Why do girls need Media Literacy?

The majority of today’s female youth 8-18 years old have a radio in their bedroom (70%) and half (50%) have a TV in their room. Constant exposure to the media is a given. How then are today’s girls affected by the barrage of media messages they receive daily? Most studies show that the messages our youth receive are negative when it comes to body image, female leadership and gender roles. Children tend to watch more TV than almost any other demographic and the messages they are getting help to mold their opinions, attitudes and futures.

The Statistics

Content analyses of TV programming suggest that girls and young women are shown that skinny is beautiful and that girls have to be attractive to men; that sex is fun and risk free; and that most people think about and have sex frequently, without much concern for love or the stability of relationships.

Research has consistently found that the types of interactions portrayed between females and males in TV commercials are stereotypical. Women have been associated with domestic settings at home and men with outdoor settings away from home; some researchers say this creates models of limited options for girls.

In a study of 1,428 characters appearing on prime-time TV, the female characters were overwhelmingly white (74%), followed by African American (16%), Asian (4%) and Hispanic (2%).

Women accounted for only 24% of the creators, producers, executive producers, directors, writers, editors and directors of photography working on situation comedies and dramas in the 2000-2001 TV season.

Dramas and situation comedies airing in the 2000-2001 season featured fewer female characters than males – 38% – the same percentage of female characters recorded in the 1990-1991 season.

One content analysis of 21 popular young women’s magazine covers showed that 78% contained a message about bodily appearance. None (0%) of young men’s magazines contained such messages. Also, 26% of women’s magazine covers contained conflicting messages (e.g., a message about losing weight next to a cookie recipe) regarding weight loss and dietary habits.

Media Literacy

Media Literacy is a program developed by Girls Incorporated to help girls identify, deal with and combat negative messages from the media, by teaching comprehensive media literacy encompassing critical thinking, creativity, communication and collaboration. Grasping these skills will afford girls the ability to access, analyze, evaluate and produce communication in a variety of forms and contexts.

Girls Inc. Media Literacy encourages girls to examine how media messages are constructed, how these messages reflect social values, and how girls’ active participation can influence the messages—and the values. The curricula and companion project include activities that address the following areas of media literacy:

• Getting the message: Girls learn to critically “read” messages from a variety of media. Girls are encouraged to ask critical questions such as: Who is communicating and why? Who is the intended audience and what is the intended result of the message? Whose point of view is presented and whose is left out? What does this text say to me and other girls?
• Sending the message: Girls express themselves and create their own media representations of their worlds using media-production tools and techniques, including storyboarding, graphic design, and audio and video recording equipment.
• Learning the business: Girls explore the business side of media, learning about advertising and commercial interests, media and democracy, and career opportunities and relevant skills.
• Re-casting the characters: Girls examine the roles of girls and women in media and analyze characterization, identify stereotypes, rewrite scenes, create their own show treatments, and advocate for media to be responsive to their opinions and concerns.