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Wang, Yinhan; 2011, Media Literacy Dossier: research review 8 (Byrne

2009), LSE Media Policy Project, April 28.

Full reference details of reviewed article:Byrne, S. (2009). Media literacy interventions: What makes them boom or

boomerang? Communication Education, 58(1), 1-14.

Conceptions/definition of media literacy (or related concept) usedMedia literacy intervention refers to an experimental treatment that introducesspecific concepts to respondents with the aim of increasing awareness andpromoting deeper understanding of the meaning contained in mediamessages. The goal is to help build the cognitive skills required to process

media messages in a more active way (pp. 1-2). The authors review onstudies on media literacy interventions concludes that evaluative mediation(promotes active learning and critical assessment of media content) is moresuccessful than factual mediation (giving facts about the media).

Research method/scope of empirical work156 U.S. children in grade 4th and 5th participate in the study. They wererandomly assigned to three conditions: basic (students received a lessonabout violence in the media), activity (apart from the same lesson, they alsodid a cognitive activity that involved writing about what they learned and beingvideotaped as they read aloud their writing) and control (a placebo lesson on

jobs in movies, and an activity involving writing a short script and acting it).

All students watched a clip from Karate Kid and did a pre-test on aggressionand character evaluation prior to the different intervention treatments outlinedabove. After the treatments, they all did a post-test on aggression, characterevaluation and lesson evaluation. Six weeks later, they all did a re-test onaggression and character evaluation.

Key findings- Students who had the cognitive activity after the lesson reported a

reduction in willingness to use aggression, while children who did nothad the cognitive activity after the lesson reported an increase inwillingness to use aggression. The media literacy lesson offered mighthave brought students attention to violence without helping to developthe cognitive skills required to process the information.

- Students who received the media literacy lesson, regardless of theparticipation in cognitive activity or not, reported higher willingness touse aggression when compared with those who only received aplacebo lesson. In other words, students who did not have any medialiteracy interventions reported the lowest aggression scores.

- The effects of media literacy interventions disappeared as time goes

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Key implications for research and policymaking-

Media literacy interventions can be helpful or harmful. Future studiesshould have more refined comparative conditions in order tounderstand the boomerang effect, and determine what factor in eachcondition works or does not work.

- Whether it is appropriate to use violent clips to teach media literacyremains disputable.

- More research should be done to assess whether cognitive activityhelps, but perhaps on some other topics.

- What type of content should be included and would beappropriate/effective in the media literacy interventions? Who would bethe suitable instructors for what target groups?