Promoting Adolescent Health Through Media Literacy Education

1. Promoting Adolescent Health Through Media Literacy Education Lynda Bergsma, PhD Assistant Professor Division of Health Promotion Sciences

2. Media Impact Hundreds of media effects studies based in social learning theory over the past 50 years “leave little doubt that exposure to media content causally contributes to subsequent knowledge, beliefs, attitudes, and/or behavior related to the content portrayed,” from messages about tobacco and alcohol use, to violence as a way to resolve conflict, to eating a diet of junk food. Roberts, D. F., & Christenson, P. G. (2000). "Here's looking at you, kid" Alcohol, drugs and tobacco in entertainment media, Kaiser Family Foundation.

3. Media Use • Mass media rank among the most important socialization agents influencing the health behaviors of today’s youth. • Researchers estimate that youth spend 33-50% of their waking hours with some form of media.

4. Media Impact + Media Use = Adolescent Need for Health Promoting Media Literacy Education It is critical to address related health concerns, especially because the adolescents’ developing brains are not adequately equipped to critically analyze and interpret the complex array of messages about health that they receive from the media.

5. Session Objectives • Discover how the adolescent brain responds to risky and mixed health messages in the media. • Examine the young field of health-promoting media literacy education research, including theoretical foundations and issues of pedagogical approach. • Make recommendations for advancing the field, including applications, measurement issues, and future directions.

6. Brain Research • Print • Processing • (neocortex -higher • cognitive thinking area) • Slow • Thoughtful

7. Brain Research • Image Processing • (limbic or reptilian system) • Rapid • Instinctual • Impulsive • Emotional

8. Adolescent Brain Response to Media Messages Cognitive-control Network Socio-emotional Network

9. The Health Promotion Problem • “More than 90% of all American high-school students have had sex, drug, and driver education in their schools, yet large proportions of them still have unsafe sex, binge drink, smoke cigarettes and drive recklessly (often more than one of these at the same time).” Steinberg, L. (2004). Risk-taking in adolescence: What changes, and why? Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1021, 51–58. • Traditional educational/informational strategies are not enough to prevent or change unhealthy behaviors among adolescents.

10. Health-Promoting Media Literacy Education (HPMLE), founded on developing critical thinking starting early in adolescence, can encourage greater cooperation/cross-talk between the two networks of the brain. Cognitive-control Network Socio-emotional Network

11. HPMLE The protectionist perspective emanates from inoculation theory and focuses on protecting youth from harmful media messages by: • Parental and other interventions to monitor and limit media use • Interventions to encourage youth to limit their own media use • Activist critiques of commercial media and advocacy for media reform

12. HPMLE The empowerment perspective emanates from educational and cultural studies theory and focuses on: • Involving youth in a critical examination of media messages that influence their perceptions and practices • Empowering youth with the critical thinking life skills necessary to ameliorate the influence of these messages and make their own healthy choices

13. HPMLE Theory • Currently no commonly accepted theory of HPMLE. • Coming from a communications perspective Austin’s “Message Interpretation Process” model posits that children interpret media messages through a process that incorporates both logical decision-making (via perceptions of realism and similarity) and emotional processing (via desirability and identification).Austin, E. W., & Johnson, K. K. (1997). Effects of general and alcohol-specific media literacy training on children's decision-making about alcohol. Journal of Health Communication, 2, 17-42.

14. HPMLE Theory Building a model to show how HPMLE works from a health behavior, empowerment, and ecological perspective: • Theory of Planned Behavior - a causal chain of beliefs, attitudes, and behavioral intentions drives behavior at the individual level • Social Cognitive Theory - people learn at the interpersonal level not only from their own experiences, but by observing the actions of others and the benefits of those actions • Both emphasize self-efficacy (empowerment)

15. Constructs of HPMLE • Empowerment • Health and media knowledge • Habits of inquiry • Critical analysis and expression skills

16. HPMLE Model

17. HPMLE in Practice • HPMLE uses the NAMLE key questions to guide the students’ critical analysis of health media messages they are receiving. • HPMLE provides an empowering inquiry environment in which teachers and students learn from each other as they practice asking the questions and sharing/explaining responses that are individualized with no “right” answers.

18. NAMLE Key Questions Audience and Authorship • Authorship – Who made this message? • Purpose – Why was it made? Who is the target audience (and how do you know)? • Economics – Who paid for this message to be made and distributed? • Impact – Who might benefit from this message? Who might be harmed by it? Why might this message matter to me? • Response – What kinds of actions might I take in response to this message? How might other people respond?

19. NAMLE Key Questions Messages and Meanings • Content – What is this message about (and what makes you think that)? What ideas, values, information, and/or points of view are overt? Implied? What is left out of this message that might be important to know? • Techniques – What techniques were used to make this message? Why were those techniques used? How do they communicate the message? • Interpretation – How might different people understand this message differently? What is my interpretation of this message and what do I learn about myself from my reaction or interpretation?

20. NAMLE Key Questions Representations and Reality • Context – When was this made? Where or how was it shared with the public? • Credibility – Is this fact, opinion, or something else? How credible is this message (and what makes you think that)? What are the sources of the information, ideas or assertions in the message?

21. How Effective is HPMLE? • Many HPMLE studies conclude that it has significant potential to promote healthy knowledge and attitudes and merits further study. • But which variables contribute more or less to effectiveness? • length of intervention • age or gender of participants • type of instructors (peer-educators, researchers, classroom teachers) • training of instructors • pedagogy (inquiry or indoctrination?)

22. HPMLE Applications • HPMLE has been used to promote the health of children and adolescents in numerous areas: • violence prevention • alcohol, tobacco, and drug abuse prevention • nutrition and dieting behavior, body image, eating disorders • sexual behavior • Other recommended areas: – physical activity – safe driving

23. HPMLE Measurement Issues • Need a strong model of how HPMLE works that will dictate appropriate methods/tools for measurement of effectiveness and enable comparisons among studies. • Most studies measure change in attitudes and beliefs and few actually measure change in risky health behavior or even intent to change. • Intervention pre- and post-testing are not enough – more studies with follow-up measurement are needed.

24. Future Study Recommendations • Continue to develop and test theories/models of HPMLE • HPMLE effectiveness studies need to show change results. • Design more studies based on past ones so that meaningful comparisons can be made. • Successful studies must be replicated in order to achieve CDC evidence-based status. • Because the pedagogical approach utilized in HPMLE must be inquiry-based and grounded in critical thinking, not the more traditional health education approach of teacher bestowing knowledge upon pupil, research must pay significantly more attention to how the interventions are taught while continuing to examine what is taught.

25. Let’s talk some more: lbergsma@u.arizona.eduhttp://jmle.org/blog/?p=507http://2011.namle.net/?p=419