In order to promote critical thinking, I try to balance students' deconstructing existing messages, creating their own messages, and constructively critiquing the messages they've created (using the skills they learned from critiquing other media).  In creating media, I push students slightly out of their comfort zone, depending on the sense I get of their expertise.  For instance, I focused primarily on audio podcasts in one of my classes.  Students listened to online podcasts created by adults and youth on the issues we were discussing in my Mass Media and Children class.  Students critiqued the form and content of these podcats.  Later in the semester, they created their own podcast about an issue that was important to them (related to the issues in class).  I required them to buy a cheap microphone, and only had time for one in-class training day on how to create a podcast...otherwise, I provided them links to free podcast editing software.  On the due date, we listened to the podcasts in class and provided constructive criticism/critique of the form + content.  By that point, students were comfortable with the media literacy questions we had been asking throghout the semester, and better able to apply these questions to their classmates' (and their own) work.  Students either really enjoyed making their podcast or hated it.  But for those students who said they hated it, it was due to learning how to communicate and edit in audio podcast form.  I was pleasantly surprised when many thanked me for making them learn it and do it...it was a challenge.  As for me...I learned a lot in this process by forcing myself to learn about podcasting.   So to recap, in this case I went through a process of first helping students ask effective questions to deconstruct (by using ML questions) a particular form of media, creating thier own messages in this form, and deconstructing their creations.