To help children better understand and exert control over the use of narrative language, teachers need not only to devote time to children's literature, but also need to emphasize other narrative forms including the mass media and children's own stories (in their talk, writing, drawing, and play). Giving children experience in mass media techniques can play a key role in language education. They can write and publish a newspaper or magazine, or prepare a "radio" program using a cassette recorder. In carrying out projects such as these, certain key concepts must be understood: (1) how to select material; (2) how to construct a media product; (3) the purposes of a media product; (4) how to represent ideas, people, and events; (5) how stereotypes allow communication to draw upon commonly held attitudes and beliefs; (6) the inherently biased nature of a media product; and (7) children's extensive, though unarticulated, knowledge of media conventions. (SRT)