Evaluate whether ‘Beyond Blame’, a violence prevention media literacy curriculum, is associated with improved knowledge, beliefs and behaviors related to media use and aggression.
Using a quasi-experimental design, from 2007 to 2008, teachers from schools across Southern California administrated the curriculum with or without training or served as controls. Students were tested before and after the curriculum was implemented, and during the fall semester of the next academic year. Multivariate hierarchical regression was used to compare changes from baseline to follow-up between the intervention and control groups.
Compared with controls, at the first post-test, students in the trained and untrained groups reported increased knowledge of five core concepts/key questions of media literacy, increased self-rated exposure to media violence, as well as stronger beliefs that media violence affects viewers and that people can protect themselves by watching less.
This study suggests media literacy can be feasibly integrated into schools as an approach to improving critical analysis of media, media consumption and aggression.
Changing the way youth engage media may impact many aspects of health, and an important next step will be to apply this framework to other topics.