Deborah L' Begoray, PhD

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Youth Health Literacy and the Media

• Deborah L. Begoray, PhD
• Research Fellow, Centre for Youth and Society
• Professor, Faculty of Education

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Youth Educators

• Schools/Teachers
• Parents/Family members
• Coaches
• Peers
• Government/Policies
• Society at largeand the Media

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What is the effect of literacy on health?

• Reading"Be careful about reading health books.
  You may die of a misprint. --Mark Twain
• Writing Writing is hard work and bad for the
  health. E.B. White
• Listening/Speaking http//www.youtube.com/watch?v
  tFWY2Qt4qd8
• Viewing/Representing/Multimedia

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German Coast Guard
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Literacies

• Reading, writing, listening, speaking, viewing
  and representing (schools)
• Prose literacy, numeracy, document literacy
  (IALS)
• Functional, interactive, critical (Nutbeam, 2000)
• New literacies multiple in nature, engaged by
  adolescents often simultaneously (chat rooms,
  text messaging, Twitter, Facebook), usually
  mediated electronically

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Youth Health

• Youth is end of childhood but beginning of
  adulthood.
• Habits established in adolescence persist into
  adulthood. (Kolbe 2005)
• Youth health is both individual AND social
  ecological models needed

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Media and Youth Health A Canadian View

• 48 percent have their own TV, 26 have their own
  computer with Internet hookup (2004)
• Canadian youth see media violence as benign
• Study of 374, 9-14 year old girls found increase
  in eating disorders correlated with increase in
  reading magazines and watching TV (Vaughan
  Fouts, 2003)
• Media is an educatorand
• miseducator

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The average female model is 510, 110 lbs.

• Axe deodorant
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?v0p-5e5mc2Do
• Content Why should men buy Axe?
• Media issue What do the body types of these
  models, male and female, say to men and women
  viewers? (Whats the height and weight of the
  average NA woman?)

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AXE Commercial
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SSHRC Study

• Student Participants 14-15 years old 4 schools,
  147 surveys, 32 focus group participants
• Planning 10, 36 hours health
• Health Literacy the extent to which people are
  able to find, understand, evaluate, and
  communicate health information.
• Impact of curriculum and of external factors on
  health literacy

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Media Influence Survey Says

• Survey (non-prompted)What is one factor you
  think influences your health which you have no
  control over?
• Where do you seek health information?
• Where do you verify health information?

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Media influence Student Focus Groups

• What is the main influence outside of your
  Planning 10 class that affects your health
  literacy?
• 18 of 32 students discussed media
• Themes Who is affected by the media? How are
  they affected? How can the medias power be
  addressed?

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Student Voices

• Media is probably the most influence for
  everybody. Im including me, because we cant
  have no control it makes us have a fixed belief
  on what might be true or might not be truethis
  overpowers what we learned in school. (Meagan)
• We might not like to listen to our
  parentsbecause of the media. Im not sure.
  (Meagan)
• younger children (are influenced) because they,
  like, dont know what is good and what is bad.
  Like, maybe the media say like, okay, this is so
  goodactually, its notwe are older and we,
  like, look in books and we know better. (Sara)
• I dont really talk at all, like, to anyone. I
  just find out from the Internet. (Sara)

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Student Voices

• It doesnt affect me a lot, but I see it affects
  some peopleif somethings on the TVand then
  they go look it up somewhere else, some people
  actually do think that the TV is right and the
  other source isnt. So sometimes people just have
  to learn where to get their information from
  properly. (Abby)
• If you read things, itll say, like this is bad
  for you and this is bad for you, but if you look
  at everything, theres probably something bad in
  everything that we eatso really you cant take
  everything too seriously. (Abby)

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Student Voices

• I probably learn more outside of school than I
  do in Planning 10, because Plannings pretty
  boring, so, well yeah. I definitely learn more
  from the media than anything else. (John)
• Were interested in what our parents have to say
  or what the media has to say. So, I think, we
  take it more seriously because we want to know
  the information were seeking, instead of having
  it brought upon us, forced upon us by
  teachers. (Leslie)
• I have a poster on my wall, a collage of
  Victorias Secret models and it says my dream
  goal for summer. Im kinda steering myself for
  thatgetting a gym pass and playing more field
  hockey and going out in the mornings and going
  for runs and stuff. (Jean)

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Student Voices

• Its just like Drink lots of Gatorade, but in
  reality its just lots of sodium that makes you
  retain water if youre not using it properly, and
  then theres, like Coke commercials where
  everybodys really active and dancing, but in
  reality, if you drink that much Coke, you
  probably wouldnt be walkingtheyll have, like,
  so many commercials about horrible junk food.
  Things crammed with so many chemicals and
  additives but then theyll have commercials for
  healthy living right after it. (Ben)

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Student Voices

• I think definitely the main influences other
  than Planning 10 class to affect our health
  literacy is definitely the media because they
  are, I guess, theyre professionals they know
  what they are doing, so they know how to get the
  viewers to pay attention, listen and think.
  (Jim)
• The people with the big business, they have so
  much more money to advertise, so they just keep
  getting more money, where the healthy industries
  get less money. (Al)

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Student Voices

• I dont like the media. I dont like it cause
  when I was younger when they used to have the
  tampon or the pads commercials, I was, I figured,
  okay, I guess my periods going to be blue then
  and I was really disappointed when it wasnt.
  (Maria)
• You always idolize those farthest from you, so
  with celebrities and stuff, like, you, never, you
  probably never going to really, really have
  relationships with, like Jennifer Love Hewitt, or
  what her name is, so you, and you kinda wanna be,
  you know, like her and shes kinda your role
  model. (Maria)

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Student Voices

• Every weekend theres a health section in the
  newspaper and in there theres what you should
  eat And you look at that and it makes you think
  just eating bread or just eating vegetables
  just doesnt sound right. Weve all heard bad
  things about what not to eat and what not to do.
  But I think we have to do more research for our
  own selves better to see how it affects our own
  bodies instead of hearing what other people have
  to say about it. (Saxon)

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Study Conclusions

• All were aware of medias pervasiveness. Many had
  some basic understanding of its techniques and
  powerbut also confusion.
• It is clearly difficult for these students to
  step outside their context and look critically at
  the media.
• Incidental and passive learning that occurs
  through the media (super peer/cultural parent)
  may contribute to youths lack of awareness of
  its impact.
• Media is a major health educator/miseducator.
• Planning 10 is not currently able to engender
  critical media health literacy.

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Media health education What might it look like?

• Youth Health
• Content What is the impact of society on youth
  health?
• Media persuasive techniques What is the effect
  of the colour in each scene?
• Dove evolution http//www.youtube.com/watch?viYhC
  n0jf46U
• Content What does society view as beauty?
• Media issue What reason might Dove have for
  creating this video?

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United Way Campaign
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DOVE Commercial
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And now for some good news

• Critical media literacy education works
  understand, critique, celebrate and create the
  print and visual texts of everyday life
  (Alvermann et al. 1999 Buckingham, 2003)
• Positive health campaigns are showing positive
  influence as well (e.g. anti-tobacco Truth)
  http//www.youtube.com/watch?vxRHvZazd4IM

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TRUTH campaign ad
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Adolescent health literacy Its not too late!

• I am always ready to learn although I do not
  always like being taught.Winston Churchill