Effectiveness of a School-Based Media Literacy Curriculum in Encouraging Critical Attitudes about Advertising Content and Forms among Boys and Girls

Abstract

This study examines the effectiveness of media literacy education (MLE) in fostering critical attitudes toward advertising in both traditional and newer, more embedded forms (e.g., product placement or in social media), as well as toward gender stereotypes and violence in advertising. It uses pre- and post-MLE comparisons following a four-hour, four-week in-school program conducted with a sample of 117 participating students (average age =10.53) at a location in the United States, exploring whether advertising literacy outcomes differ by gender. Results suggest stronger dislike of ads and a stronger critique of the lack of realism in ads upon completion of the MLE program among participants as a whole. Stronger unfavorable attitudes toward stereotypical portrayals of boys and girls in advertising as well as toward violence in advertising were found only among girls. No support was registered for increased scrutiny of the practice of hidden or embedded advertising. Implications of MLE for the ways in which children can be encouraged to approach advertising from a critical point of view are discussed.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors would like to thank the students, teachers, and administrators at the schools that hosted this media literacy education program.

APPENDIX

Key Components of the Media Literacy Education (MLE) Program with Labels for Connection to the Five Key Questions of Media Literacy

1. Who created this message?

2. What creative techniques are used to attract my attention?

3. How might different people understand this message differently from me?

4. What lifestyles, values, and points of view are represented in—or omitted from—this message?

5. Why is this message being sent?

Table

Notes

1 According to the U.S. Census Bureau data, the median income of Town 1 was $75,307 (in 2014 inflation-adjusted U.S. dollars), which was above the state median household income ($67, 768); the percentage of the White non-Latino population was at 93.3%, Latino at 2.6%, Asian at 1.9%, and Black or African American at 0.7%. The median household income of Town 2 was below the state median at $52,806 (in 2014 U.S. dollars). The racial proportions of Town 2 population were 82.1% White non-Latino, 8.7% Latino, 4.4% Asian, and 3.3% Black or African American.

2 We did not treat age or grade as a between-subjects variable, because in our design age and grade were conflated with differences in socioeconomic status and racial/ethnic composition of the student population. Given that all of the participating sixth graders were from Town 1 and all of the participating fourth graders were from Town 2, there was no way to test the differences between fourth and sixth graders without also introducing potential differences by race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status.