Speaker Bios

John J. Pungente: Secretary, Association for Media Literacy

speaker photo Profession:
Priest

Title:
Secretary, Association for Media Literacy

Affiliations:
Director, Jesuit Communication Project

Contact:
Phone: (416) 920-3286
Fax: (416) 920-8254
Email: pungente@sympatico.ca
Web: http://interact.uoregon.edu/MediaLit/JCP/Index.html

Speaking Topics:
Television (all aspects); Values and the Media; Media Violence.

Past Speaking Engagements (Selected):
Over 300 in the past ten years, across Canada, the U.S., Australia , England, France, Spain and Japan

Selection of Titles of Past Speeches:

  • Forming Values in a Media Age
  • Windows on the Landscape: TV From a Different Point of View
  • Media Violence
  • Prime Time Television and The Classroom
Resources Produced (selected list):
  • Ontario Media Literacy Resource Guide (co-author) - resource guide for teachers
  • Meet the Media (co-author) - middle school text
  • Scanning Television 1 & Scanning Television 2 (producer/director) - television excerpts for classroom use, with teacher guide
  • More Than Meets The Eye: Watching Television Watching Us - introduction to media literacy in TV for adults
Willing to Speak:
Anywhere in Canada; internationally

Available for:
Workshop facilitation; speaking engagements; media interviews

Fee:
Negotiable

Languange:
English

Biography:
John J. Pungente, SJ, co-authored Media Literacy: A Resource Guide, for the Government of Ontario in 1989, and Meet the Media in 1990, a text for 11 to 15 year olds. He has contributed to a number of international Media Literacy journals as well as written chapters for books on Media Literacy published by universities in Mexico, Spain and Canada. He is also the producer of the award winning video A Heart to Understand, and the 1996 Scanning Television, a kit containing four hours of TV excerpts and teaching notes.  Scanning Television won the Bronze Award at the 1996 Madison International Film Festival and the Gold Medal, Education Category, at the 1996 New York Festivals of International Non-Broadcast Media. Scanning Television 2 was released in February 2003 and immediately won two gold awards at festivals.

Pungente is creator and host of the award-winning Bravo! monthly television show - Scanning the Movies - which premiered in September 1997. The series is designed to assist teachers of media literacy classes dealing with contemporary movies. In May, 1999, McLelland and Stewart published More than Meets the Eye: Watching TV Watching Us which Pungente co-wrote with Martin O'Malley.

In October, 2004, Novalis published Finding God in the Dark which Pungente co-authored with Monty William., SJ. A media critic and a spiritual counselor/retreat director combine a particular spiritual literacy (Ignatian) with media literacy to make mainstream movie-viewing a way to promote spiritual growth.

Since 1985 he has given over 300 presentations, workshops and lectures on Media Literacy across Canada and Australia, and in Britain, Spain, France, the USA and Japan. He serves as a consultant to a number of media professional groups including CHUM Television, the Alliance for Children and Television, Cable in the Classroom, the National Film Board of Canada, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, YTV, TVOntario, and Warner Brothers. Pungente is currently the President of the Canadian Association for Media Education Organizations (CAMEO).

In 1995, Pungente was named recipient of the Jessie McCanse award given by the National Telemedia Council, Madison WI, for excellence in the field of media literacy. Pungente is Vice Chair for the Board of the Media Awareness Network. He has organized two successful international media education conferences in 1990 and 1992.

Pungente is Director of the Jesuit Communication Project in Toronto where he continues his main work of promoting Media Education across Canada. In May 1999, Pungente was honored for his work in media education with the conferral of a Doctorate by Lakehead University and in 2003 by another honorary Doctorate from St. Thomas University in Fredericton, NB. He was co-chair of Summit 2000: Children, Youth and the Media - an international media education conference for 1,500 delegates from 54 countries in Toronto in May 2000.