Program Profile: Media Ready

This is a media literacy and substance use prevention program for sixth- through eighth-grade students. The program is rated Promising. Intervention group students reported less intention to use tobacco in the future, compared with control group students, at the 2-week follow up (a statistically significant difference). However, there were no statistically significant differences between the groups in intention to use alcohol in the future.

A Promising rating implies that implementing the program may result in the intended outcome(s).

This program's rating is based on evidence that includes at least one high-quality randomized controlled trial.

Program Goals/Target Population

Media Ready is a media literacy education and substance use prevention program for sixth through eighth grades students. The goal of the program is to prevent or delay the onset of underage alcohol and tobacco use by increasing students’ critical thinking skills about media messages, particularly those related to alcohol and tobacco products, and to encourage healthy beliefs and attitudes about abstaining from substance use.

Program Theory

On average, youths between the ages of 8 and 18 spend more than 7½ hours a day involved with media activities, such as watching television, listening to music, and playing video games (Rideout, Foehr, and Roberts 2010). Youths often are exposed to many media messages that advertise risky and unhealthy behaviors, including substance use. Media literacy education programs, such as Media Ready, are designed to improve youths’ abilities to deconstruct media messages so they can understand the underlying persuasive elements and develop skepticism about advertisements that attempt to send positive messages about certain behaviors such as alcohol and tobacco use. The program intends for students to apply those critical thinking and deconstruction skills in everyday life and to encourage students to stop and think before accepting media messages.

The program is based on the Message Interpretation Process (MIP) Model, which provides a framework for understanding the cognitive processes associated with the interpretation of media messages. The MIP Model draws on social cognitive theory, dual-process theories of attitude change, and the theory of reasoned action to illustrate how individuals use media messages in their decision-making process about certain topics such as substance use. According to the MIP Model, individuals apply both emotion and logic to their processing of media messages. Messages that seem more relatable and realistic to an individual’s life and experiences are more likely to influence decisions in ways that are consistent with the message content. For example, if a message about alcohol or tobacco makes these substances seem cool—and individuals perceive the message as realistic or similar to them—then the message will be more likely to influence individuals’ substance use.

Program Components

The Media Ready program has 10 lessons lasting about 45 minutes each that build cumulatively on one another. Each lesson is scripted within a teacher manual to facilitate program implementation. The lessons include interactive activities, hands-on practice, and small group work. Important questions that are discussed in the program include:

1. Is the message positive or negative?
2. Who paid for it?
3. Who is the target?
4. What is the implied message?
5. What was left out?
6. Do I like this message?
7. If I don’t like the message, what can I do about it?

The first part of the program (lessons 1 to 4) concentrates on changing students’ perceptions of the realism and similarity to advertising media messages. Students participate in activities where they learn to apply key questions to analyze and evaluate media messages found in advertisements for a wide range of products, such as toys, shows, perfumes, and cars. Students also analyze literacy devices and visual design techniques that are often used in advertisements to attract and influence viewers to purchase or use a product.

During the next part of the curriculum (lessons 5 and 6), students apply their newly developed deconstruction skills to analyze and evaluate several advertisements for alcohol and tobacco products. During these lessons, students tackle the question of whether any information is left out of the advertisements. For example, to determine if there is important information missing from alcohol and tobacco advertisements, students are provided with drug education research to help them determine what was factually correct or incorrect. Alcohol and tobacco products and advertising are not mentioned until the fifth lesson, after students have acquired the core media literacy skills, so that the program does not blatantly present an antidrug message that may be prematurely dismissed by students.

During the seventh lesson, students review self-regulated advertising and marketing guidelines established by the alcohol industry, and draw their own conclusions about whether the manufacturer violated any of the industries’ own guidelines and why. In the final part of the program (lessons 8 to 10), students—informed by research on counter-marketing campaigns—work on designing a media product. The creation of counter-attitudinal advocacy products in the Media Ready program allows students to express themselves while using their media literacy skills.

Study 1

Kupersmidt, Scull, and Benson (2012) evaluated the program effectiveness of Media Ready using a randomized control group trial conducted in two central North Carolina school districts. Five Health Education teachers and five Language Arts teachers were recruited to participate in the study. Each teacher had one to three classes of students. In total, 24 classes participated in the study, with 12 classes randomly assigned to the intervention group (n = 214 students) and 12 classes randomly assigned to the control group (n = 198 students).

The study sample included sixth, seventh, and eighth grade classes. The intervention group was 61 percent female, and 63.5 percent white, 8.0 percent African American, and 28.5 percent other races (including Asian, multiracial, American Indian, and Hawaiian/Pacific Islander). The control group was 52 percent female, and 60.6 percent white, 9.0 percent African American, and 30.4 percent other races. There were no significant differences between the groups, except there were larger proportions of sixth and seventh graders in the intervention group, while the control group had a larger proportion of eighth graders.

Pretests and posttests were administered to both groups about 2 weeks apart. The primary outcome measure of interest was intent of students to use alcohol and tobacco products in the future. Intentions to use alcohol in the future was measured by four items on a four-point Likert scale ranging from 0 (“I definitely will not”) to 3 (“I definitely will”). Students were asked if they would drink beer, wine, or hard liquor (more than just a few sips) and if they will get drunk or drink a lot of alcohol at one time during the next year and before they turn 21. Intentions to use tobacco products were also measured by four items, using the same four-point Likert scale. Students were asked if they would smoke cigarettes and chew tobacco or use snuff during the next year and before they turn 18.

Three potential mediators of the program effectiveness representing the logical components described in the MIP model were also assessed. These mediator variables include perceived similarity, perceived realism, and media deconstruction skills. Perceived similarity was measured using eight items that asked students whether media portrayals are similar to their personal experiences. Perceived realism was measured by six items that asked students which media portrayals are like real-life people and events. Lower scores indicated less belief that images in media portrayals are realistic or typical. Response scales for both mediators ranged from 0 (never) to 5 (always), with lower scores indicating a lower perception of similarity between media portrayals and personal experiences.

Finally, media deconstruction skills were assessed directly by asking students to deconstruct one alcohol and one tobacco print advertisement. The resulting qualitative responses were coded using five categories designed to create an aggregate score to assess students’ overall ability to deconstruct advertisements, with total potential scores ranging from a low of 0 to a high of 14. The categories were product, graphic elements, language, target audience, and implied messages.

Five sets of analyses were conducted to account for within-classroom heterogeneity, with teachers serving as the repeated variable. Pretest scores for each outcome variable were included as prediction variables; thus, outcome variable means are reported as adjusted posttest least square mean scores. Hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) was used to analyze the differences in two student outcome measures (intent to use alcohol and intent to use tobacco). Additional moderators of the effectiveness of the Media Ready program were also examined as well as variables assessing logical analysis of media messages. The authors conducted subgroup analyses on gender and prior alcohol or tobacco use.

One limitation to the study is the follow-up period. The results are based on information collected from students approximately two weeks (18 days) after they received the Media Detective intervention. More research is needed to study the long-term effects of the program.

A comprehensive and interactive 1-day, in-person Teacher Training Workshop conducted by a certified innovation Research & Training, Inc. (iRT) Media Ready trainer is available. Contact iRT at 919.493.7700 or [email protected] for information about scheduling and costs.

Subgroup Analysis

Kupersmidt, Scull, and Benson (2012) conducted subgroup analyses on gender and prior alcohol or tobacco use. Their analyses revealed a significant interaction between gender and study condition. Boys in the control groups reported greater intention to use alcohol than boys in the intervention group. This difference was statistically significant. Control group boys also reported greater intention to use alcohol, compared with girls in the intervention and control groups. These differences were also statistically significant.

There was also a significant interaction between previous use of tobacco and study condition. Previous users in the control group reported greater intention to use tobacco again, compared with previous users in the intervention group. This difference was also statistically significant.

Mediator Analysis

The authors also conducted mediator analyses, which revealed that intervention group students did not differ on outcome measures of intention to use alcohol and tobacco across grades. Between pretest and posttest, to better understand the mechanisms that are associated with a reduction in intention to use, the authors also conducted multilevel mediator analyses, using data from students who indicated at least some intention to use substances in the future. The analyses indicated that deconstruction skills, perceived realism, and perceived similarity (components of the Message Interpretation Processing model) mediated the effectiveness of the Media Ready program to reduce students’ intentions to use alcohol and tobacco in the future.

These sources were used in the development of the program profile:

These sources were used in the development of the program profile: