“Choose Today, Live Tomorrow”: A Content Analysis of Anti-Substance Use Messages Produced by Adolescents

Abstract

Adolescent-produced anti-substance use messaging is an increasingly popular and effective prevention strategy. However, little is known about the content of these messages and the production elements adolescents use to bring that content to life. In this article, we present a content analysis of 95 anti-substance use messages developed by 4-H club members across nine U.S. states as part of their participation in the media literacy program REAL media. Posters and videos were content-analyzed for target substance, prevention goal, message form, message content, persuasion strategies, and production elements. Results of the content analysis revealed that combustible tobacco (smoking) was the most popular target substance in the sample among the choices of alcohol, marijuana, e-cigarettes, and chewing tobacco. More youth developed messages with the goal of preventing substance use, rather than stopping current use. Slogans were used in the majority of messages, and nearly all messages took an informational form, rather than narrative or statistical form. Persuasion strategies covered in the curriculum, including fun with the group, unexpected, style, and endorsement were scantily used. Finally, results showed that production value was high in this sample, reflected by the extensive use of color and variety of fonts and font sizes. Implications for future media literacy interventions and research are discussed.

Acknowledgments

We gratefully acknowledge the contributions of the 4-H clubs and their members, particularly Rachel Lyons of 4-H and Rutgers University.

Conflicts of Interest

Kathryn Greene, Smita Banerjee, and Michael Hecht disclose intellectual property interests in the REAL media curriculum.

Human rights

All procedures involving human participants were in accordance with institutional review board ethical standards and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments. IRB protocol approval #15-544Rc (Rutgers University).

Informed Consent

Informed consent from parents and youth assent was obtained from all study participants.

Welfare of Animals

This article does not contain any studies with animals performed by any of the authors.

Additional information

Funding

Supported by the NIH National Institute on Drug Abuse [R42DA039595] and the NIH National Cancer Institute [P30CA008748].