SETTING RESEARCH DIRECTIONS FOR
MEDIA LITERACY AND HEALTH EDUCATION
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Overview
A two-day working conference was held in April of 2000 with leading media education and public health researchers charged with the task of charting future directions for research in media education. The goal of the conference was to identify approaches that should be undertaken to measure the impact of media literacy interventions aimed at health threats to youth, to stimulate descriptive evidence about the growth and nature of media literacy education in the United States and around the world, and to begin to more fully appreciate the complex, interdisciplinary connections between the fields of media studies, education and public health that research about the practice of media literacy demands and inspires.

Background and Context

Health professionals throughout the United States have increasingly adopted media interventions as a way to address a broad variety of health threats to children and adolescents. These approaches take a number of different, but related forms. Social marketing approaches have emphasized the value of using mass media to change perceptions and attitudes around lifestyle choices, including aggressive behavior, alcohol and tobacco use, nutrition, illegal drug use, seat belt use, dental and medical care, and more (DeJong et al. 1992). Exposure to messages that promote healthful lifestyle choices is acknowledged to be a valuable component of substance abuse prevention for children and youth. These approaches gained prominence when in July of 1998, President Clinton