognize and analyze alcohol industry propaganda? This interactive multimedia presentation features clips from recent television commercials and Hollywood films.
Food For Thought
Our mainstream media culture sends conflicting messages about food, nutrition, body image, and health. How can we teach our kids to make healthier choices about their diets, in terms of both media and food? This interactive multimedia presentation features clips from a wide variety of advertisements, documentaries, and news reports.
Screening Democracy
How does Big Media undermine democracy through the creation of “news,” the use of censorship, and the fostering of voter apathy and citizen cynicism? How can we use independent media to revive civic engagement in our classrooms and communities? This interactive multimedia presentation features clips from a wide variety of media sources.