ABSTRACT
Even though the mechanisms are poorly understood, there is substantial evidence that mass media contribute to the emergence and maintenance of negative body image, calorie-restrictive dieting, and eating disorders (Groesz et al., 2002; Levine & Harrison, 2004; Levine & Smolak, 1996, 1998; Stice, 1994; Thompson & Heinberg, 1999; Thompson et al., 1999). On the face of it, the tasks of changing the mass media or inoculating individuals against the onslaught of multinational corporations with multimillion-dollar advertising budgets strike most people as absurd and hopeless. In contrast, this chapter argues that, beginning around ages 6 to 8, audiences are active consumers who can build on their complex relationships with mass media so as to participate in two types of media literacy. The narrow type involves critical thinking about mass media in order to deepen appreciation of its many positive factors, while sharpening skills for resisting media’s negative effects on health and well-being. The broad type of media literacy expands awareness and analysis of media to connect them to both activism in response to media, and access to media for the purpose of advocating healthier messages. After we review the research on the narrow type of media literacy program, we review findings from the broad type. The latter suggest that the 5 As of media literacy (Awareness-Analysis-ActivismAccess-Advocacy) are very promising for prevention because they overlap with the effective ingredients of prevention discussed in chapters 7 through 12: consciousness-raising; development of competen-
cies and collaborative relationships; and action to change the ecology, including mass media.
