January 16, 2025, Durham, NC – The Journal of Health Communication recently published an article detailing findings from an evaluation of iRT’s media literacy education-based sexual health promotion program called Media Aware.
The article, entitled “A Media Literacy Education Approach to Sexual Health Promotion: Immediate Effects of Media Aware on the Sexual Health Cognitions of Young Adult Community College Students,” was authored by iRT Researchers Dr. Tracy Scull, Dr. Christina Dodson, Dr. Janis Kupersmidt, Dr. Reina Evans-Paulson, Dr. Katie Stump, and Liz Reeder.
Media Aware is an interactive, web-based program that provides young adults with comprehensive, medically-accurate information about sex and relationships, so they can make healthy, informed decisions. Media Aware is a unique sexual health promotion program in that it incorporates media literacy education. Media literacy education-based sexual health programs may be particularly impactful for young adults because most young people consume a lot of media every day, and media often contain inaccurate and unhealthy depictions of sex and relationships. Media literacy education teaches young people to critically analyze sexual media messages they consume rather than accepting them at face value to protect their health and wellbeing.
The article describes a randomized controlled trial evaluating the effects of Media Aware on the sexual health cognitions of community college students (ages 18-19) in the United States. More specifically, the study examined how Media Aware impacted young adults’ perceived realism of media (i.e., how realistic they believe media to be); knowledge of sexual health; attitudes towards specific sexual health behaviors; self-efficacy to practice certain sexual health behaviors (i.e., how confident they are in their abilities to engage in healthy sexual behaviors); descriptive normative beliefs related to sexual health (i.e., what behaviors they believe their peers are regularly engaging in); and intentions to practice certain sexual health behaviors.
After taking the Media Aware program, students had reduced perceived realism of media messages, reduced positive attitudes about risky sex, and reduced descriptive normative beliefs about unprotected and risky sexual activity, compared to before they took the program. These findings may indicate the usefulness of Media Aware for promoting young adults’ sexual health because young adults may be less likely to engage in unhealthy sexual behaviors if they believe that certain dramatized depictions of sex in media are unrealistic, if they feel negatively towards risky sex, and if they believe their peers do not engage in risky sex. The study also found that students had increased self-efficacy to use dental dams after taking the program.
These findings and more are outlined in the recent article published in the Journal of Health Communication. If you are interested in reading more, visit https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/XUCQCTSQUN48ECMK48JQ/full?target=10.1080/10810730.2024.2433527 to access a free copy of the article on Taylor & Francis Online.