On the Sports Field, YouTube, and TV: Equipping Students to Critically Analyze Alcohol Advertisements

• In Event: Roundtable Session 45
  In Roundtable Session: Critically Literate Buyer Beware! Menstruation, Alcohol, Tattoos, and Reality TV

Abstract

A 10-lesson alcohol media literacy program was developed by the authors based on the message interpretation processing model, inoculation theory and constructivist learning theory. The program intended to increase students’ media literacy skills and reduce intent to drink alcohol. This study evaluated the effectiveness of the program, within the Australian advertising scene, through a mixed-method embedded design. Australian upper-elementary classrooms were assigned to either the intervention group (n= 88), or a waiting list control group (n= 90). Questionnaires measured the program’s effectiveness; while teacher interviews and observations, student exit slips and work samples, and a researcher reflective journal examined the implementation process. The research contributes to the small but growing field of alcohol prevention research for the upper-elementary school years.

Authors

• Chloe Sarah Gordon, University of Wollongong

• Sandra C Jones, Australian Catholic University - Melbourne

• Lisa Kervin, University of Wollongong