Teen Sexual Health

Teen Workshop Modules

Media Literacy: Overview

Participants will:

Uncover common media messages present on TV and in music, movies, and the internet
Explore how media messages affect/create teens' perception of reality, particularly pertaining to what it means to be male or female
Examine how media messages affect teens' ability to develop and maintain healthy relationships and sexuality
Demonstrate a strengthened ability to think critically about media messages
Explore how to limit the harms of the media.

Resources:

Media Literacy Module

Materials:

Male-oriented magazines popular with teens
Female-oriented magazines popular with teens
Popular music lyrics
Sheets of flipchart paper
Lots of markers
Copies of the Healthy Sexuality Flower
- Healthy Sexuality Flower Handout

Target Audience: Grade 8s and 9 students.

Facilitator's Background Notes: Media Literacy-What is it? Why is it Important?
The Media's Place in our Lives Recently David Shaw, the media/technology critic for the Los Angeles Times, published a plea for media literacy. North Americans have become a culture of media-consumers. Media is a term used to describe all means of mass communication such as television, movies, the internet, billboards, newspapers, magazines, radio, and newsletters. From the time we wake up to the time we go to sleep, our lives are inundated with media. The Media has the Power to Influence The media is a powerful force in our society. On a daily basis, much of our time is occupied in absorbing the messages the Media has created with the aim of entertaining and teaching us. An American study conducted by the University of South Carolina found that people spend an average of 10.5 hours a day using media, about 25% of that time using two forms of media simultaneously. A Kaiser Family Foundation study found that 68% of kids aged 2 and younger spend an average of two hours a day in front of a TV or computer screen, while children under 6 spend as much time in front of a screen as they do playing outside. Indeed, a professor of media culture at New York University came up with the term "screen-agers " to describe the state of media immersion adolescents grow up in. At the same, the media is not a direct reflection of our world. Instead, what it focuses on and the way it presents messages provide a representation of the world created by those who have paid for it. Media is primarily paid for by advertising. Advertisers want you to buy something. This means the representation they provide is based on their desire for people to need their product. And, with so much exposure to the media, it is not surprising that the messages presented have a powerful effect in shaping the health behaviours of teens. These signs and messages have great powers to influence people if they are not explored and questioned. The Parkgate Teen Sexual Health Project found that media had the most influence, out of all external sources, in shaping the values, attitudes, and behaviours of young men and women. On the whole, these messages did not support healthy decisions about relationships and sexuality. Indeed, they tended to reinforce old stereotypes and labels of, for example, women as sluts and men as hypersexual aggressors. In order for people to make healthy choices, we need to be able to think for ourselves. This includes having the skills to uncover what parts of these messages help us and what parts hurt us. Messages about Gender Sold by the Media can be Harmful to our Health For the most part, the messages the media reinforces about men, women, relationships, and sexuality follow traditional gender stereotypes. Men are portrayed as dominant, aggressive, only wanting sex, and not able to show feelings, while women are portrayed as passive, submissive, only wanting love, and sexy but not sexual. Heterosexuality is portrayed as the normal expression of sexuality. These messages tell youth how they should be and encourage them to make decisions based on assumption rather than through communication. For example, young women who are interested-or even "too" interested or knowledgeable-in sexuality are often labeled as "sluts," "whores," etc. This goes back to the old double standard of young women being socially punished for the same behaviours that are praised in young men. It also puts young women on shaky ground when it comes to being prepared for safer sexual activity. A young woman may choose not to carry condoms or negotiate condom use with her partner for fear of appearing to "know" too much. She may also engage in oral sex as a way to keep her virginity and avoid the "slut" label. However, when oral sex is not considered sex, people do not often consider the risks of STI and HIV infection. Young women may also pressure their male partners into sexual activity based on the assumption that men always want sex. Young men are similarly affected by these stereotypes. They may find themselves feeling pressured to have sex before they are ready, or more often than they would like, to live up to the "standards of masculinity." They may find it difficult to seek out sexual health information and support because they are expected to know about sex. They may also find themselves pressuring their partner into sexual activity based on the belief that this is the man's role. All too often, these stereotypes lead both genders into behaviours that are risky for themselves and others. The ultimate goal of encouraging youth to look at how media messages affect our beliefs and attitudes around sexuality and relationships is that, instead of acting based on assumptions, youth are able to make informed decisions from a place of respect, caring, trust, and communication. Media Literacy Media literacy is one tool that can increase teens' ability to make choices that take care of their health. Media literacy is about having the skills to think critically about the messages the media wants to transmit. Instead of passively consuming media, it involves taking an active role in one's consumption by being able to access, analyze, evaluate, and create media. It builds upon people's understanding of the role of media in society, their ability to critically explore the messages they encounter, and expressing themselves in relation to these messages. As Project Respect says: "Think about it. Question it. Don't just buy into the pressure from media to conform. Create your own meaning and ideas." What's Media Literacy About? The Key Concepts of Media Literacy as defined by the Jesuit Communication Project are as follows: All media are constructions. This is arguably the most important concept. The media do not simply reflect external reality. Rather, they present carefully crafted constructions that reflect many decisions and are the result of many determining factors. Media Literacy works towards deconstructing these constructions (taking them apart to show how they are made). The media constructs versions of reality. The media is responsible for the majority of observations and experiences from which we build up our personal understandings of the world and how it works. Much of our view of reality is based on media messages that have been pre-constructed and have attitudes, interpretations, and conclusions already built in. Thus the media, to a great extent, gives us our sense of reality. Audiences negotiate meaning in media. If the media provides us with much of the material upon which we build our picture of reality, each of us finds or "negotiates" meaning according to individual factors: personal needs and anxieties, the pleasures or troubles of the day, racial and sexual attitudes, family and cultural background, moral standpoint, and so forth. Media messages have commercial implications. Media literacy aims to encourage awareness of how the media is influenced by commercial considerations, and how [media messages] impinge on content, technique, and distribution." Most media production is a business, and as such, must make a profit. Questions of ownership and control are central: a relatively small number of individuals control what we watch, read, and hear in the media. Media messages contain ideological and value messages. All media products are advertising in some sense, proclaiming values and ways of life. The mainstream media conveys, explicitly or implicitly, ideological messages about issues such as the nature of the good life, the virtue of consumerism, the role of women, the acceptance of authority, and unquestioning patriotism. Media messages contain social and political implications. The media has great influence in politics and in forming social change. Television can greatly influence the election of a national leader on the basis of image. The media involves us in concerns such as civil rights issues, famines in Africa, and the AIDS epidemic. The media gives us an intimate sense of national issues and global concerns so that we have become McLuhan's Global Village. Form and content are closely related in media messages. As Marshall McLuhan noted, each medium has its own grammar and codifies reality in its own particular way. Different media will report the same event, but create different impressions and messages. Each medium has a unique aesthetic form. Just as we notice the pleasing rhythms of certain pieces of poetry or prose, so ought we be able to enjoy the pleasing forms and effects of the different media.

Facilitator's Background Notes:
Media Literacy-What is it? Why is it Important?

The Media's Place in our Lives
Recently David Shaw, the media/technology critic for the Los Angeles Times, published a plea for media literacy. North Americans have become a culture of media-consumers. Media is a term used to describe all means of mass communication such as television, movies, the internet, billboards, newspapers, magazines, radio, and newsletters. From the time we wake up to the time we go to sleep, our lives are inundated with media.

The Media has the Power to Influence
The media is a powerful force in our society. On a daily basis, much of our time is occupied in absorbing the messages the Media has created with the aim of entertaining and teaching us. An American study conducted by the University of South Carolina found that people spend an average of 10.5 hours a day using media, about 25% of that time using two forms of media simultaneously. A Kaiser Family Foundation study found that 68% of kids aged 2 and younger spend an average of two hours a day in front of a TV or computer screen, while children under 6 spend as much time in front of a screen as they do playing outside. Indeed, a professor of media culture at New York University came up with the term "screen-agers " to describe the state of media immersion adolescents grow up in.

At the same, the media is not a direct reflection of our world. Instead, what it focuses on and the way it presents messages provide a representation of the world created by those who have paid for it. Media is primarily paid for by advertising. Advertisers want you to buy something. This means the representation they provide is based on their desire for people to need their product. And, with so much exposure to the media, it is not surprising that the messages presented have a powerful effect in shaping the health behaviours of teens. These signs and messages have great powers to influence people if they are not explored and questioned.

The Parkgate Teen Sexual Health Project found that media had the most influence, out of all external sources, in shaping the values, attitudes, and behaviours of young men and women. On the whole, these messages did not support healthy decisions about relationships and sexuality. Indeed, they tended to reinforce old stereotypes and labels of, for example, women as sluts and men as hypersexual aggressors. In order for people to make healthy choices, we need to be able to think for ourselves. This includes having the skills to uncover what parts of these messages help us and what parts hurt us.

Messages about Gender Sold by the Media can be Harmful to our Health
For the most part, the messages the media reinforces about men, women, relationships, and sexuality follow traditional gender stereotypes. Men are portrayed as dominant, aggressive, only wanting sex, and not able to show feelings, while women are portrayed as passive, submissive, only wanting love, and sexy but not sexual. Heterosexuality is portrayed as the normal expression of sexuality. These messages tell youth how they should be and encourage them to make decisions based on assumption rather than through communication.

For example, young women who are interested-or even "too" interested or knowledgeable-in sexuality are often labeled as "sluts," "whores," etc. This goes back to the old double standard of young women being socially punished for the same behaviours that are praised in young men. It also puts young women on shaky ground when it comes to being prepared for safer sexual activity. A young woman may choose not to carry condoms or negotiate condom use with her partner for fear of appearing to "know" too much. She may also engage in oral sex as a way to keep her virginity and avoid the "slut" label. However, when oral sex is not considered sex, people do not often consider the risks of STI and HIV infection. Young women may also pressure their male partners into sexual activity based on the assumption that men always want sex.

Young men are similarly affected by these stereotypes. They may find themselves feeling pressured to have sex before they are ready, or more often than they would like, to live up to the "standards of masculinity." They may find it difficult to seek out sexual health information and support because they are expected to know about sex. They may also find themselves pressuring their partner into sexual activity based on the belief that this is the man's role.

All too often, these stereotypes lead both genders into behaviours that are risky for themselves and others. The ultimate goal of encouraging youth to look at how media messages affect our beliefs and attitudes around sexuality and relationships is that, instead of acting based on assumptions, youth are able to make informed decisions from a place of respect, caring, trust, and communication.

Media Literacy
Media literacy is one tool that can increase teens' ability to make choices that take care of their health. Media literacy is about having the skills to think critically about the messages the media wants to transmit. Instead of passively consuming media, it involves taking an active role in one's consumption by being able to access, analyze, evaluate, and create media. It builds upon people's understanding of the role of media in society, their ability to critically explore the messages they encounter, and expressing themselves in relation to these messages. As Project Respect says: "Think about it. Question it. Don't just buy into the pressure from media to conform. Create your own meaning and ideas."

What's Media Literacy About?
The Key Concepts of Media Literacy as defined by the Jesuit Communication Project are as follows:

All media are constructions. This is arguably the most important concept. The media do not simply reflect external reality. Rather, they present carefully crafted constructions that reflect many decisions and are the result of many determining factors. Media Literacy works towards deconstructing these constructions (taking them apart to show how they are made).
The media constructs versions of reality. The media is responsible for the majority of observations and experiences from which we build up our personal understandings of the world and how it works. Much of our view of reality is based on media messages that have been pre-constructed and have attitudes, interpretations, and conclusions already built in. Thus the media, to a great extent, gives us our sense of reality.
Audiences negotiate meaning in media. If the media provides us with much of the material upon which we build our picture of reality, each of us finds or "negotiates" meaning according to individual factors: personal needs and anxieties, the pleasures or troubles of the day, racial and sexual attitudes, family and cultural background, moral standpoint, and so forth.
Media messages have commercial implications. Media literacy aims to encourage awareness of how the media is influenced by commercial considerations, and how [media messages] impinge on content, technique, and distribution." Most media production is a business, and as such, must make a profit. Questions of ownership and control are central: a relatively small number of individuals control what we watch, read, and hear in the media.
Media messages contain ideological and value messages. All media products are advertising in some sense, proclaiming values and ways of life. The mainstream media conveys, explicitly or implicitly, ideological messages about issues such as the nature of the good life, the virtue of consumerism, the role of women, the acceptance of authority, and unquestioning patriotism.
Media messages contain social and political implications. The media has great influence in politics and in forming social change. Television can greatly influence the election of a national leader on the basis of image. The media involves us in concerns such as civil rights issues, famines in Africa, and the AIDS epidemic. The media gives us an intimate sense of national issues and global concerns so that we have become McLuhan's Global Village.
Form and content are closely related in media messages. As Marshall McLuhan noted, each medium has its own grammar and codifies reality in its own particular way. Different media will report the same event, but create different impressions and messages.
Each medium has a unique aesthetic form. Just as we notice the pleasing rhythms of certain pieces of poetry or prose, so ought we be able to enjoy the pleasing forms and effects of the different media.

To: Understanding 'Media' >