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What is Media Literacy? In recent years, adolescents have become an increasingly important target for advertising, as teens are estimated to spend more than $155 billion, averaging $84 per week of their own and their parents’ money. There is significant research evidence that shows that advertising influences young people’s tendency to use alcohol and lowers their sense of self esteem and body image. Many critics, parents, and community leaders have lamented the negative influence of advertising and the culture of celebrity on young people. As one scholar has written, “Constantly encouraged to scan the airways and their peer groups for information about what’s hip and important, children are alienated from their own internal compass, their own sense of creativity and judgment. Not only are their choices of gear limited to whatever is deemed cool for the moment, but their choices of ‘ways to be’ in the world are limited to the superficial, stereotyped, commercial images that are provided by the media.” Media literacy, defined generally as the ability to access, analyze, evaluate, and communicate messages in a wide variety of forms, emphasizes the skills of analyzing, evaluating, and creating media and technology messages which make use of language, moving images, music, sound effects, and other techniques. Drawing upon a tradition underway in the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia for the past 20 years, a coalition of U.S. educators have formed a national association and held bi-annual conferences bringing K–12 educators together with academics and community activist. In the United States, there has been increased momentum to include media literacy skills within state curriculum frameworks. Secondary English language arts textbooks now generally include the formal study of advertising, news, and some film and television genres. More than 40 states including Massachusetts, North Carolina, and New Mexico have identified media literacy skills within language arts, social studies, fine and performing arts, library information skills, or health education curricula. The State of Pennsylvania includes media literacy standards in Reading, Writing, Speaking & Listening, Health, Safety and Physical Education, and the Arts and Humanities. Media literacy activities often invite students to reflect on and analyze their own media consumption habits; to identify author, purpose, and point of view in films, commercials, television, and radio programs, magazine and newspaper editorials and advertising; to identify the range of production techniques that are used to communicate point of view and shape audience response; to identify and evaluate the quality of media’s representation of the world by examining patterns of representation, stereotyping, emphasis, and omission in print and television news and other media. Other media literacy activities often include media production activities to gain familiarity and experience in using mass media tools for personal expression and communication and for purposes of social and political advocacy. Why Teach Media Literacy with a Focus on Drug Prevention? Growing up in the new millennium presents new challenges for youth. While the stresses of adolescence are unchanging, the environment in which young people live is vastly different than the social world of teens in earlier times. Nearly two-thirds of American young people think life will be worse in ten years. Learning to cope with stress is one of the most important tasks of adolescence — and the stresses young people experience around relationships, families, school, and work life are substantial. What can caring adults — teachers, parents, and community leaders — do to help kids manage the complicated process of growing up. Drug Use and Adolescents More young people are using drugs to temporarily alleviate the stress they experience in their lives. Ten percent of Pennsylvania 7th graders have used marijuana, according to a recent study, and middle school students’ use of marijuana has doubled since 1991. According to the 2001 Middle School Research Initiative commissioned by Drug Free Pennsylvania, one out of four middle-school students in Pennsylvania think there is no danger associated with using drugs. Young people who use marijuana regularly, with or without other illicit drugs, have higher rates of skipping school, fighting, delinquency, arrests, and health problems than their counterparts. Adolescents age 12 to 17 who use marijuana weekly are nine times more likely than non-users to experiment with illegal drugs or alcohol, five times more likely to steal, and nearly four times more likely to engage in violence, according to the National Household Survey on Drug Abuse. Dangerous Messages Young people learn about drugs through both their real life experiences and from vicarious images and stories they encounter in the mass media. By the time a teen hits age 18, he or she will have seen thousands of messages for alcohol, presented through attractive, fast-paced, humorous messages. These messages make beer drinking seem a normal part of social life, connected to sports activities, something that people of all ages and races partake in. But beer commercials don’t tell the whole story about alcohol use. Alcohol use endangers teens by leading to violence, driving accidents, and unprotected sex. Traffic accidents are the leading cause of death among teenagers, and nearly 60 percent of all fatal accidents involve alcohol. And cigarette ads are highly visible in the magazines teens read, on billboards, and at sports events. With 3,000 adolescents becoming regular users each day, advertising contributes to maintaining the false belief that smoking is a normal activity, when in fact, it is a highly addictive and health-destroying activity that kills over 400,000 people each year. While there are no advertising messages about illegal drugs, young people are exposed to many media messages that talk about drugs and drug use in a favorable way. Teens find pro-drug messages in the lyrics of popular music, in humorous references to drug use and getting high in TV comedy shows, and even in the “altered states” that are sometimes shown in the process of selling soft drinks, sneakers, or snack products. Nutritional supplements give the impression that a new body can be achieved by taking a pill. More and more pro-drug use sites use attractive web design and interactive graphics to make drug use seem like harmless fun. By making drug use seem cool or funny, these media messages — on TV, the Internet, in movies, and in music — can reinforce a belief that drug use is just a lifestyle choice. The reality of drug use is that it destroys people’s lives. According to White House drug czar John Walters, illegal drug use has cost America more than $300 billion and more than 100,000 people dead. One-third of all property crimes, assaults, and murders have a drug connection. Over and over, the mass media reinforce the false belief that consuming products can take away all pain and stresses making you feel truly alive. But the media doesn’t often show us that the best ways to reduce stress and feel truly alive is not by consuming a product — but doing something meaningful, like being with people, learning, being creative, exercising, taking action in the world. Getting Smart About Media Media messages can be very effective in changing young people’s attitudes about drug use. The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) has been effective in helping young people resist the pressures that young people experience about drug use. Forty percent of teens said that anti-drug TV and print ads make them less likely to try or use drugs. The ONDCP has been active in helping parents, teachers, and other caring adults to learn skills that help protect children and teens. Teaching about advertising can be one of those skills that help protect young people from media’s negative influence; it fits very effectively into the context of health education and also links to skill development in language arts, social studies, journalism, and the visual arts. Given the pervasiveness of so many different communication technologies in our culture, young people need more opportunities (not fewer) to learn about and discuss the complex functions of the mass media in our lives. Media literacy skills are basic, 21st century literacy skills that all Americans need today. Here’s why:
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