Current media--films, videos, television programs, advertising in both print and television, and newspaper and magazine articles--can be successfully employed in college literature and composition classes, enhancing the learning environment by involving those students who might otherwise show disinterest. For example, a unit on pornography, censorship, and the First Amendment can use articles in national and local publications to examine the related topics of book banning, advertising, and the effects of music videos. Students read, discuss, and respond in writing to various issues surrounding censorship, individual rights, and the rights of the majority. Through exercises in critical thinking, students analyze national, community, and personal attitudes toward the issues and the people involved in them. Current media can be employed in a variety of ways. Library films give representations and interpretations of classic novels and contemporary short stories. Educational stations present video classes in literature and poetry at various times, such as "The Shakespeare Hour" and "Voices and Visions" (a study of various American poets). By using current media in the literature and composition classroom, students may become more culturally literate and will engage in cross-curricular learning as a result. (A bibliography for the censorship and pornography unit and a partial list of books banned since 1965 are appended.) (MM)