Media Madness
Demonstration & Research Project

Overall Project Goal

The overall goal is to reduce school-age pregnancies in Georgia by strengthening the wide-variety of ongoing abstinence efforts through the addition of a media intervention aimed at both youth and their parents.

Background

Probably the single most influential shared reason among all adolescents for sexual involvement is a pervasive climate in which the media, through an ever increasing number of mediums, dominates in the provision of knowledge, shaping of attitudes, and role modeling of behaviors. Even if abstinence programs show immediate gains, over time, their positive effects are likely to be undermined unless youth:

1. Gain a firm understanding that media’s goal is to make money -- not to provide instruction and support for sexual decision-making
2. Recognize how visual and audio images are constructed to influence their sexual attitudes and behaviors
3. Develop skills to distinguish between harmful and helpful media messages about sex
4. Learn multiple ways of resisting media influences

Theoretical Basis

Two theories form the basis for undertaking this project:

1. Cultivation Theory, which focuses on television as the cultural story teller of the age and predicts viewers who watch a great deal of television are more likely than those who watch less to accept the view depicted on TV (Gerbner, Gross, Morgan and Signorielli, 1994); and
2. Social Cognitive Theory which predicts imitation of sexual behavior is more likely if the consumer thinks the portrayal realistic and identifies with an attractive media character who is rewarded for the behavior. (Bandura, 1994)
   

The project involves implementation of the innovative media intervention in a test school system with 1,500 low-income African American youth using matched treatment and control middle schools, followed by an intensive dissemination to all 180 school systems in the State of Georgia.

The project includes testing a special companion program for parents and providing teachers in multiple subject areas with ancillary teaching materials emphasizing media resistance.