Highlighting the importance of media education in Latin America, this paper describes projects conducted by the Latin American Institute for Communicative Education and the National Council for the Population of Mexico to examine the family's influence in promoting critical television viewing. A theoretical model for media education is then presented, followed by descriptions of projects in schools designed to train parents to encourage critical viewing on the part of their children. It is noted that similar projects have been carried out with both inservice and preservice teachers. (33 references) (GL)