Media Literacy Intervention Plan

1358 Words6 Pages

Previous intervention plans on how to reduce the occurrence of body dissatisfaction in adolescent girls from being exposed to media. Many studies have proposed that media literacy as an intervention program will reduce negative body image towards oneself. Media literacy according to the Center for Media Literacy website defines it as “a 21st century approach to education. It provides a framework to access, analyze, evaluate, create and participate with messages in a variety of forms — from print to video to the Internet. Media literacy builds an understanding of the role of media in society as well as essential skills of inquiry and self-expression necessary for citizens of a democracy” (Media Literacy, n.d.). Researchers have suggested that …show more content…

However, this does not work for media such as the internet because of the inability to control everything posted on it. Media literacy education programs would include education on the various types of media in which there is potential to be presented with thin individuals. Knowing beforehand about what the media entails may help adolescent girls rethink their thoughts on their body. (Bell & Dittmar, …show more content…

The idea of a media literacy education course in schools would be a good start to educate these young girls in order to prevent body dissatisfaction. Schools across America could be required to sign-up for a semester long media literacy course will they will learn many different things about how and who the media portrays. In the class, they could learn about the processes a company must go through in order to publish their ads on social media, watch videos on the fallaciousness, engage in class projects to get them actively involved in this issue (community or school wide), and engage in class discussion on how their peers feel. The discussion among peers is an important point to bring up in the class because the norms and trends created by social media relate to pluralistic ignorance. Pluralistic ignorance is the phenomenon “in which people in a group misperceive the beliefs of others because everyone acts inconsistency with their beliefs” (Kenrick et al., 2010). Some individuals may commit to perceived norms because everyone else is doing despite how they feel about this “norm”. If adolescents are forced to discuss how they feel about certain trends, it may reduce the way they are affected by the media because it may show that these individuals are not alone when they see they are exposed to media. This media literacy class