Part 3 - cont.

Avoiding Overgeneralization

Participants recognized the downside of overgeneralizations based on quantitative, qualitative, or even anecdotal evidence of noteworthy outcomes. We need to know better whether the effectiveness of media literacy education holds true over larger or different populations. One participant pointed out that there are very small, discrete studies that do show change, with good rigor - pre- and post-test attitudes towards cigarettes, for example, with an inoculated or a non-inoculated group. As one participant put it, "What we don't have is a sort of global approach toward causality. Are there factors that make for change consistently? That's what we need to know."

Clearly, much more evidence is needed. For example, scholars know more a good deal about the impact of mediated violence on people as a result of many hundreds of studies, just as much is known about the relationship between smoking and health as a result of thousands of small and large research studies. In studying the efficacy of media and media literacy interventions in the areas of health and behavior change, no single study is ever likely to substantially define our understanding of an area.

There was caution among some participants about the scope and extent of behavioral change that was reasonable to expect. One participant put it this way: "We're not proposing that if we make everybody media literate they're going to instantly stop smoking. What we're saying is that maybe a small percentage of individuals could be