eachers wrestling unsuccessfully with a banana and a condom in front of a group of embarrassed pupils are being replaced in some UK schools by teen magazines and television dramas in an attempt to demystify sex and relationships. The MediaRelate (a partnership of academic institutions) project was devised after research found many young people preferred to gain information on sex and relationships from the media.

The MediaRelate course encourages young people to conduct their own research into representations of sex in the media, and the messages behind them, by making a scrapbook or diary including extracts from and observations on magazine and newspaper articles, advertisements, computer games, films and television programmes. Students are also given projects based on teen magazines. They also look at problem pages over recent decades and discuss the advice offered.... more