Media Literacy

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Media Literacy
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Media in our lives

• Growing up
• How many TVs were in your house?
• How many computers?
• How many family members had a cell phone?

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Generation M
Source www.kff.org
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Source www.kff.org
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Source www.kff.org
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Media Literacy

• What is media literacy?
• the ability to access, analyze, evaluate, and
  communicate information in a variety of forms.
  (etr.org, 2006)
• Why is media literacy important?

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Time spent with media

• Young people today live media-saturated lives,
  spending an average of nearly 6 ½ hours a day
  with media. (www.kff.org)
• TV and music are the most prevalent
• Computers and video games second
• Reading (books, magazines, newspapers) third
• Compared to
• 2 ¼ hours spending time with parents
• 1 ½ hours being physically active
• Less than an hour doing homework
• www.kff.org

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Access to media
Source www.kff.org
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Access to Media

• Todays adolescents have unprecedented amount of
  media in their homes, their bedrooms, and through
  portable media devices. (www.kff.org, Generation
  M Report)
• In 51 of homes, the television is on most of the
  time.
• 68 of youth have a TV in their bedroom.
• 31 of youth have a computer in their bedroom.
• Increased access equals increased usage.

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Media and Family Time

• Interestingly, young people who spend the most
  time with media also report spending more time
  with their parents, being physically active, and
  pursuing other hobbies. (www.kff.org)
• However
• Not necessarily positive

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Media and Family Time
Source www.kff.org
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Parental Guidelines
Source www.kff.org
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Parental Guidelines

• Only about half of the families had some
  guidelines and rules regarding television
  watching.
• Less than half of those actually enforced the
  guidelines.
• Content is likely to be regulated by parents.
• Computer usage was the most widely regulated
  content.

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New vs Old Media

• Media is constantly changing.
• New media computers, video games, instant
  messaging, text messaging, etc
• Old media television, music, magazines,
  newspapers
• New media is not replacing old media
• What exactly does this mean?

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Television

• Television is still the most dominant form of
  media for todays youth.
• How they watch is changing though.
• Cable vs broadcast
• DVRs
• Online television shows

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Television Sex
Source www.kff.org
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Television Sex

• Sexual content is increasing
• About 70 of all shows now have some sexual
  content
• Among the top 20 most-watched shows by teens,
  70 include some kind of sexual content, and
  nearly half (45) include sexual behavior.
  (www.kff.org, pg 4)
• The number of sexual scenes is increasing
• Shows are less likely to reference safer sex
• More likely to show riskier behavior

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Computers

• Almost every adolescent has used a computer and
  gone online.
• About an hour a day is spent online (outside of
  homework).

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Media Advertising

• Advertising is a growing industry, especially for
  children adolescents.
• Approximately 15 billion is spent annually
• 80 of all global brands currently use a tween
  strategy.
• (www.newdream.org)

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Media Advertising

• Youth have more influence dispensable income
  than ever.
• The Nag Factor
• Where do you typically encounter advertising?
• How does all of this impact health?

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How do we promote media literacy?

• Communicate!
• Deconstruct the message
• Who paid for it? Why?
• Who is the target audience?
• What message is being sent?
• What lifestyle is promoted?

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• http//www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/kidsonline
  /view/