SEEME MEDIA LITERACY PROJECT EVALUATION Final
SEEME MEDIA LITERACY PROJECT EVALUATION
Final Report
May 2012
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This report has been prepared by the Research and Evaluation team at the Foundation for Young
Australians (FYA). FYA gratefully acknowledges the assistance of the QVWC team. We especially wish to thank the student leaders and students from Melbourne Girls College, Doncaster Secondary College and
East Preston Islamic College for their contributions and thought-provoking insights; you are all truly inspiring. Finally, sincere thanks are extended to the teacher champions who graciously allowed us into their classrooms to collect student feedback.
2
What are the factors that influence take up/participation in the SeeMe website/support materials? 61
3
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
In 2011, the Foundation for Young Australians (FYA) was commissioned by the Queen Victoria Women’s
Centre Trust to independently evaluate the SeeMe Media Literacy Project (SeeMe), involving the development of an interactive online media literacy curriculum resource aimed at addressing young people’s concerns around the media’s unrealistic portrayal of body image and gender roles.
The key objectives of the SeeMe Project were to:
1.
2.
Strengthen the media literacy skills of school aged young women and young men
Raise awareness of the prevalence of digital image manipulation and use of narrow gender stereotypes across the media
3. Reduce the media internalization of unrealistic notions of the ‘body ideal’, ‘beauty’, and narrow gender stereotypes of young women and men participating in the pilot
Reduce ‘body dissatisfaction’ of the young women and men participating in the pilot. 4.
The SeeMe pilot involved ten Year 8 student leaders from three Melbourne secondary schools. Student leaders and teacher champions from these schools were recruited to provide support for the pilot’s development and implementation in English classrooms using a peer facilitation approach. The ‘SeeMe -
The media, my world and me’ website included five interactive modules and used a range of interactive
ICT tools and a dedicated resource page.
Evaluating SEEME
The evaluation of the SeeMe Project aimed to assess the extent to which the project enhanced young people’s media literacy skills, particularly in relation to body image, gender awareness and the prevalence of gender and cultural stereotypes in the media. The focus of this evaluation was on capturing change in students as a result of their participation in the SeeMe pilot. The gendered evaluation approach applied to the SeeMe evaluation was designed to illuminate the different and highly particularised experiences of the boys and girls who participated in the project.
The two principal data collection instruments for this evaluation were pre- and post-pilot surveys and the ‘Most Significant Change’ (MSC) technique. The survey instrument for the SeeMe evaluation was designed to explore attitudinal, behavioural and knowledge change in young people in relation to body
4
satisfaction, gender awareness and media literacy, while the MSC was employed to add supplementary insights into the outcomes of SeeMe.
Findings
Media literacy
The evaluation findings demonstrate that participation in the SeeMe pilot increased students’ media literacy skills, particularly the ability to identify techniques used to capture/hold audience attention, along with identifying the purpose of the message. In both these domains females showed stronger competencies. Over half of the students reported that they made more informed choices about what media to consume after SeeMe with female participants showing a greater proclivity towards this behavioural change.
Body satisfaction
The results of the evaluation reveal a positive shift in participant body satisfaction as a result of SeeMe.
In addition to participants being happier with their bodies, there was a strong desire towards not wanting (or needing) to emulate the values associated with idealised bodies presented in the media.
Awareness of gender stereotyping in the media
Overall, students felt that representations of women’s bodies in the media were mostly neither accurate nor representative of people they knew. Students reported a strong cultural bias in the media and associated feelings of marginalisation, particularly for the female Muslim students who acknowledged the conspicuousness of their ethnicity.
Opportunities for youth participation in ICT design and development
Student leaders reported significant improvement in their critical thinking skills and a heightened awareness of the devices used by advertising and the media. A key objective of the SeeMe project was the promotion of participation in ICT design and development; that the pilot’s design involved specific and targeted activities for the student leaders to support the design and delivery of the web resource satisfied this goal.
5
Opportunities for peer leadership/facilitation of the SeeMe resource in classrooms
In addition to being consulted on the design and content of the SeeMe web resource, the student leaders were also involved in the development of classroom activities supporting its implementation.
The data did not reveal any significant barriers or impediments to the SeeMe project fulfilling on its aim to enhance student engagement and leadership in the delivery of the SeeMe pilot. It is recommended that future evaluations incorporate an exclusive student leader survey and/or interviews to provide more detailed evidence of the ways in which of peer leadership and facilitation in classrooms is promoted by SeeMe.
Accessibility and user friendliness of SeeMe website and support materials
The SeeMe website and support materials were rated well amongst participants. There was, however, some variability in the experiences by different schools (as evidenced in these ratings). This speaks to broader issues of school resourcing for technology and the digital divide.
Take up/participation in the SeeMe website/support materials
There were no major challenges around take up and participation in the SeeMe website and support materials. Suggestions were made as to the types of groups who should be involved in future implementation as well as ways to engage students more.
Social impacts
Just under half of the participants reported changes in the way they participate in social activities or events as a result of SeeMe. The qualitative data suggests this is due to increased confidence and a subtle desire to push personal boundaries, perhaps taking up new opportunities to participate in activities that the participants might have previously been reluctant or ambivalent towards. The qualitative insights also suggest that worldviews were altered as a result of SeeMe which led to greater positive feelings. The MSC data revealed a deeper sense of the world and the extent to which a media constructed ‘reality’ shapes young people’s attitudes and beliefs in hidden yet powerful ways.
6
Conclusions and recommendations
This evaluation has demonstrated the effectiveness of programs such as SeeMe in encouraging young people to critically analyse and deconstruct media images such that they can cultivate more realistic appraisals of their own bodies and thus resilience to the undermining influence of the media. A synthesis of the elements of this evaluation such as media literacy measures, and measures gauging awareness of gender in the media and participant stories, shows that a school based interactive online resource makes a considerable contribution to the media literacy outcomes for young people. The data also provided evidence of a sense of personal achievement amongst young people as a result of participating in the pilot. The evaluation illustrates that young people are aware of the widespread perpetuation of gender and cultural stereotypes in the media and the damaging implications of this.
Furthermore, the critical peer-to-peer element of the project was effective in providing a collegial and supportive learning environment for the young people whilst enabling the teachers to step back and learn from this alternate pedagogical process. The exploration of how the SeeMe resource itself was experienced provides interesting insights that confirm the existence of school resourcing and equity issues dominating current public debate.
Key recommendations
1. Length and reach of the program
Programs such as SeeMe are needed to support pedagogical practice that promotes the development of critical thinking skills, through authentic learning environments. It is recommended that the existing formula underpinning SeeMe be developed into a longer program.
2. Program dimensions
SeeMe would benefit from including strategies that harness behavioural change outcomes such as providing pathways for social action or leadership opportunities for young people beyond school.
3. Measurement
Future evaluations should track individual participants when using pre- and post-pilot approaches. It would also be beneficial to consider the inclusion of a control group in any future evaluation.
Furthermore, expanding participant groups to include teachers and/or principals in order to gain insight into the barriers faced in implementing the program and any challenges envisioned for its future
7
adoption would be of considerable benefit. Similarly, it is recommended that more targeted evaluation strategies focusing on student leaders be applied, particularly longitudinal approaches that track their involvement and capture the impact of SeeMe over time.
8
INTRODUCTION
Body image issues are a persistent and major concern for young people in most developed countries.
Mission Australia’s 2011 national survey of Australia’s youth found that body image was ranked as the top third issue, alongside family conflict and coping with stress, of concern; in 2010 it was the top concern (Mission Australia, 2011, 2010). The research found that initiatives that promote young people’s media literacy and enhance self-esteem are critical in ameliorating the effects of the pervasive propagation of negative media imagery around body image. To this end, continued efforts encouraging the media, fashion and advertising industries to promote positive body messages were also recommended.
In 2011, the Foundation for Young Australians (FYA) was commissioned by the Queen Victoria Women’s
Centre Trust to independently evaluate the SeeMe Media Literacy Project (SeeMe). Funded by the
Victorian Government’s Department of Education and Early Childhood Development (DEECD) and the
Department of Business and Innovation, the SeeMe Media Literacy Project was led by the Queen
Victoria Women’s Trust (QVWT) and involved the development of an interactive online media literacy curriculum resource aimed at addressing young people’s concerns regarding the media’s unrealistic portrayal of body image and gender roles. The project commenced in November 2010 and is due to be completed in September 2012.
The key objectives of the SeeMe Project were to:
1. Strengthen the media literacy skills of school aged young women and young men
2.
3.
4.
Raise awareness of the prevalence of digital image manipulation and use of narrow gender stereotypes across the media
Reduce the media internalization of unrealistic notions of the ‘body ideal’, ‘beauty’, and narrow gender stereotypes of young women and men participating in the pilot
Reduce ‘body dissatisfaction’ of the young women and men participating in the pilot.
In addition to these four goals, an important underlying principle of the project was a focus on student involvement and leadership through both the development of the resource and it’s implementation in the classroom setting.
9
Background to SeeMe
Based on a scoping study that revealed a gap in the availability of digital curriculum resources to build young people’s media literacy skills whilst promoting positive body image, youth leadership and engagement through the use of ICTs, the QVWC initiated the SeeMe Project involving the creation of an
ICT curriculum-based resource promoting positive body image (ESA, 2011). It was intended that young people would be at the centre of the SeeMe Project through their involvement in the development of the ‘SeeMe - The media, my world and me’ interactive website.
The SeeMe project group commenced in July 2011. The QVWC brought together ten Year 8 student leaders (seven girls and three boys) from three Melbourne secondary schools. Four teacher champions from these three schools were recruited to provide support to develop and pilot the digital resource.
The student leader group and teacher champions participated in five workshops to design and create the website (in collaboration with project partners Educational Services Australia and the Victorian
Association of Teachers of English), which was then piloted in four classrooms (across the three schools) using a peer facilitation approach. While the SeeMe pilot was originally intended to be implemented in one (English) class per school, due to one of the schools (see ‘sample’ in Method section) separating its male and female students, it was decided that two classes would represent this school.
In between workshops, the student leaders, teacher champions and partners stayed connected through a ‘protected’ online collaborative space that enabled the group to upload workshop outcomes, post draft designs and content and provide input though moderated online discussions.
The ‘SeeMe - The media, my world and me’ website was designed to be aligned to Year 8 English VELS and Australian Curriculum, and included five interactive modules: gender stereotypes; healthy lifestyle choices; body image; fashion and cosmetics; SeeMe/invisible me. It used a range of interactive ICT tools and a dedicated resource page for both student leaders and teacher champions.
The ‘SeeMe - The media, my world and me’ website is due to be launched at Melbourne Girls College on
14 May 2012 by the Hon Minister for Education. The QVWC will then conduct state wide orientation sessions with new SeeMe student leaders and teacher champions to support the roll out of the resource
10
across Victorian schools from July 2012. The SeeMe - The media, my world and me website can be viewed at: http://seeme.org.au/
Literature review
This next section examines the literature on body dissatisfaction, gender awareness and media literacy to build a picture of the ways in which the central tenets of the SeeMe Project impact young people as intended. It specifically explores the relationship between the transmission of body ideals in the media and the internalization of these ideals by young people and how this may affect their levels of body dissatisfaction. It also presents a discussion of the methodological implications and findings of several key studies on the topic of body image in the media, gender awareness and body dissatisfaction, both in
Australia and internationally.
Capturing body dissatisfaction and body image attitudes
A key objective of the SeeMe Project relates to shifts in participants’ body satisfaction as a result of their participation in the pilot. A term originating in the psychological disciplines in the 1950s, but still commonly used to describe this phenomenon today, is body cathexis (Jourard and Secourd 1955). Body cathexis refers to an individual’s feelings about the (many) aspects of his/her body, and, together with body image and weight satisfaction, is believed to constitute an individual’s level of body satisfaction
(Frost and McKelvie, 2005). While this term is no longer widely used in research, it has formed the basis for the plethora of empirical work in the area of body image today. The Body Cathexis Scale (Jourard and
Secord, 1955) was the original measure used for body dissatisfaction.
Amongst the multitude of instruments used to measure an individual’s self-assessment of his or her body, Garner et al (1983) developed a measure to address the lack of consideration of the psychological dimensions relevant to anorexia nervosa and bulimia. Designed to capture the key dimensions
(behavioural and psychological) held in common by anorexia nervosa and bulimia in patients, the Eating
Disorder Inventory (EDI) is a multi-dimension scale that uses eight constructs, one of which is the Body
Dissatisfaction subscale, to assess attitudes and behaviours around eating and body shape. This subscale is premised on the idea that body dissatisfaction is related to other body image disturbances, as revealed through their previous research that correlates higher levels of body dissatisfaction with anorexia nervosa.
11
Despite its popularity, there are several limitations to the Body Dissatisfaction scale, which warrant brief mention here. Perhaps the most obvious limitation refers to its use on a predominantly female population, specifically anorexia nervosa suffers and past bulimia suffers. In a subsequent study, the tool was administered to a comparison group made up of anorexia nervosa suffers, weight-preoccupied and not-weight-preoccupied college women and ballet students (Garner et al, 1984). In this study, Garner et al found that although there was evidence of some highly weight-preoccupied females who displayed psychopathology similar to anorexia nervosa, others only bore a superficial resemblance to the patient group. Their findings reiterate the need to apply a multidimensional lens when evaluating individuals suspected of anorexia nervosa.
Ben-Tovim Walker’s Body Attitudes Questionnaire (BAQ) measures the range of attitudes women have towards their bodies (Ben-Tovim and Walker, 1991). The BAQ explores aspects of body experience such as feelings of overall fatness, self-disparagement, strength, salience of weight, feelings of attractiveness and consciousness of lower body fat. The BAQ has been widely used as a reliable research instrument in the study fields of anorexia nervosa and similar fields looking to measure attitudes of women towards their bodies. More recently it was tested on men and in a cross-cultural context using a sample of
Japanese and Australian men where the BAQ was found to be adequate for use on men (from alternate cultures) to assess their body attitudes (Kagawaa et al, 2006).
In an acknowledgement that body dissatisfaction is mediated by sociocultural factors, Pasha and
Golshekoh (2009) examine the gender differences in internalization of media images by adolescents. In particular the authors were interested in assessing what, if any, are the differences in body dissatisfaction for female and male students as it correlates to body ideals and attitudes towards appearance. Their study compared body dissatisfaction in young people against body mass index (BMI), and found that the gender variance in body dissatisfaction was related to two of their sub-scales
Internalization and Pressure, along with BMI. The authors concluded that Pressure rather than
Internalization was a greater predictor of body dissatisfaction for boys, however girls showed a stronger correlation between Internalization and greater body dissatisfaction.
Neumark-Sztainer et al (2000) report on an evaluation of a media literacy program ‘Free to be Me’ rolled out to 24 girl scout groups in America. ‘Free to be Me’ focused on dieting behaviours, attitudes to body
12
image and media knowledge, and behaviours of young girls. Neumark-Sztainer et al incorporated a three month follow up in their evaluation to assess the effectiveness of media literacy training in strengthening young girls’ resistance to unrealistic body and gender portrayals in the media (particularly advertising) and improving their body self-acceptance. They assessed body satisfaction using a Body
Satisfaction Scale as well as an adapted version of the Sociocultural Attitudes towards Appearance
Questionnaire-3 (SATAQ) (Thompson et al, 2004) to assess participants’ levels of acceptance of body types as determined by sociocultural norms. They also used the same instrument to assess internalization of body ideals depicted in the media and knowledge of how the media influences food/dietary choices.
The study found that the ‘Free to be Me’ intervention promoted changes in the girls’ knowledge of and habits around media consumption leading to a reduction in internalization of sociocultural ideals portrayed by the media. However, they note that although the program was successful in increasing media literacy skills, it was less successful in affecting body image attitudes and dieting behaviour
(Neumark-Sztainer et al 2000, 1471). Furthermore, while there were improvements in knowledge and attitudes around body perceptions, these did not endure over the three-month period, suggesting only a moderate intervention effect, which the authors concede correspond to findings in similar studies.
Neumark-Sztainer et al conclude that brief interventions such as ‘Free to be Me’ may be effective in promoting deeper thinking about media messages, but that the brevity of such programs (six sessions) makes it unrealistic to expect any substantial and/or longer term changes in body image attitudes
(Neumark-Sztainer et al 2000, 1472).
Gender awareness in the media - decoding gender stereotypes and cultural interpretations
Rouner and Slater et al (2003) examined gendered and sexual imagery in television advertisements and how this impacts on the way adolescents’ process media messaging. Using the theories of ‘selfsocialization’ which posit that individuals are active agents in the construction of meaning from media and how they use these codes to model or moderate their own behaviour, the authors combined a content analysis of televised beer commercials with the responses from adolescents who reviewed and commented on the analysed advertisements. Through the application of gender schema theories which describe the ways in which people interpret media messages within the cultural and social discourses they have been brought up in (for instance how they view traditional versus non-traditional gender roles
13
in advertising), the study found that the constructed image of females was more likely to attract criticism, particularly in relation to gender roles and sexuality, than male imagery. Furthermore, over half of the adolescents challenged the content in the advertisements, for instance asserting that the gender roles portrayed in television advertisements were no longer accurate reflections of their realties.
The findings of this study lend weight to the decision to apply a gendered evaluation lens (see Gendered evaluation approach section) to the SeeMe evaluation to enable a deeper understanding of how males and females challenge media images.
Guimond et al (2007) conducted research to understand the interplay between culture and gender stereotypes, specifically the role culture plays in the similarities and differences between men and women. In their study in which they surveyed 950 participants from European, American and South East
Asian countries, they found that the processes by which gender stereotypes are formed are similar across cultures. Any differences they detected were related to the extent to which participants used gendered stereotypes within their own cultural groups through processes of social comparison.
While research has found that symbols and representations may be read in similar ways across cultures, the meanings attributed to these representations is culturally contingent. For instance, the difference between intended and interpreted meaning is mediated by cultural factors.
The images and symbols that bear cultural significance within a society are an embodiment of the values and attitudes of a culture in visual form (Knight et al, 2009: 20).
It is important to acknowledge that the visual imagery promulgated in the media reflects the values and traditions of the host culture, in this case, Western values and traditions. Given the cultural specificity highlighted by the sample design of the SeeMe project (see Method section), it is important not to underplay this dimension. Care must be taken in the collection and analysis of information regarding the difference between, for instance, how young Muslim girls and boys read media texts and what, if any, are the difference between these readings and the interpretations of non-Muslim girls and boys.
Globalisation itself has lead to a convergence of symbolic imagery, particularly multi-national logos and symbols dominating all media forms. Knight et al (2009) examine cross-cultural interpretations of visual
14
meaning in an online context. Using interpretations from participants from four cultural groups, the authors assessed the degree to which online imagery matched the intended meaning, particularly regarding aspects of online functionality and information found on North American academic websites.
They found that a computer icon’s ability to represent its intended function was mediated by the individuals’ interpretations of the icon, which was culturally contingent. They discovered that differences in (mis)interpretations were more often due to cultural differences of users. When it comes to ICT design, Knight et al conclude:
Incorporating research activities with the target cultural group into the early stages of the design process, use of an iterative design approach that permits empirical testing, and incorporation of feedback from target users should facilitate the design of culturally appropriate graphic elements (Knight et al, 2009: 20).
Measuring media literacy
On the whole, efforts at measuring media literacy, although led by countries such as Australia, are still in their infancy. A key challenge in capturing evidence of media literacy skills rests in the multiplicity of abilities that occur across numerous forms. Despite the multilayered dimensions of media literacy, a construct which appears to be shared in common across the media literacy research is a focus on critical thinking. Critical thinking refers to the ability to develop independent judgments of media content and, as an attribute of media literacy, constitutes an important construct of any media literacy scale.
One of the earlier and important pieces of research on media literacy is that conducted by Hobbs and
Frost (2003) who tested a tool for measuring media literacy, specifically the aspects of message comprehension, writing, and critical thinking skills. Their study centred on students’ ability to identify the purpose, target audience, construction techniques, values and point of view, and omitted information within three key media forms (Hobbs and Frost, 2003: 340). Amongst their findings it was revealed that a key indicator of critical thinking is the ability of an individual to identify information not included in a message (omitted information). Hobbs and Frost concluded that students who received media literacy instruction developed an increased capacity to interpret textual evidence across different media forms and thus were able to identify an author’s multiple purposes and intended target audiences (2003: 351).
15
A more recent study conducted by Arke and Primack (2009), building on Hobbs and Frost’s ideas, involved the piloting of a tool for measuring media literacy. This, the authors believed, would serve as a
‘starting point for future efforts in bringing rigor to the measurement of media literacy and the careful evaluation of media literacy programming’ (2009: 64). Using the domains recall, purpose, viewpoint, technique and evaluation, the authors sought to assess the individual’s ability to understand, analyse, evaluate and create media messages from a variety of forms. Arke and Primark implemented their survey on 34 college students and found that the media literacy scale is not only useful for measuring media literacy but media literacy programs themselves can increase critical thinking skills and should be used to further educational goals focusing on the development of critical thinkers or critical thinking skills as part of an overall curriculum (2009: 63).
Notwithstanding these positive results, the authors concede that their measure was only applied to traditional forms of media such as print, television and radio and recognise that further tools need to be developed in line with advances in digital and online communication technologies. The Australian
Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) has undertaken significant work in this area. Through an exploration of potential indicators for measuring digital media literacy the ACMA identified several key domains regarding access to and use of services, content creation and participation for understanding literacy. These domains refer to levels of uptake, technical and critical competencies, and uses of digital media (ACMA, 2009). While the work of the ACMA is of considerable value, its focus on use rather than image interpretation means it provided less value for the purposes of the SeeMe evaluation.
16
EVALUATING SEEME
The evaluation of the SeeMe Project aimed to assess the extent to which the project enhanced young people’s media literacy skills, particularly in relation to body image, gender awareness and the prevalence of gender and cultural stereotypes in the media. It was expected that media literacy, including awareness of digital image manipulation, would improve body satisfaction. Finally, the evaluation also explored youth participation; specifically whether the SeeMe Project increased youth participation in the design, development and delivery of the web based learning tool and the impacts of this form of participation on young people.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Specifically, the objectives of the evaluation were to:
1. Develop an evaluation framework that is clearly linked to the project’s measurable objectives
2. and areas of impact
Evaluate both the project processes and project outcomes as measures of success, using a combination of quantitative and qualitative data
Measure the increase in participants’ critical awareness of media literacy
Measure participants’ increase of body satisfaction
Measure participants’ increased awareness of gender stereotyping
Evaluate the success of youth participation process in ICT design and development
7.
8.
Evaluate the success of peer leadership/facilitation of the SeeMe resource in classrooms
Measure the accessibility and user friendliness of the SeeMe website and support materials as well as participation and take up.
It was anticipated the evaluation would highlight SeeMe’s contribution to the evidence base of media literacy initiatives as well as identifying measures that can be usefully applied to monitor the program’s future implementation, outcomes and longer term impact.
In order to assess the extent to which the objectives of SeeMe were met, the gendered evaluation approach included the following key components:
A literature review on body image and media literacy measurement
Development of an Evaluation Framework
Observations of student leader engagement in the workshops and orientation day
17
Pre/post surveys with students participating in classroom pilots
Most Significant Change sessions with students participating in classroom pilots.
Developing the methodology
Evaluation Framework
An integral part of the evaluation was the development of a framework describing the key methodologies and processes to be employed. These included:
Evaluation timeframes and methodologies consistent with a gendered evaluation approach that draw on a mixed method approach incorporating quantitative and qualitative tools
Evaluation indicators including baseline, or pre-pilot, data and post-pilot data
Evaluation questions to assess the extent to which the evaluation objectives have been achieved
Ethics approvals required for DEECD, the Catholic Education Office Melbourne and the independent school participating in the evaluation
Consent processes required for student participation in the evaluation.
Evaluation questions and indicators
A series of evaluation questions were developed from the project brief. These questions were critical in
2.
3.
4.
5. framing the development of indicators for the evaluation. They were principally designed to measure the performance of the pilot against its aims and to deliver data that could be used to improve the future implementation of SeeMe while guiding monitoring and outcomes measurement. The proposed evaluation questions were:
1. Does SeeMe increase participants’ critical awareness of media literacy?
Does SeeMe increase participants’ level of body satisfaction?
Does SeeMe increase participants’ awareness of gender stereotyping in the media?
Does SeeMe provide opportunities for youth participation in ICT design and development?
Does SeeMe provide opportunities for peer leadership/facilitation of the SeeMe resource in
6.
7. classrooms?
Are the SeeMe website and support materials accessible and user friendly?
What are the factors that influence take up/participation in the SeeMe website/support materials?
18
In addition to outlining the scope and methodology for the evaluation, the Framework mapped evaluation questions to indicators and methods. Table 1 presents the matrix linking evaluation questions to indicators and participant groups, along with methods and timings proposed for the evaluation.
Table 1: SeeMe Evaluation Matrix
Evaluation Question Indicators Group Method Timing
Does SeeMe increase participants’ critical awareness of media literacy?
Does SeeMe increase participants’ levels of body satisfaction?
Increased understanding of how media works
Increased awareness of values embedded in media
Change in believing what the media tells you
Change in choices around media consumption or production
Increased satisfaction with body
Increased participation in social activities
Increased identification of gender stereotypes in media
Students Survey
Survey
MSC
Survey, MSC
Students Survey
Survey, MSC
Pre/post
Pre/post
Post
Post
Pre/post
Post
Does SeeMe increase participants’ awareness of gender stereotyping in the media?
Does SeeMe provide opportunities for youth participation in ICT design and development?
Does SeeMe provide opportunities for peer leadership/facilitation of the SeeMe resource in classrooms?
Number workshops/training sessions for ICT design and development
Self-reported perceptions of opportunities
Number of peer leadership/facilitation opportunities
Self-reported perceptions of opportunities
Frequency and type of use of website materials
Students Survey
N/A
Student leaders
N/A
Student leaders
Program monitoring
MSC
Program monitoring
MSC
Students Survey
Pre/post
Are the SeeMe website and support materials accessible and user friendly?
What are the factors which influence take up/participation in the SeeMe website/support materials?
Identification of what works/doesn’t work about SeeMe
Students Survey
Post
Post
Traditionally, in program evaluations indicators link program outcomes to objectives, describing what
Ongoing
Post
Ongoing
Post success looks like for certain outcomes. To this end, indicators come in two main forms: direct and indirect. Direct indicators refer to tangible and mostly quantitative sources of information that can be
19
measured by demographics (numbers) or psychometric tools such as Likert scales in questionnaires. In the case of SeeMe, a direct indicator of change (in media literacy skills) might be an increase in a student’s ability to identify the target audience of a message. Direct indicators can also come from qualitative measures such as interviews in which the participant directly (and more descriptively) reports on an outcome.
Indirect indicators, on the other hand, serve as proxies or substitutes for direct indicators. They can come in both quantitative and qualitative forms and can be retrieved from sources other than immediate participants. For example, in the case of SeeMe an indirect indicator of increased student body satisfaction might be increased participation in social activities. While for expediency we sought this information from the participants through the post-pilot survey, insights such as these can also be gathered from teachers and/or parents.
Indicators are often interconnected. For instance, a change in awareness and/or attitude may give rise to a change in behaviour. Behavioural changes often occur in the intermediate or longer term, while a change in attitude or knowledge can be apprehended almost immediately. In the case of SeeMe, an increased critical awareness of image manipulation, including the interpretation of texts and imagery placement and a deeper understanding of the use of stereotyping in the media, might lead to changes in students’ satisfaction with their own bodies and, by extension, their lived experience of everyday interactions with others and the social world.
The indicators proposed for this evaluation refer to changes in an individual student’s perceptions, beliefs and, ultimately, practices. It was hypothesised that a possible behavioural outcome might be an increase in student involvement in social activities associated with greater confidence and motivation.
Neumark-Sztainer et al (2004) found this to be the case with regard to uptake of physical activities such as sport as a result of an intervention aimed at addressing weight-related disorders. While the SeeMe evaluation did include a question addressing this potential behavioural change, it should be noted that the limited time between the pilot completion and the post-pilot survey (approximately two weeks) precludes the ability to capture any substantive longer term behavioural changes.
20
Methods
The focus of this evaluation was on capturing change in students as a result of their participation in the
SeeMe Project. Specifically, the evaluation sought to provide a deeper more nuanced understanding of the impact of the SeeMe pilot on young people’s media literacy skills, as well as their awareness of digital image manipulation and how this might influence processes of gender stereotype internalization.
It also aimed to assess any increase in their sense of body satisfaction as a result of participating in the pilot. To achieve this, the evaluation employed a mixed method approach combining qualitative and quantitative methods that were considered consistent with the precepts of a gendered evaluation approach.
Gendered evaluation approach
Research on body image has enjoyed dominance in the psychosocial and medical fields where perceptions around body image and body dissatisfaction are examined for utility as indicators or predictors of eating disorders. These studies predominantly concern women and girls, with only a small
(albeit increasing) focus on boys and/or men. While there is recognition of gender differences in this area, there is little attention paid to understanding the attitudes and beliefs that might contribute to these differences (Pasha & Golshekoh, 2009). This highlights a key challenge in attempts to understand the processes by which young men and women cultivate attitudes and beliefs around their bodies. This is particularly salient for the SeeMe project given its attempt to focus on addressing the psychological and social impacts of media representations on both genders. The gendered evaluation approach applied to the SeeMe evaluation was designed to illuminate the different and highly particularised experiences of the boys and girls who participated in the project.
Originally designed to counterbalance evaluations that have a propensity to be gender-blind or ‘silent on the different experiences of men, women, boys and girls’ (Kaucz, 2007: 4), the ultimate goal of a gendered evaluation approach is to promote gender equity and empower women. As an evaluation method, this approach seeks to privilege the differences in the experiences of individuals as mediated by gender by highlighting gender differences in the assessment of a program against its aims.
Precepts of a gendered evaluation approach were incorporated into the key evaluation phases in the following ways:
21
1. Data collection - using gender-sensitive language in the design of data collection tools and genderdisaggregated data
2. Data analysis – bringing a deeper understanding of the gendered nature of social experience, specifically how gender codes frame experience and young people’s perspectives in the analysis of both the quantitative and qualitative data
3. Reporting – ensuring the presentation of evaluation findings and recommendations respects the different voices of participants, namely their gendered experiences and perspectives, and illuminates key social values around gender which might influence the future implementation of the program.
The two principal data collection instruments for this evaluation were pre- and post-pilot surveys and the Most Significant Change (MSC) technique. While the quantitative data provides information about broader patterns of change in relation to the anticipated attitudinal and behaviourial outcomes of
SeeMe, the qualitative data provides insights into underlying processes, barriers and facilitators to the pilot’s successful implementation. A pre/post survey approach was applied where baseline data collected prior to the commencement of the pilot captured information in relation to student perceptions and beliefs about the media and gender stereotyping and key demographic characteristics such as gender, age and ethnicity. The post-pilot data aimed to capture information in relation to changes in student perceptions and beliefs about the media and gender stereotyping resulting from their participation, as well as an assessment of aspects of the pilot’s implementation such as the usability of the web resource and support materials. These data were complemented with insights gained from observations during attendance at several key milestones including the website development workshops and the SeeMe orientation session.
The survey instrument
The survey instrument for the SeeMe evaluation was designed to explore attitudinal, behavioural and knowledge change in young people in relation to body satisfaction, gender awareness and media literacy. Specifically, it was hypothesised that the desired alterations would manifest in the following ways:
Attitude – changes in perceptions of gender in the media and how participants view their own bodies as a response to these shifts. Increased awareness of opportunities available (around future career choices for instance) that might not have been appreciable prior to the project
22
Behaviours– increased participation in embodied social activities and changes in choice of media consumption
Knowledge – increased critical analysis of hidden values in media and an understanding of how media works and an increase in gender awareness with respect to media images.
Two online student surveys, one pre- and one post-pilot, were used to capture largely quantitative evidence of change arising out of student participation in the SeeMe Project. The surveys were also designed to test the indicators for fidelity. In particular, they enabled the evaluation process to:
Measure participants’ critical awareness of media literacy
Assess the degree to which the SeeMe pilot alters participants’ sense of body satisfaction
Gain insight into participant perceptions of gender stereotyping in the media
Gain feedback on the accessibility and usability of the SeeMe website and support materials
Identify what factors influence take up/participation in the SeeMe website/support materials.
The survey (constructed with the online survey tool SurveyMonkey) was divided into several sections reflecting these objectives that combined open-ended and closed questions and elicited basic demographic information (See Appendix E for the SeeMe Questionnaire). The post-pilot survey also included an additional set of questions regarding any shifts in behaviour as a result of SeeMe, what didn’t work and suggestions for improvement for SeeMe, as well as whether the students would recommend SeeMe to others.
The literature review revealed a plethora of studies conducted on the topic of body satisfaction and identified numerous variables available for inclusion in the measurement of SeeMe outcomes. Whilst increasing body satisfaction was a key goal of the SeeMe project, another objective was to understand the impact of gender and body ideals in the media. Thompson et al (2004) define idealization as a process by which an individual buys in to a set of social norms around looks and beauty leading to an incorporation of these standards and values to the point of modifying his or her behaviour consistent with these values. A concept commonly used to explore this area is ‘internalization’. Traditionally, the two key instruments used to measure the societal and media impacts on body image are the Ideal-Body
Stereotype Scale-Revised (IBSS-R) (Stice et al, 2001) and the Sociocultural Attitudes towards Appearance
Questionnaire-3 (SATQ) (Thompson et al, 2004), particularly the Internalization subscale.
23
As revealed through the literature review, body image is a multidimensional construct. The SATQ-3 in its ability to capture socio-cultural dimensions was considered highly valuable. The instrument was originally developed to measure the extent to which body image and eating disturbances are influenced by the media through a process of internalization. The original version of SATQ measured societal and media impacts on body image. An extensive literature review revealed that there were several important dimensions to the influence of the media on body image which Thompson et al determined to be: Awareness, Internalization, Pressures and Information, with Information revealing itself to be of particular importance (Thompson et al 2004, 295). The researchers subsequently developed a modified version of the SATAQ incorporating two measures from the Eating Disorder Inventory (EDI), to more effectively capture the influence of the media on eating disorders. It was agreed that the SeeMe evaluation would benefit from including the subscales Internalization-General and Information, both of which are salient for examining the internalization of socio-cultural ideals portrayed in the media.
Internalization of ideal body images portrayed in the media (Internalization-general) and knowledge of the role of media influence (Information) were assessed with a 5-point Likert scale (SATAQ-3). The
Internalization-general sub-scale reflects internalization of socio-cultural ideals related to television, magazines and movies. Participants rated their agreement with statements such as: ‘I would like my body to look like the models who appear in magazines’. Scores ranged from 8 to 40.
The Information sub-scale focused on the extent to which the media is used as a source of information on attractiveness with questions such as: ‘Movies are an important source of information about fashion and ’being attractive’’. Scores ranged from 5 to 25 for this subscale. In both cases, higher scores represented greater levels of internalization and increased understanding of the role the media plays in informing these values.
Another measure included in the SeeMe survey designed to assess body satisfaction was a question regarding participants’ happiness towards their bodies. Participants were asked ‘How happy are you with the way your body looks?’ for both the pre- and post-pilot surveys. They were instructed to rate their responses (very happy/not at all happy) on a 5-point Likert scale. When converted to means, scores ranged from 1 to 5 with higher scores indicating increased happiness towards one’s body.
24
To capture shifts in perceptions of gender stereotyping in the media, participants rated their agreement on a 5-point Likert scale. Participants were asked to indicate the level to which they agreed/disagreed with statements such as ‘The presentation of females shown in the media is mostly accurate’. When converted into means, scores for these questions ranged from 1 to 5 with higher scores representing greater levels of awareness. Research by Guimond et al (2007) highlights the role of social comparisons and gender stereotypes between cultures. The survey also included several dichotomous items (yes/no questions) seeking insights into how participants perceive different cultures and gendered roles presented in the media, with space for comment to qualify their responses.
The presence of media literacy skills was measured on a post-pilot basis only with participants assessing themselves on a 4-point Likert scale indicating the extent to which they could identify critical elements of media messages. These elements were adapted from the work of Arke and Primack (2009) and Hobbs and Frost (2003). Specifically, they related to the ability to identify:
The purpose of the message
The target audience for the message
The values or points of view represented in the message
The points of view that may be missing from the message
The techniques used to attract/hold your attention.
Scores ranged from 1 to 4 with higher scores indicating greater proficiency in a media literacy skill. This section also sought evidence of behavioural change as a result of increased media literacy, specifically whether participants made more informed media consumption choices after SeeMe.
The SeeMe post-pilot survey also included a section designed to gain information on broader social outcomes and what, if anything, did not work about the pilot and where improvements could be made.
Social outcomes included possible shifts in participants’ awareness of future opportunities and choices resulting from a more developed sense of self. Evidence of this, along with the attitudinal, behavioural and knowledge changes would point to a deeper understanding of the process by which social reality is constructed and, it was anticipated, could have implications for how young people perceive their current circumstances and their future.
25
The post-pilot survey ended with a series of questions that tested for usability of the online resource.
Participants were asked to rate their levels of satisfaction with the SeeMe web resource and support materials.
Sample
Members of the QVWC team worked with representatives from the three schools sectors—Department of Education and Early Childhood Development (DEECD), Catholic Education Office (CEO) and
Independent Schools Victoria (ISV)—with the aim of achieving a geographic, gender and school sector spread for the SeeMe pilot.
Three schools were engaged, Melbourne Girls College (MGC), Doncaster
Secondary College (DSC) and East Preston Islamic College (EPIC). Both MGC and DSC were public schools, while EPIC was recruited from the independent school sector. The project timelines were unable to accommodate the CEO policy requiring ethics approval prior to approaching the schools. As a result, no
Catholic school was able to be involved in the pilot.
Pre- and post-pilot surveys were carried out in one class per school, with the exception of EPIC whose classes were split according to gender. Therefore, across the three participating schools, four classes participated in the project. All schools had completed all five pilot modules.
Due to their longer term and atypical engagement with the project, the student leaders were excluded from participating in the pre- and post-pilot surveys applied to the rest of the student participant group.
It was deemed that their length of exposure to and role in developing the pilot website and modules would necessarily bias the overall results.
All efforts were made to obtain a robust response rate for both surveys. Table 2 and 3 shows the overall response figures and demographic characteristics of participants at each time point, respectively.
Table 2: Sample Size and Response Rate
Count Response rate (%)
Pre
Post
Total
66
47
113
100.0
71.2
26
It should be noted that the extent to which the participant population is represented in response rates will also vary because not all eligible participants who completed the modules were included in the final response figures. This was due to these individuals either failing to return signed consent forms (see
Ethics section), or being absent during one or both of the data collection points.
Table 3: Demographic Characteristics of Participants
Pre
Count %
School
Doncaster
EPIC
21
28
31.8
42.4
MGC
13
17
19
25.8
28.8
Count
13
19
15
5
Post
%
27.7
40.4
31.9
10.6
Age
14
15
Mean
Female
Sex
Country of
Birth
Male
Australia
Other
English
Language
Indigenous
Other
No
Yes
26
48
16
49
40
7
13.8
40
17
65
0
60.6
10.6
60.6
39.4
72.7
24.2
74.2
25.8
98.5
0.0
15
39
8
41
35
6
14.0
32
1
43
3
74.5
12.8
68.1
31.9
83.0
17.0
87.2
2.1
91.5
6.4
Despite the small numbers, there was a good representation of participants across school, age and gender groupings. Most participants were female, Australian born and English speaking. The majority of participants were 14 years of age. None of the respondents in the pre- but three in the post-pilot survey identified themselves as being from Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander descent.
It is not unusual for sample sizes to decline as programs progress. This was particularly challenging for
DSC participants who showed the greatest attrition rate. Reasons for attrition in surveys can be located in demographic characteristics such as gender (research suggests females show higher participation rates in surveys), the timing of the collection point, general interest which over time wanes, literacy
27
skills, access issues and the basis (voluntary or involuntary) on which a survey is undertaken. For all schools the timing of the pilot and subsequent post-pilot survey, which coincided closely with end of year commitments and exams, necessarily produced variability in commitment that effected post-pilot response rates.
Implementation
Pre-pilot surveys were completed a week before SeeMe was implemented in Term 4, 2011. MGC completed the post-pilot survey during the week of the last SeeMe module in Term 4, while due to time pressures EPIC and DSC completed their post-pilot surveys in Term 1, February 2012. While this time lag was unintended, the original timing of the post-pilot survey coincided with student exam periods, thus proving a challenge for teachers and students to implement. Future data collection strategies will benefit from paying closer attention to the exigencies of end of year student and teacher commitments.
Part of the development of the survey instrument involved a draft survey being piloted with the student leaders during their fourth website development workshop (August 2011). Due to their extended involvement, the student leaders were uniquely positioned to pilot the survey. This was also consistent with the youth participation aims of SeeMe. The feedback from this session provided insights into potential language and conceptual challenges, along with suggestions around the survey layout and sequencing of questions, all of which (except modification to the SATAQ-3 scale) were incorporated into the final version. Specifically, the student leaders remarked that there were too many repetitive questions (in the STAQ-3 scale). While this feedback was duly considered, repetition is a necessary and unavoidable dimension of psychometric tools. In future evaluations the creation of a shortened version of the SATAQ-3 could be explored.
The survey pilot also revealed that the wording for some questions in the gender awareness/cultural stereotypes section was in need of simplification. Terms requiring amendment were ‘manipulation’ and
‘portrayed’, the latter was replaced with ‘shows’. Finally, ‘representative of the Australian population’ was removed and replaced with ‘is true of people I know’.
28
In addition to student leader feedback on the survey, the teacher champions from EPIC were also consulted for any literacy and cultural particularities that might potentially affect the EPIC student’s experience and outcomes of the evaluation process. There were no issues raised.
The online questionnaires were completed on site (usually in a common computer room) at schools during their English class.
Data cleaning and analysis
SPSS version 20 was used for the analysis of the SeeMe survey data. The data was exported into
Microsoft Excel, cleaned and then imported into SPSS for further checking for data anomalies. In only one instance an incomplete response was removed. In addition to this response being incomplete, there were also a series of potentially spurious answers (such as nominating an age inconsistent with the age at which the pilot was delivered), and the inclusion of overtly negative responses with no qualifying comments that suggested the student may not have taken the survey seriously. Due to the need to strike a balance between respecting the voice of the young participants and ameliorating the risk of spurious data contaminating the findings in an already small sample, after due consideration and consultation with the QVWC team, the decision was made to remove this response.
Descriptive analysis was conducted on the quantitative data, while the open-ended responses were analysed to lend analytical depth to the quantitative interpretations.
Relatively low numbers of participants at the post-pilot survey limited the ability of the quantitative methods to detect the impact of SeeMe with any degree granularity. The use of MSC (outlined below) allowed for further reflection on the experience, enabling the tracing of emerging meanings and impacts of the engagement with the pilot.
Most Significant Change
In addition to pre- and post-pilot surveys, Most Significant Change was employed to add supplementary insights into the outcomes of SeeMe. MSC is a qualitative, narrative-based tool that is widely used for capturing and describing the experience of end-users or participants in programs designed to bring about change (Dart & Davies, 2003). While the surveys captured largely quantitative data, MSC provided a broader, more contextual understanding of the impact of the SeeMe pilot for participating students.
29
As a highly flexible and adaptable technique, MSC provides important information about how the experience of SeeMe becomes integrated with students’ life experience and development both during and after their involvement with the pilot. It also allows for further reflection on the pilot experience itself.
Sample
MSC data was collected from all three schools, however only the male class participated in the EPIC session. The exact participation figures were: 22 students from DSC; 11 students (boys only) from EPIC; and, 15 MGC students.
Implementation
MSC sessions were conducted approximately two weeks after the SeeMe pilot’s completion. The MSC technique involved two stages:
1.
Stories of change were collected from participants in focus group settings where the larger class was broken down into smaller groups of three to four individuals. Participants were asked to write a story consisting of a single event reflecting practical change (for good or bad) related to the SeeMe pilot
2.
In the selection phase students in their small groups were instructed to discuss and select a representative story based on the extent of the common experiences they shared. During this time, a designated scribe recorded key points from the discussion regarding the selection. This data forms a critical part of the qualitative data along with the selected stories.
In traditional applications of MSC it is not uncommon for a second selection phase to take place whereby the small groups reform into one or two larger groups to discuss the selected stories until one or two final stories are selected. This process was applied in the student leader MSC session, however, given time constraints and a small number of groups in each participating class, it was decided to conclude the MSC session at the first selection phase.
Although not included in the evaluation as a formal data collection activity, during the SeeMe orientation day the teacher champions were trained in conducting the MSC method. As part of this training, the teacher champions participated in their own session. The stories from this session illustrate
30
the positive impact SeeMe had on the teachers and have been included in Appendix E. These stories are presented alongside QVWC’s own data (collected for marketing and communications purposes) that highlight other dimensions of impact, including the personal benefits reported by teacher champions and SeeMe delivery partners.
Analysis
In all, the combined MSC sessions produced a total of 17 selected stories and a considerable amount of data accounting for the reasons for selection. This data provided important information about the experience of SeeMe, illuminating the values and meanings that participants bring to the experience and how they process and apply it to their everyday lives.
While MSC data has the capacity to be coded and analysed in much the same way as quantitative data, this current data has been analysed more openly to provide more nuanced insights to complement the quantitative data derived from the surveys.
Observations
Although not a formal data collection process, observation data was recorded from attendance at a selection of key workshops and the orientation day marking the completion of the website’s development process. These sessions were attended by student leaders, teacher champions, members from the QVWC team and project partners Educational Services Australia and the Victorian Association of Teachers of English. The workshops focused on designing the website and training student leaders in its classroom implementation.
In addition to obtaining insights around the role of and interplay between the partners and student leaders in the development and lead up to the implementation of the SeeMe pilot, these sessions were also used to pilot the SeeMe survey and conduct an MSC session with student leaders. Specifically, the
MSC session was designed to gain data in response to the evaluation question focusing on youth participation in ICT design and development.
31
Strengths and weakness of evaluation approach
While the measures of body image and body dissatisfaction have been widely accepted and used in the fields of psychology and applied sciences, they appear to be predominantly limited to medical interventions implemented in clinical settings and for specific populations. The body dissatisfaction scale for instance has been mostly applied to a female clinical population, the authors of this tool themselves recognise that the EDI ‘… does not simply measure concern with weight or dieting but rather indicates more disturbed attitudes’ (Garner et al, 1983: 32). In an attempt to offset these limitations this evaluation combined a number of measures and incorporated a triangulation of methods, using both qualitative and quantitative methods, to provide a more comprehensive and nuanced picture of program effects for the SeeMe project.
Through a closer examination of the prevailing instruments applied in the measurement of body dissatisfaction, the literature review revealed a tension that is relevant to the aims of SeeMe. To some degree it is logical that these instruments are gender-specific, however, a paradox lies in their risk of reproducing the very social values and tropes, prescribing normative gender codes, which limit young people. For instance, despite being a widely recognised and validated instrument, the Body
Dissatisfaction (BD) scale—a subset of the Eating Disorder Inventory (EDI) (Garner et al, 1983)—relies on gender-specific measures such as seeking girls’ opinions on their thighs, while asking boys to rate their satisfaction with their biceps and chest. By virtue of asking questions around specific gendered body parts there is an increased and unspoken risk of reinforcing the social expectations and norms around body image: in short valorising these body parts as areas for concern for participants. The reason for this implicit gender stereotyping is two-fold. Firstly, measures of body satisfaction are largely located in the medical/health disciplines and as such do not necessarily include any discussion of the sociological implications regarding the reproduction of gendered body image ideals. Empirical knowledge (regardless of discipline) does not occur in a social vacuum, therefore despite the best of intentions there will invariably be a set of social values brought to bear in the creation of any measures. However, there needs to be recognition that, as the Mission Australia survey confirms, young people have real concerns about their bodies that are gender-specific. One way to overcome this challenge, and which was adopted by Pasha and Golshekoh in their investigation on body dissatisfaction, is to apply a single measure applicable to both male and female participants, such as a general dissatisfaction question,
32
which would be independent of a specific body ideal (2009: 1728). The inclusion of the question probing how happy participants are with their bodies was an attempt to militate against these tensions.
Tiggemann and McGill (2004) argue that a pitfall for empirical studies is that they can inadvertently provoke social comparisons through their questioning strategy. The researchers contend that by instructing a participant to rate a model’s attractiveness or thinness in media portrayals of idealised thinness or beauty can provoke negative self-comparisons in (mainly female) participants who compare themselves with the images in the media. The authors tested this ‘self-to-model’ comparison and found that the more participants engaged with the media content within a program or evaluation setting, the greater their negative mood and body dissatisfaction (Tiggemann and McGill, 2004: 35). This highlights the importance of giving greater consideration to the way in which content is delivered and how participants are guided through both the SeeMe project and its evaluation. According to Tiggemann and
McGill, efforts should be directed towards discouraging women and girls from comparing themselves with others.
These considerations connect with a key tenet underpinning many health prevention programs, ‘First do no harm’ (O’Dea, 2004). This principle acknowledges that programs can inadvertently normalise or even glamorise certain behavioural practices around eating as well as reproduce body image stereotypes and/or prejudices. These can contribute to the problem under investigation or cause greater harm when a participant adopts a ‘disordered’ behaviour as a result of being made aware of it. This risk of contributing to potential negative outcomes as a result of a program equally applies to its evaluation.
The evaluation reported here does not attempt to remedy the issues outlined above, but these tensions were considered during the process of instrument development with the principal aim of avoiding the use of measures that could potentially reproduce the very problems that the SeeMe project was seeking to address. With respect to the gender sensitivities raised by this evaluation, the instruments were designed to be gender-neutral to avoid the pitfalls highlighted above.
It should be noted that although the focus of this evaluation is on the impact of media on young people’s body perceptions, the media alone is not the only influential factor. While it is not within the scope of this study to examine other mediating factors such as parental influences, it is worthwhile acknowledging that the media does not operate in a social and cultural vacuum. Including the
33
independent school (EPIC), which enrols predominantly Muslim students, was designed to offer interesting additional insights in this regard.
Ethics
Given the data collection activities for the SeeMe evaluation (with the exception of the student leader
MSC session) was to be conducted in Victorian schools, ethics approval was sought from the appropriate governing body DEECD (for DSC and MGC). As EPIC was an independent school, the absence of an official governing agency meant that there was no systematic ethics process required apart from seeking approval from the principal. In addition to this, all the protocols associated with the formal approvals processes were applied to EPIC.
On the whole, the ethics approval process went smoothly. One limitation that emerged was in relation to the proposed use of the Body Dissatisfaction Scale included in the original survey draft submitted as part of the DEECD ethics application. This instrument was challenged on the grounds that it was considered too ‘personal’ and a request that it be revised was made. After determining that any alterations would diminish the instrument’s validity, the decision was made to remove the entire scale from the questionnaire. Subsequent to this, the reference group was consulted and an additional (more acceptable) question was included.
As participants were below 18 years of age, informed consent was required from parents as well as students (see Appendix A for copies of these documents). As a courtesy, the principal of each school was formally invited to have their school participate in the evaluation. The principals, parents and students involved in the pilot received a plain language statement outlining the intentions and processes of the evaluation as well as information on participant rights.
All schools reported a good return rate for the consent forms, although EPIC reported that three parents wanted further clarification before signing. Of more interest was that these three parents were male parents (of female students). This, the teacher commented, was the first time that fathers had come into the school to seek more information; which she deemed was a positive reaction.
In future evaluations, translating the plain language statements into languages other than English would be of benefit for parents from non-English speaking backgrounds.
34
EVALUATION FINDINGS
A chief goal of the SeeMe project was to enhance media literacy skills towards the promotion of positive body image, gender awareness and youth participation through the creation of an interactive ICT resource. The design and implementation of the classroom-based pilot was also intended to promote youth leadership and peer facilitation. The following presents the findings from the SeeMe evaluation organised around the key evaluation questions. Responses to each of these questions are derived from the two key data sources—pre and post-pilot surveys and MSC sessions—to provide insights into the effectiveness and impact of SeeMe on the participating students. The insights from the observations are also woven into these descriptions.
It should be noted that due to low response rates in the post-pilot survey, and although analysis by subgroups school and gender are presented throughout this report (with the exception of the SATAQ-3 results), caution must be taken when interpreting these results. The small sample size, although highlighting indicative differences and potential patterns, precludes the ability to make any precise conclusions about the impact of SeeMe according to these groupings.
Does SeeMe increase participants’ critical awareness of media literacy?
Media literacy is defined as the ability to analyse, evaluate and create media and technology messaging
(Hobbs and Frost, 2003: 334). This includes an ability to identify the author, purpose, point of view, missing information, and intended audience of a message, as well as techniques used to shape viewer opinion. All these are considered key attributes of critical thinking and skills.
The SeeMe project focused on building media literacy skills through a gendered lens. Specifically, it sought to build capacity in students to identify stereotypes, and patterns of presentation and viewpoints promoted in the media which influence the way they view body image and gender (and to a lesser extent culture). This section of the survey was made up of two key questions: the first asking students to rate their abilities with regard to key media literacy skills, and the second to comment on any changes in media choices as a result of SeeMe.
35
Media literacy skills
The results from the post-pilot survey (see Chart 1) show that students developed facility in identifying key attributes of media messaging after SeeMe. The strongest literacy was the ability to identify construction techniques; 48.9% of students reported the ability to identify ‘to a great extent’ techniques the media uses to attract and hold an audience’s attention.
When the positive scale ratings (‘to a great extent’ and ‘somewhat’) are taken together, it shows that identifying the purpose of the message was also a strong skill to emerge after SeeMe; 89.3% of students rated this skill positively. Contrastingly, being able to determine the points of view that are missing from a message was the least improved skill when ‘very little’ and ‘not at all’ were combined. Just over a quarter of students (27.6%) did not feel proficient in this area.
Chart 1: Media Literacy Skills (%)
38.3
38.3
40.4
44.7
48.9
Techniques
4.3
Missing
8.5
Values
4.3
Audience
4.3
6.4
Purpose
0.0
2.1
4.3
10.0
10.6
14.9
19.1
19.1
20.0
29.8
31.9
48.9
57.4
30.0
40.0
50.0
60.0
70.0
To a great extent Somewhat Very little Not at all
Media literacy by school and gender
The results for this question were converted into means (1=not at all; 4=to a great extent) for analysis by sub-groups school and gender (see Chart 2). Viewed in this way, the results do not reveal significant differences between school and gender groups. There was only small variance between school groups; however MGC seemed to fare better on all domains except identifying the purpose of the message.
However, given the media literacy section was included in the post-pilot survey only (leaving an absence of baseline information), it is possible that students from MGC already possessed higher ability in this area.
36
It is important to note that media literacy does not occur in a cultural vacuum. Hobbs and Frost (2003:
351) observe that the use of texts in which students have greater social or linguistic prior knowledge can help students master the analytical skills connected to media literacy. This suggests that measures such as these favour individuals who have English as their first language. There is benefit in conducting more research on the capacity for critical thinking of texts written in a language that is not the individual’s first. For the purpose of SeeMe, this kind of research exploring the relationship between cultural bias and critical thinking skills, would be of considerable value.
Chart 2: Media Literacy Skills by School (mean)
4.0
3.0
3.5
3.3
3.4
3.1
3.5
3.1 3.1
3.3
2.8 2.8
2.9
3.0
3.3
3.6
3.0
2.0
1.0
4.0
3.0
2.0
1.0
0.0
0.0
Purpose Audience Values ViewsMissing Techniques
Doncaster EPIC MGC
Not unlike school differences (or lack of), media literacy skills were comparable across male and female students in all areas except the identification of techniques used (see Chart 3). In this case, females appeared more attuned to the devices used to draw/hold a viewer’s attention. This ‘hyper awareness’ may be due to females being the key targets of media messages and as such more likely to be exposed to/at the effect of manipulation techniques.
Chart 3: Media Literacy Skills by Gender (mean)
3.1
3.3
3.4 3.3
3.1 3.2
2.9
2.8
2.9
3.5
Purpose Audience Values
Male Female
Missing Techniques
37
Most Significant Change data
Although not systematically analysed (for group differences), it seems many of the MSC stories provided by the MGC students had a stronger focus on media/advertisement techniques and their dominant influence. As one student put it:
The SeeMe Project has resulted in me thinking every time I am affected by advertising – ‘Am I being brainwashed?’ The answer is almost always yes. I have been recognizing the advertising techniques in heaps of ads, especially ‘compelling offers’ which is used for the bad a lot in television advertising. I think the SeeMe Project has really helped me recognize the advertising techniques (MSC selected story, MGC).
This reflexive engagement around the influence of the media is suggestive of the type of higher order thinking and content analysis that media literacy skills are designed to promote. The development of a greater awareness of media devices and how they function to shape viewer opinion is also captured in the following selected story:
SeeMe has taught me new perceptions of the advertisement industry. Not to believe everything
I see and also the different advertising techniques that are used. I did already know a little bit about the techniques but See Me taught me and gave me information I didn’t know and I think that has made me more aware of advertising (MSC selected story, MGC).
Informed choices
Students were asked if they believed they made more informed choices about media, such as what programs to watch, magazines to avoid etc., as a result of SeeMe. Table 4 shows that the majority of students (59.6%) believed they make more informed choices about media since SeeMe.
Table 4: Informed Choices (post)
Informed
Count choices
Percent
Yes
No
28
13
59.6
27.7
38
No Response
Total
6
47
12.8
100.0
Informed choices by school and gender
When viewed across school groups, MGC students demonstrated the greatest impact in this area (80%).
In addition to this being a considerable effect, that these same students also showed the most enhanced media literacy skills suggests a link between increased media literacy and behavioural changes arising from this.
Chart 4: Informed Choices by School (%)
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
90
80
70
66.7
33.3
58.8
41.2
80
20
Doncaster EPIC MGC
Yes no
Somewhat unsurprisingly, females showed a greater propensity for making more informed media choices after SeeMe (Chart 5). Again this could be explained by the fact that females are more commonly at the effect of media manipulation strategies than are males. For this reason it could be expected that any positive behavioural effects of SeeMe will be felt more greatly within this group.
39
Chart 5: Informed Choices by Gender (%)
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
53.8
46.2
75
25
Male Female
Yes No
The qualitative data that accompanied this section emphasised that students now view media with a fresh set of eyes, resulting in a closer interrogation of techniques used in advertising:
I tend to look deeper into commercials and magazines (Female, MCG)
I consider what techniques are used (Female, MGC).
Observations such as these provide evidence of both the penetration and application of enhanced media literacy skills in the participants’ everyday lives. This was a common theme in the MSC stories where participants reported a proclivity towards deconstructing media and advertising texts in ways that were not available to them previously.
Most Significant Change data
The MSC data proved to be most useful in providing qualitative insights to support the quantitative data regarding enhanced media literacy. Of all the topics (media literacy, body image, gender awareness) investigated through the survey, media literacy (or specific domains of) was the area of change mentioned time and again in the MSC stories. The following story captures the essence underlying many of the MSC stories (both selected and unselected):
40
During this project, I have learnt new things. I look at advertising differently, I try and work out who the targeted audience is. Whenever there are people on the screen I look at how much make-up they have on and I have a better understanding on what advertisements try to provide
(MSC selected story, MGC).
The selection notes accompanying this story highlight ‘advertising methods’ and ‘particular audiences’ as topics which participants reported greater awareness about. There was an explicit focus on advertising in the stories and the ways in which the participants’ perceptions about media constructed
‘reality’ were altered.
The MSC data also highlighted an acute sensitivity towards the inner workings of the media. In some cases (particularly for the EPIC boys) there was a focus on the role of celebrities in this process of knowledge creation and propagation.
Products don’t always work. A lot of people buy these products because they’re a fan of the celebrity that is doing it. My view of advertisements has changed (MSC selected story, EPIC).
In fact, all three stories provided by this group conferred some sort of responsibility to celebrities in promoting consumerist values.
Summary
These results suggest that participation in the SeeMe pilot increased students’ media literacy skills, particularly the ability to identify techniques used to capture/hold audience attention, along with identifying the purpose of the message. In both these domains females showed stronger competencies.
There were practical benefits associated with the enhancement of these skills with over half of the students reporting they make more informed choices about what media to consume. MGC students showed most change in this outcome. Similarly, female participants in general showed a greater proclivity towards this behavioural change. Making more informed choices about the media as a result of SeeMe is an important outcome as traditionally behavioural shifts take longer to be realised. That the effects were so immediate is testament to the powerful effects of the pilot.
41
Despite the positive anecdotal evidence surrounding making more informed media choices, there was no mention of the types of informed choices now made as a result of SeeMe. This is most likely due to question wording, which may have been unclear in its instruction. Future evaluations would benefit from a further interrogation of this behavioural dimension.
Does SeeMe increase participants’ level of body satisfaction?
The survey included a general measure for body satisfaction in the form of a question asking how happy participants were with the way their body looked. This question was asked both before and after the
SeeMe pilot. The results for this question provide evidence for perhaps the most significant impact of the pilot. Chart 6 shows that SeeMe had a powerful affect in changing how participants viewed their body. This shift was most notable from being ‘a bit happy’ to being ‘pretty much happy’, and a sizeable increase in being ‘very happy’.
Chart 6: Happy with Body (%)
Totally happy
22.7
21.3
16.7
Very happy
27.7
Pretty much happy
0.0
40.4
A bit happy
53.0
Not at all happy
6.4
4.3
7.6
10.0
0.0
20.0
30.0
40.0
50.0
60.0
pre post
Correspondingly, there was a drop in individuals who were ‘not at all happy’ with their bodies prior to
SeeMe. However, there was also a small decrease in those who were ‘totally happy’ with their bodies before SeeMe. This could speak to the intervention affect that O’Dea (2004) describes whereby interventions can inadvertently contribute to the problem under investigation or cause greater harm when a participant adopts a ‘disordered’ behaviour as a result of being made aware of it. Similarly,
Tiggmann and McGill’s study (2004) highlights the pitfalls of program evaluations whereby a process of
42
‘self-to-model’ comparison can occur when participants engage with media content within a program or evaluation setting. In some cases, they found, this can result in increased negative mood and body dissatisfaction.
Happy with body by school and gender
A closer examination of the differences between school and gender (as given by the mean scores) reveals the greatest change in attitudes towards their bodies occurred for the DSC and MGC students.
Chart 7: Happy with Body by School (mean)
4.0
3.8
3.4 3.4
3
3.0
2.9
2.9
2.0
1.0
0.0
Doncaster EPIC MGC
Pre Post
While the differences between these means are not significant, both DSC and MGC students moved from being ‘a bit happy’ to ‘pretty much happy’ with their bodies, while EPIC students stayed within the
‘pretty much happy’ category, however moved to the higher end. In both cases, these are positive results and support existing empirical findings (see Chart 8) on the latent and powerful relationship between individuals’ self-perceptions and external influences such as media imagery.
43
Chart 8: Happy with Body by Gender (mean)
5.0
4.0
3.3
3.0
2.5
2.0
3.6
4.1
1.0
0.0
Female Male pre post
Females also showed a greater tendency towards being happy with their bodies after SeeMe. Although these differences were only moderate, they correspond Pasha and Golshekoh’s (2009) research findings on internalized body ideals, which affected girls to a greater extent than boys. Furthermore, when the authors analysed SATAQ-3 scores with body dissatisfaction scores, they found that internalization of body ideals was the greatest predictor of body dissatisfaction in girls.
Sociocultural Attitudes towards Appearance (SATAQ-3)
As cautioned earlier, the low response numbers make any robust estimates around body satisfaction
(using the current measures), slightly problematic. For this reason, only the whole population (rather than sub-group) results for the SATAQ-3 scale are presented here. It should also be noted that while the results for the SATAQ-3 scale are included in this section (body satisfaction) it is acknowledged that the
SATAQ-3 scale is not a measure for body satisfaction in and of itself, but rather assesses levels of participants’ acceptance of body types. In a similar manner to Neumark-Sztainer et al (2000) in their
‘Free to be Me’ evaluation, the SATAQ-3 scale has been incorporated here to complement the single body satisfaction measure relating to participants’ happiness with their bodies. To this end, the results lend interpretive faculty to the ways in which media literacy might affect body satisfaction.
44
Overall, the SATAQ-3 data scores do not indicate significant change across the full range of items, however three specific areas stand out as showing slight improvement (when viewed as median scores), these were:
I would like my body to look like the people who are in the movies
Magazine articles are not an important source of information about fashion and ‘being attractive’
1
I do not try to look like the people on TV
1
In the first instance, the majority of the responses shifted from ‘neither agree nor disagree’ to ‘mostly disagree’ when it came to wanting their bodies to look like the bodies of those in the movies. Students also tended to view magazine articles as less important sources of information about fashion and being attractive, after SeeMee. Finally, and importantly, there was a shift away from being ambivalent about trying to look like people on TV, to mostly agreeing that they no longer attempted to do this. This positive shift corresponds to the shift away from wanting a body that resembles those represented in movies (measured in the first scale item).
The responses to these three scale items provide evidence for a positive effect of SeeMe in changing the way participants aspire to look. Moreover, that these three areas of improvement refer to three different forms of media—movies, magazines and TV—suggests that SeeMe provoked a more wideranging understanding of the media and its role in producing and perpetuating beauty norms. Taken together, improvements in these three items along with an increased happiness with one’s body, suggests significant benefits of SeeMe regarding participants understandings of body image and sense of body satisfaction.
Information and Internalization- General
There were two key domains of the SATAQ-3 scale that proved to be particularly influential; these were
Information and Internalization-General. Internalization refers to the ‘incorporation of specific values to the point that they become guiding principles’ (Thompson et al, 2004: 294). In the context of the SeeMe
1
These latter two items were reversed. Although the statements are negative, they have been reversed for ease of reading
45
evaluation, these values refer to socio-cultural influences constituting body ideals that the SATAQ-3 was designed to measure.
Responses to the SATAQ-3 scale were computed according to the two sub-scales Information and
Internalization-General for further analysis (Table 5). The results of this analysis reveal a marginal change in attitudes towards appearance.
Table 5: SATAQ-3 Information and Internalization-General
Information
(Range = 5-25)
Pre Post
Internalization-general
(Range = 8-40)
Pre Post
Mean
Median
Std. Deviation
13.6
15.0
4.590
13.9
15.0
4.80415
17.9
18.0
6.623
20.7
20.5
6.30090
While there was no change in students’ perceptions in the Information domain, there was greater change in the Internalization-General domain. This is an important finding and is supported by the findings regarding students’ happiness towards their bodies. Specifically, it points to a potential link between the internalization of (new) understandings of the role the media plays in influencing body image attitudes and the degree to which participants want to achieve these ideals. That, on the whole, students demonstrated a greater happiness towards their body after the SeeMe pilot highlights the salience of internalization processes in the formation of understandings and values in this regard.
46
Chart 9: SATAQ-3 Information and Internalization-General (mean)
25
20
17.9
13.6
13.9
15
10
20.7
5
0
Information Internalization-general
Pre Post
Notwithstanding, the results for the Internalization-General sub-scale, there are three possible reasons for the moderate or no change in the SATAQ-3 results, these chiefly relate to:
1.
the post sample being too small;
2.
the measure, although statistically valid and reliable, was perhaps not sensitive enough to pick up changes. That is, student beliefs around body ideals could change as a result of the SeeMe pilot but this may not be picked up by the current measure; and,
3.
there simply was no change.
Currently, there is insufficient information to indicate which one of these three reasons most likely accounts for the results. Furthermore, it is worth noting that even if there were greater improvements on the SATAQ-3 scale, it would be too difficult to test due to the survey being implemented across a group rather than on individuals. It is recommended that future evaluation efforts involve a matched paired analysis whereby individuals are tracked over time instead of the group.
These results should not be considered discouraging, Neumark-Sztainer et al (2000) found that although their own program under review was successful in increasing media literacy skills, it was less successful in affecting body image attitudes and associated behaviours. Furthermore, improvements in knowledge and attitudes around body perceptions did not endure over time, suggesting only a moderate
47
intervention effect. This, the authors concede, corresponds to findings in similar studies (see Neumark-
Sztainer et al, 2000)
Notwithstanding the attribution challenges presented by the quantitative data, there was a noticeable degree of reflexivity illustrated throughout the open comments accompanying this section. The qualitative data reflected insights into how individuals interpret the challenges they face on a daily basis while interacting in an embodied world. For instance, one student reflected:
Sometimes I look at myself in the mirror and think of how I look to other people. Sometimes I feel fat, sometimes I feel thin and I get confised about what people are comparing me with in their mind...But I do not want to be in another persons body because even though I am not happy with myself sometimes, I still like what I look like... (Female, MGC).
Following SeeMe there were several emphatic comments about the spuriousness of media constructions of attractiveness:
In the media world, they are “fake” people. When they are not on the ad it is a normal person with make-up on and nice tan and other additional features but when it gets to the people who are add the lighting on the face and airbrushing (Female, MGC)
Or
Sometimes I wonder if the people on TV are real or not, but then I realise that advertisements are fake and only some are truthfull (Female, MGC).
One student was at pains to express a renewed satisfaction with her body:
I am happy with my look cause I know I am 100% prettier and better looking than them cause most or all those FAMOUS people do beauty operations but I don’t need any cause I look
GOOOOOOOOOOOOOD!! (Female, EPIC).
48
Most Significant Change data
The MSC data supported this notion of a revitalised attitude to one’s body, with several stories reflecting an increase in confidence or changes in the way the individual sees him or herself, notably that SeeMe ‘has shown me to be happy with myself’. In addition to focusing on personal views around body image and ideals, the MSC data also highlighted perceived effects beyond the individual, in some instances to participants’ immediate communities.
Well good things have changed for me because we see the media changes people very easily.
Many people are believing in what ever the media says. Also, I have seen the world differently because of the project. Many people close to me have changed because of the products the media have put up on TV (MSC, EPIC).
Although this story was not selected by the group as representing common experience, it is particularly unique in that it provides an example of how the effects of SeeMe penetrate the external lives of participants. The above participant’s comment illustrates some of the more subtle sensitivities around the broader impact of media generated ideals, particularly for this individual and the people around him.
Summary
Overall, the results of measure happiness with body reveal a positive shift in participant body satisfaction as a result of SeeMe. The most pronounced results were evidenced in individuals feeling happier with their bodies. It should be noted that in general, body perceptions are highly chronic and therefore any changes on any dimensions, even if small, are actually a good outcome. The improvement in the Internalization-General sub-scale of SATAQ-3 lends a degree of explanatory power to the increase in happiness towards participants’ bodies reported after SeeMe.
It is also worthy to note that the results could be mediated by age that is some of these issues may be age-specific. For instance, what may be an issue for a 13 year old girl may not be an issue for a boy the same age, but at a different age boys may have sensitivities around certain issues. Pasha and Golshekoh
(2009) also discuss the notion that boys possibly do not internalize body ideals (which is likely to be detrimental to their to their own view of themselves) at the same age, or to the same extent, as girls.
49
They speculate that this may change over time as boys grow up and increasing pressure may result in greater internalization of media-driven body ideals.
Additionally, the qualitative data suggested a strong desire towards not wanting (or needing) to emulate the values associated with idealised bodies presented in the media. Related to this, there was a common theme captured in the MSC data of an altered view of the world and others in it.
Does SeeMe increase participants’ awareness of gender stereotyping in the media?
Hall argues that stereotyping is essentially a ‘representation practice’ (1997: 225). Raising participants’ awareness of this practice, specifically with regard to gender, was a principal goal of the SeeMe project.
In order to assess the degree to which participant’s awareness of gender stereotyping in the media was enhanced by SeeMe, the survey included questions eliciting opinion on gendered bodies and roles, and their views on cultural stereotypes presented in the media.
Awareness of gender stereotypes
Students were asked to consider to what degree they thought portrayals of female and male bodies in the media were accurate. They were also asked to report on the extent to which these media representations of women and men were typical of the people they knew.
Tables 6 to 9, show that overall there was a shift in students’ awareness of gender stereotyping in the media. This was particularly the case when it came to representations of female (and to a lesser extent male) bodies, which were less likely to be considered accurately portrayed after SeeMe.
50
Table 6: The bodies of females shown in the media are mostly accurate
Pre Post
Definitely disagree
Mostly disagree
Neither agree or disagree
Mostly agree
Male
19.2
23.1
26.9
11.5
Female
25.0
27.5
20.0
22.5
Male
35.7
35.7
21.4
0.0
Female
34.4
43.8
18.8
0.0
Definitely agree 19.2 5.0 7.1 3.1
Table 7: The bodies of males shown in the media are mostly accurate
Pre Post
Male Female Male Female
Definitely disagree
Mostly disagree
Neither agree or disagree
Mostly agree
11.5
23.1
30.8
23.1
22.5
27.5
30.0
15.0
21.4
28.6
42.9
0.0
28.1
46.9
15.6
3.1
Definitely agree 11.5 5.0 7.1 6.3
Moreover, there was greater variance between male and female students in their perceptions of gendered portrayals in the media and the degree to which they felt these reflected people in their own lives. However, the absence of any definitive gendered pattern makes any meaningful interpretation of this variance difficult.
Table 8: The presentation of women in the media is true of people I know
Pre Post
Definitely disagree
Mostly disagree
Neither agree or disagree
Mostly agree
Definitely agree
Male
19.2
26.9
34.6
11.5
7.7
Female
20.5
20.5
38.5
17.9
2.6
Male
14.3
28.6
35.7
14.3
7.1
Female
25.0
43.8
15.6
12.5
3.1
51
Table 9: The presentation of men in the media is true of people I know
Pre Post
Definitely disagree
Mostly disagree
Neither agree or disagree
Mostly agree
Male
23.1
19.2
38.5
15.4
Female
17.9
28.2
38.5
12.8
Male
28.6
14.3
42.9
14.3
Female
25.0
40.6
18.8
9.4
Definitely agree 3.8 2.6
Cultural and gendered role representations
0.0 6.3
The SeeMe survey also explored cultural representations and gendered roles and whether students’ perceptions around these changed as a result of the pilot. There were no significant shifts in opinions with regard to cultural and gendered representations in the media. However, students felt significantly less inclined to agree that people who are in the media look like them, after SeeMe.
Table10: Cultural and Gendered Role Representations
Pre Post
Yes No Yes No
Women from different cultures presented in media
Men from different cultures presented in media
Women in different roles presented in media
Men in different roles presented in media
71.2
75.8
81.8
87.9
28.8
22.7
13.6
9.1
63.8
70.2
78.7
83.0
34.0
27.7
19.1
14.9
People who look like you presented in the media 50.0 45.5 34.0 59.6
Explanations for this mostly referred to an invisibility of cultural differences in the media and that the representations were considered largely homogenous and anglo-centric: most of the women or nearly are amarican, australians etc. you dont see people from arica much or even south america much. my point is that there are not much cultural women in media (Female, EPIC)
52
Like the Girls, it genrally skinny young men who are australian in the media (Female, MGC).
The post-pilot responses revealed additional insights into how young people understand the media and its privileging of notions of attractiveness. There was a strong timbre around processes of stereotyping, racism and discriminatory advertising in the media:
Because it is not viewed as attractive to not be 'anglo' and the covergirl image of beautiful
(Female, MGC).
It was also acknowledged that cultural representations of men are more diverse than those of women.
On the whole, students believed people in the media mostly did not look like them; this was chiefly due to factors such as age, ethnicity and body type which they felt were attributes largely underrepresented in media imagery.
Views about the negative representation of Muslims punctuated the qualitative data with particular reference to Muslim attire which was considered somewhat problematic: because i am scarfed and not much muslims are shown on tv unless theyve committed a crime
(Female, EPIC).
This reverberates with what Hall (1997) describes as a ‘regime of representation’ which is made up of a: whole repertoire of imagery and visual effects through which ‘difference’ is represented at any one historical moment (Hall,1997: 232).
The personal impact of such regimes of representation, particularly for the EPIC students, is illustrated in the following comment which powerfully describes the effects of the media’s, often unchallenged, perpetuation of cultural stereotypes: the media potrays muslims as terrorists and though to be making "weopons of masdistruction"
(al-qaeda-who nobody ever saw) and americans throw bombs at them and potraying them as
53
"USA HEROS" but they kill innocent people and that innocent people are being turned a blind eye on and showing in the media as "muslim terroists" and especially the 9/11 ...straight away the newspapers right muslim people are doing this. its heartbreaking to know we have haters for nothing (Female, EPIC).
Most Significant Change data
Gender stereotypes were also the topic of several of the chosen MSC stories, particularly how advertising both produces and relies on stereotypes to reinforce its message.
My point of view on media and advertisement has changed quite a bit since I did See Me. I look at women on magazines and I think that they might have been photoshopped. I think of any advertisement differently now than in the past because of what I’ve learnt and what goes on behind everything. I’ve learnt that people don’t just use their natural beauty and they prefer to go with the cosmetics or anything that is popular and common. There were a lot of stereotypes in a lot of advertisements as well (MSC selected story, MGC).
When this story was selected, the discussion centred on more textual devices rather than images and a reliance on ‘a lot of stereotypes’ to convey meaning.
Summary
Somewhat unsurprisingly, students felt less inclined to agree that representations of women’s bodies in the media were accurate after SeeMe. Perceptions around the cultural and gendered roles portrayed in the media did not alter as a result of SeeMe, however, there was a significant drop in the number of participants who felt people in the media looked like them.
Additionally, there was a strong cultural bias perceived in the media, and accompanying this were feelings of marginalisation for the female Muslim students who acknowledged the conspicuousness of their ethnicity (due to their attire).
These results indicate that future evaluations would benefit from an exploration of whether an increased awareness of gender stereotyping in the media shapes how individuals view others of the
54
opposite sex. That is, whether there is an increase in empathy for instance, or greater understanding of the impacts on the lived experience of the ‘other’.
Does SeeMe provide opportunities for youth participation in ICT design and development?
A key design objective of the SeeMe project was to encourage youth participation. To achieve this aim, the 10 student leaders worked collaboratively with ICT and web content developers in the design of the
‘SeeMe - The media, my world and me’ interactive website and a range of classroom activities. This took place across five two-hour workshops that were also attended by the teacher champions and one or both of the project partners (depending on the objective of the workshop).
In addition to being consulted on aspects of the website presentation and functionality, the student leaders were also trained in how to deliver the pilot through a facilitated classroom setting. It is the intention of QVWC to involve the student leaders in future marketing and information dissemination strategies for the results of the pilot, such as presentations at the Ministerial launch and training new student leader groups at their schools.
Most Significant Change data
The student leader MSC session was held during the SeeMe orientation day in September 2011, prior to the pilot’s formal implementation in the schools. This day marked the completion of the design phase and offered an opportunity to collect insights into the distinctive experiences of the student leaders.
While this was technically only the halfway point of the student leaders’ involvement, it was the last opportunity to have all 10 student leaders gathered together to undertake the session. It was also agreed that, if possible, the teacher champions would conduct a subsequent MSC session with the student leaders upon completion of the pilot in order to capture additional outcomes for this group. To date, this further session has not been completed, however the teacher champions have been trained to conduct these sessions.
During the session the student leaders were divided into their smaller groups (according to their schools). While it was intended that insights into the impact of being involved in the design and implementation of the SeeMe pilot would be collected, it seems that the actual web resource itself
55
proved to have greater impact on the student leaders. All the stories, including the three chosen ones and their associated selection notes, focused on shifts in the way individuals see the media and advertising world. For instance as one participant describes:
Over the weeks I have learnt about how much the media changes people and ideas and how people accept these things. I always knew that these perfect pictures had been digitally changed but I never knew about the lengths they go to to get you to buy/use their products/s. Now I know more about body image I can criticise the messages sent out by the media (MSC, selected story).
When this story was selected, themes around ‘criticizing messages’ and ‘learning to criticize’ emerged as commonly agreed outcomes.
This notion that young people are already cognisant of image manipulation techniques used by the media is salient. The value of the SeeMe project is not so much that it works on a ‘naïve’ audience but rather it formalises (through the enhancement of media literacy skills) practices around interrogating and critically interpreting media texts.
In a story that was not selected, a student leader identified one particular workshop that made her/him
‘care more about my health and my body’.
Another student commented that it: caused me to understand that if even celebrities have flaws worth covering, it’s okay to be imperfect (MSC, selected story).
In addition to the student leader MSC session, informal observations (and conversations with teacher champions and students) during the website development workshops and orientation day provided additional qualitative data. During one workshop in particular, a teacher was asked for her opinion on how much she felt the students had control/input over the overall process of the web development.
While only speaking on behalf of her own school’s experience, the teacher felt her student leaders had
56
around 75% input. When probed further, this largely referred to web design elements rather than content, however students were able to veto any activities (content) at any time.
The observations at the orientation day suggest that the students had a strong sense of ownership and pride over both the development process and final product. By this time they had been interacting with the team and one another for a while and seeing it all come together produced a level of excitement and rapport amid the group.
Summary
Like the broader participant group, the student leaders reported significant improvement in their critical thinking skills and a heightened awareness of the devices used by advertising and the media. With the current data, however, it is difficult to assess whether the effects were more powerful for these individuals than the rest of the group given their extended and participatory exposure. One possible explanation for this is that the MSC session, which was conducted prior to the student leaders actually implementing the pilot, did not capture influences and outcomes given the pilot had not yet commenced. At the point of data collection, the student leaders had only in effect completed half of their role.
A key objective of the SeeMe project was the promotion of participation in ICT design and development; that the pilot’s design involved specific and targeted activities for the student leaders to support the design and delivery of the web resource satisfies this goal. However, future evaluations could perhaps focus on drawing out the effects of this archetypal involvement, perhaps with the use of more targeted
MSC sessions focusing on effects expected from this type of involvement. A more longitudinal approach that tracks their involvement and captures impact over time is also recommended to assess the degree to which this project objective was met and the longer term impacts on student leaders of this kind of involvement.
Does SeeMe provide opportunities for peer leadership/facilitation of the
SeeMe resource in classrooms?
In addition to being consulted on the design and content of the SeeMe web resource, the student leaders were also involved in the development of classroom activities supporting its implementation.
57
This critical peer-to-peer learning aspect makes SeeMe relatively unique in the field. The student leaders were responsible for the delivery of the SeeMe modules over five consecutive lessons. The data retrieved for this evaluation question was intended to be yielded through the MSC session, however no insights were gathered that specifically addressed opportunities for peer leadership and facilitation.
Furthermore, unlike the workshops, the ability to observe the in-situ implementation of the pilot was also limited. Despite this lack of substantive data providing evidence in support of the evaluation question (see Appendix E for student leader and teacher champion data collected for marketing and communications purposes which provides evidence for the value and positive experiences of the project as experienced by these groups) both the quantitative and qualitative data did not reveal any significant barriers or impediments to the SeeMe project fulfilling on this aim. It is recommended that future evaluations incorporate an exclusive student leader survey and/or interviews, along with teacher surveys/interviews to provide evidence of the promotion of peer leadership and facilitation in classrooms as a result of the implementation of SeeMe. At the same time such an undertaking might identify any barriers to the fulfilment of the project’s objectives.
Are the SeeMe website and support materials accessible and user friendly?
In order to understand the extent to which the SeeMe website and support materials were accessible and user friendly, the survey included a section asking participants to rate (on a scale of 1 to 5 with 5 being ‘excellent’, 1 being ‘poor’) the SeeMe website and support materials with regard to ease of access and use.
The majority of participants rated the SeeMe website and support materials as good, both in terms of access to and use of (see Table 11).
Table 11: Access to and Ease of SeeMe Website and Support Materials
Website access
Excellent
19.1
Good
38.3
Satisfactory
29.8
Needs improvement
2.1
Poor
4.3
Website use 12.8 48.9 14.9 10.6 2.1
Materials access
Materials use
21.3
19.1
31.9
34.0
27.7
25.5
8.5
8.5
4.3
2.1
58
SeeMe website and support materials ratings by school and gender
These ratings when analysed by school group show that MGC students were more favourable towards the website and support materials. EPIC students, on the other hand, found access and use of the website and support materials more challenging. These differences possibly speak to school-based access issues, but also broader digital divide issues around access, understanding and use of digital technology should not be discounted.
Chart 10: SeeMe Website and Support Materials Ratings by School (mean)
4.2
MaterialsEaseUse 3.3
3.5
4.2
MaterialsEaseAccess 3.2
3.5
WebEaseUse
4.2
3.2
3.5
WebEaseAccess
4.1
3.4
3.6
0.0
0.5
1.0
1.5
2.0
2.5
3.0
3.5
4.0
4.5
MGC EPIC Doncaster
Females were marginally more positive than males in their ratings of the SeeMe website and support material ratings. This corresponds with the school analysis that shows a more favourable experience by the MGC students.
59
Chart 11: SeeMe Website and Support Materials Ratings by Gender (mean)
MaterialsEaseUse
MaterialsEaseAccess
WebEaseUse
3.5
3.6
3.6
3.7
3.7
3.5
3.9
WebEaseAccess
3.3
2.8
3.0
3.2
3.4
3.6
3.8
4.0
Female Male
Students who gave the SeeMe website and/or support materials a score of three or below were asked to explain their rating. Of the few who commented, it seems relevance of information and the website being blocked were the main challenges. Despite these critiques, on the whole students had a positive experience with the SeeMe website and support materials: it was good and i enjoyed using the website (Female, MGC) really well organised (Female, MGC) yes can u help us be more confident (Female, EPIC).
Summary
The SeeMe website and support materials were rated fairly well amongst participants. MGC students rated these aspects consistently higher, while EPIC students rated them consistently lower. This is possibly explained by issues beyond the scope of the SeeMe project, specifically the broader issue of school resourcing for technology and, related to this, digital divide issues. However, these results highlight that SeeMe would benefit from considering ways to overcome any cultural and/or geographic as well as gender-specific differences in experiences of the pilot.
60
What are the factors that influence take up/participation in the SeeMe website/support materials?
In response to the evaluation question exploring factors that might influence take up and participation in SeeMe, the survey sought information on what didn’t work about SeeMe, where improvements could be made, and whether students would recommend SeeMe to others.
78.7% of students said they would recommend SeeMe to others; 14.9% said they would not. The reasons offered for both recommending and not recommending SeeMe ranged from it being ‘dumb’ and
‘boring,’ to ‘fun’, ‘educational’, and ‘interesting’. Some students suggested it would be valuable if delivered to particular groups such as ‘people who have low self-esteem’
Amongst the perceived benefits of the SeeMe project were: because it shows a good perspective on the world around us (Female, Doncaster) bcause if it changed me, then it will change them (Female, EPIC) because its a valuble leason that can change your opinon for good (Female, Doncaster)
Because it helped me a lot in my mind. it helped me being organised (Female, MGC)
It explains some things that is useful to us when we are older (Female, MGC).
When asked what didn’t work about the pilot, criticisms were directed towards the survey. Specifically, it was considered too long with repetitiveness in parts. While this problem was also raised during the survey pilot, there is often unavoidable repetition in validated psychometric instruments such as the
SATAQ-3 scale, therefore little could be done to alter this aspect of the survey.
The school based platform Edmodo also drew some negative remarks:
61
Edmodo educational facebook? Tad boring. Also there was quite a lot of stuff we already knew
(Female, MGC)
I think Edmodo was a bit pointless and making it look like facebook didn't make it more appealing (Female, MGC).
Interestingly, across both data sets there was only one reference to the student leaders (albeit students were not directly asked about this dimension of the pilot). One comment in the survey referred to the effectiveness of SeeMe student leaders: the student leaders, i think they should have been adults. Not to be mean but i didnt feel they were enjoying (Female, MGC).
It would be worthwhile in future evaluations to probe the perceived role and effectiveness of the student leaders (as experienced by the rest of the participant group) given this forms a central feature of the project.
Students were also asked to suggest ways SeeMe could be improved based in their most recent experience. Areas identified for improvement included making SeeMe more ‘fun’ with more ‘activities’, and a particular focus on more practical or ‘hands on’ activities. Some remarks referred to relevance of information:
By having more things that relate to us, some of things I couldn't relate to so I found it difficult
(Female, MGC) add a section where young teen or whatever age can tell their stories and relate to each other in a way (Female, EPIC)
A bit more at students level would be better. More for teens (Female, MGC).
While others offered suggestions for enhancing the program experience:
62
by getting more people into it (Female, EPIC) i think i was good as it was, but maybe have poeple come in and talk about it more (Female,
Doncaster)
Have more to talk about and go into more depth on certain topics. It was a bit boring so it needs to be more exciting (Female, MGC).
The teacher champions also reported high levels of approval and support for SeeMe. Although not a formal part of the evaluation, an informal MSC session was conducted with the teachers that revealed a high level of satisfaction with both the development process and the final SeeMe product with respect to ICT engagement and fostering of leadership in students (see Appendix D). Teachers observed that student leaders gained a lot through their involvement and personally they felt more aware of the extent of media manipulation of body image.
Summary
The current data suggests that there were no major challenges related to take up and participation in the SeeMe website and support materials. The main critiques of the SeeMe website related to relevance of content and the survey tool. Suggestions were made as to the types of groups who should be involved in future implementation as well as ways to engage students more. However, specific insights regarding factors that influence take up and participation were not sufficiently enunciated in this evaluation. In part this is because teachers were not formally interviewed for this. To answer this evaluation question more adequately there is a need for teacher and principal or school leader feedback regarding the barriers faced in implementing the pilot and any challenges envisioned for its future adoption, as well as insights into factors that might enhance buy-in from schools more generally.
Social impacts
In addition to direct indicators of change—increased levels of body satisfaction, media literacy skills and gender awareness—the SeeMe evaluation also explored how such changes might impact participants’ behaviours. Specifically, and consistent with the findings of Neumark-Sztainer et al (2004) in relation to young people, physical activities and weight-related disorders, the evaluation aimed to capture any
63
altered or enhanced participation in social activities that might emerge from a greater awareness of the pervasiveness of media myths around gendered body and beauty ideals (which it is theorised constrain individuals in both conscious and unconscious ways). While not an explicit objective of SeeMe, the notion that participants might feel more comfortable with their own bodies as a result of SeeMe and hence be more willing to participate in social activities was tested in this evaluation.
Participation in social activities
Participants were asked whether the way they participate in social activities or events had changed since
SeeMe. Just under half (40.4%) of the participants reported a change in the way they participated in social activities (Table 12).
Table 12: Participation in Social Activities
Yes
No
No response
Count
19
25
3
Percent
40.4
53.2
6.4
Total 47 100.0
Participation in social activities by school and gender
A different picture emerges when this data is analysed according to school and gender subgroups. In this case, the data suggests that EPIC students were most affected with 75% of EPIC students reporting a change in the way they participated in social activities and events. This result appears consistent with the rest of the data that shows slightly stronger effects for EPIC students in a number of domains.
64
Chart 12: Participation in Social Activities by School (%)
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
38.5
61.5
75.0
25.0
13.3
86.7
Doncaster EPIC MGC
Yes No
Notwithstanding, the powerful effects of SeeMe on the EPIC students, the results for DSC and MGC are worthy of further exploration, particularly to gain a deeper understanding of why these groups were not affected in the same way (if at all) as EPIC.
Similarly, a deeper exploration of the gendered nature of these effects would be worthwhile, particularly given that more males than females showed an impact in the way they participated in social activities following the pilot.
Chart 13: Participation in Social Activities by Gender (%)
50.0 50.0
40.6
59.4
Male Female
Yes No
65
One possible explanation for these divergent results (both positive and negative) is that, as the survey question did not include any examples clarifying definitions of what social activities are in this context, there is no guarantee that participants had the same understanding of social activities. The scope for multiple interpretations of this concept may explain the variance in results both within and across gender and school groups.
By way of further interrogating the potential behavioural effects of SeeMe, the survey asked participants to describe (through open comments) the ways in which they participated in social activities and/or events differently as a result of SeeMe (if there was such a change). There seemed to be a general theme concerning a realisation that body image is not everything. Indeed, one student went so far as to claim she no longer cared what people thought of her.
Increased confidence also was a recurrent reason offered for the renewed desire to participate social activities. Amongst the explanations accounting for this were the following: because it boosts up my self-esteem (Female, EPIC) it has made me more confident (Female, EPIC)
I think more about what I do (Female, MGC)
I see the disadvantages of the event and make a decion and give it a go (Female, EPIC).
World view and future choices
It was postulated that another potential impact of SeeMe would be in the way participants view the world and what is possible for them once freed from the media-generated ideological constraints acting on them. Specifically, it was expected that gaining a new self-awareness might open up avenues for thinking about what future careers and choices are now available; a new sense of optimism (correlated to new ways of thinking and understanding the limitations that media places on them).
66
The participants were asked what has been the impact of SeeMe on the way they view the world and future careers and choices. Their responses were revealing of a new sense of possibility, namely with regard to how they interact with the media and society more broadly:
I don’t see models the same anymore (Female, Doncaster)
I will be thinking more positively than negatively sometimes. See things on the bright side
(Female, MGC) everyone is different and I in there own ways (Female, EPIC)
I now try seeing people behind all the make up and extensions (Female, Doncaster).
Comments also reflected how individuals now viewed themselves as a result of understanding the influence of media, particularly how it has contributed to the development of personal boundaries as demonstrated in the comments below: just to give everything a go and roll with it (Male, Doncaster) it makes me see that I don’t need to be pretty or anything I have to be myself that no matter how you look and think you should always be urself cause why be a second rate version of someone else when you can be the original version of urself?! (Female, EPIC)
Several students did not see any impact in this regard.
Most Significant Change data
The MSC data provided additional insights into the extent to which the SeeMe pilot influenced the students with regard to what they saw possible in the realm of their futures. The stories illustrate a degree of self-reflection provoked by SeeMe. Commensurate with this, some participants questioned their previously held beliefs about the world, namely how they perceive reality and others inhabiting it:
67
The SeeMe project has made me change the way I look at different people. I have learnt to respect people and not use stereotypes or gender stereotypes. Also, I have learnt the advertisement techniques on how people persuade you to buy something (MSC selected story,
DSC).
This point is reinforced in another story:
SeeMe has made me think about things, like how I see others and myself. Something we did really opened my eyes; it was when we look at the model and how much they photoshopped the girl to make her look good (MSC selected story, DSC).
For both these stories the selection notes paid attention to personal change, ‘confidence at outings’, challenging previously help conceptions of beauty and ‘seeing yourself as a different person’.
A story which lucidly captures the effects of SeeMe in terms of the relationship between altered world views and changed patterns of behaviour is engendered in the following (unselected) story:
Since I started SeeMe I have thought about things differently. I think before doing certain things so I’m not just benefiting myself. It has made me think more about things in life (MSC story,
DSC).
Summary
While just under half of the participants reported changes in the way they participate in social activities or events as a result of SeeMe, the most pronounced effect was on EPIC students. Males also showed the greatest shift in this area. The qualitative data points to increased confidence and an albeit subtle desire or motivation to push personal boundaries, perhaps taking up new opportunities to participate in activities that they might have previously been reluctant to or ambivalent towards.
It is acknowledged that definitions of ‘participation’ and ‘social activities’ might be different for individuals, and that the survey question did not include any explicit examples defining these terms might go some way to explain the modest results.
68
The qualitative insights suggest that worldviews were altered as a result of SeeMe which led to greater positive feelings. Again, the reasons for this were akin to the reasons for participating in social activities in different ways. In particular, the MSC data was revealing of a deeper sense of the world and the extent to which a media constructed ‘reality’ shapes their attitudes and beliefs in hidden yet powerful ways.
Strengths and limitations of the evaluation
There are a number of limitations to the current evaluation. One of the more innovative methods applied in the evaluation was the Most Significant Change technique, which has proven to be an effective method widely embraced by international development organisations. Conceptually, however,
MSC can be difficult for participants to grasp. Some students found the task of recording a story of change (particularly in the form of an incident or event) somewhat challenging. The resulting data was limited as it did not fully elucidate discrete stories per se, but rather more reflections or contemplations related to an increased awareness of the methods the media (particularly advertising) uses to create a consumer need. Additionally, there is a risk with qualitative data of an unmeasured selection bias whereby participants write and select stories in favour of positive experiences thus leaving out any negative experiences. In order to offset this potential bias the instructions were explicit in asking for a wide range of stories, not merely ‘good’ or ‘positive’ ones. Despite this instruction, the MSC data was still on the whole positive.
Secondly, there was no comparator group incorporated into this evaluation. The study used crosssectional (different groups at the same time) datasets rather than a longitudinal (one group over time) approach. Generally speaking, this would be expected to make positive impacts more difficult to detect, however, positive effects were observed throughout the data. Further research would be required to assess the generalisability of the current findings to other schools adopting SeeMe in the future.
While the evaluation was originally designed to be analysed as a cohort study, there were a number of participants who were only captured at one point of measurement because of variable class attendance.
This was due to factors such as the timing of the final SeeMe module (when the post-pilot survey was scheduled to be implemented). For some reason, although two classes completed the last SeeMe module, they did not complete the survey at the same time (as designed). Consequently, data from the
69
pre- and post-pilot survey samples were analysed as cross sectional data. This approach to analysis is often used in the evaluation of interventions particularly those focussing on complex populations.
Finally, it should be noted that EPIC and DSC students did not complete their post-pilot surveys until a significant time after the pilot’s completion; this also involved a school holiday intervening period. This time lag may have influenced results. Traditionally, program effects wane over time, the results for these groups which were not quite as strong as MSC group could be due to the time at which the data was collected. Conversely, that there was a considerable impact on EPIC girls in some areas, even after an extended period break, bodes well for the potentially powerful effects of SeeMe.
70
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Representation is a complex business and, especially when dealing with ‘difference’, it engages feelings, attitudes and emotions and it mobilizes fears and anxieties in the viewer, at deeper levels than we can explain in a simple, common-sense way (Hall, 1997: 226).
Addressing these powerful effects of the media that Hall speaks of is at the core of the SeeMe project.
Using a gendered evaluation approach whereby data collection, analysis and the presentation of findings and recommendations respects the gendered experiences and perspectives of participants, as well as illuminating key social values around gender that shape program outcomes, this evaluation explored the outcomes of a unique media literacy pilot implemented across three Victorian schools. The findings arising from the application of both the survey instrument and MSC indicate that SeeMe contributed significantly to improved media literacy in 66 year 8 students. The pilot also led to increased body satisfaction outcomes for the students and a greater awareness of gender and cultural stereotypes in the media. It was evident from both the qualitative and quantitative data that the broader social benefits reported by the participants are also likely to be important. The implementation of SeeMe encourages youth engagement with ICT in ways not often available to them. This, combined with an emphasis on peer-to-peer learning and youth leadership, makes SeeMe a unique and valuable program.
A synthesis of the elements of this evaluation such as media literacy measures, and measures gauging awareness of gender in the media and participant stories, shows that a school based interactive online resource makes a considerable contribution to the media literacy outcomes for young people.
Furthermore, the results of the measure associated with feelings of happiness towards one’s body revealed a positive shift in the students’ levels of body satisfaction. This finding supports the program theory underpinning SeeMe about the link between the media and body image issues in young people.
It reinforces the need for programs such as SeeMe to support young people in managing the complex territory of unrealistic media portrayals through empowering, collaborative, youth led approaches.
The data also provided evidence of a sense of personal achievement amongst young people as a result of the program. The evaluation found that young people expressed increased confidence in being able to critically analyse media texts, deconstruct advertising and understand the wider impact of the media
71
on others. This was a highly valued outcome for the students. It suggests a possible link between enhanced higher order critical thinking skills and greater levels of confidence amongst young people.
This confidence that in some cases manifested in changes in the way participants participated in social situations is an unanticipated yet valuable outcome of the project.
The evaluation also found that the pilot increased student media literacy skills and behavioural change around media consumption, with many students demonstrating a greater degree of discretion in their choices of media. Female participants showed a greater proclivity towards this behavioural change. This direct behavioural result provides strong evidence for the link between knowledge and positive behavioural change that can lead to longer term impacts for young people.
The SeeMe pilot clearly illustrates that young people are aware of the widespread perpetuation of gender and cultural stereotypes in the media and the damaging implications of this. Additionally, there was a deep understanding (from lived experience) of the existence of a strong cultural bias in the way the media portrays cultural minorities, specifically Muslim people. The qualitative data provided insights into how this affects young people who are already experiencing the effects of their cultural marginality.
The media’s role in this process of ‘othering’ was not lost on many of the participants.
A major component of the pilot was the involvement of student leaders in the development and implementation of the pilot. This critical peer-to-peer element of the project was effective in providing a collegial and supportive learning environment for the young people whilst enabling the teachers to step back and learn from this alternate pedagogical process.
An exploration of how the SeeMe resource itself was experienced provides interesting insights that somewhat confirm the existence of school resourcing and equity issues dominating current public debate. The findings from this evaluation indicate that the schools that appeared well resourced did not experience the challenges to the same degree as the more disadvantaged schools. However, given the sample was small and not randomly selected this finding requires validation through further research and analysis. Notwithstanding this, the challenges faced by some of the students highlights the persistence of a digital divide manifest in cultural, geographic, and gender discrepancies.
72
Despite the broader access issues around technology, the implementation of the SeeMe pilot was on the whole seamless and had fidelity with its original design intention. The evaluation did not reveal any significant barriers that might influence student participation in this regard.
Building media literacy skills in young people is crucial as they construct a sense of self within a social milieu that is characterised by pervasive and unrealistic media images delivered in a multiplicity of forms. This evaluation has demonstrated the effectiveness of programs such as SeeMe in encouraging young people to critically analyse and deconstruct media images such that they can cultivate more realistic appraisals of their own bodies and thus resilience against the undermining influence of the media.
Key recommendations
1. Length and reach of the program
This evaluation has provided evidence for the success of SeeMe as a classroom based strategy that builds media literacy skills in young people. It has also demonstrated that there are significant benefits to result from these enhanced skills. For this reason, programs such as SeeMe are needed to support pedagogical practice that promotes the development of critical thinking skills, through authentic learning environments. It is recommended that the existing formula underpinning SeeMe be developed into a longer program. Findings from Neumark-Sztainer et al’s (2000) research indicate that while brief media literacy programs may be effective in promoting deeper thinking about media messages, the brevity of such programs makes it unrealistic to expect any substantial and/or longer term changes in body image attitudes. Additionally, it is recommended that SeeMe includes in its strategy a greater focus on culturally diverse and/or disadvantaged groups who, this evaluation has indicated, would benefit greatly from participation in the program.
2. Program dimensions
SeeMe provides a powerful example of successful peer-directed, authentic learning. Given there were clear behavioural changes and social outcomes for the students as a result of an increase in skills, knowledge and understanding of the role of the media in constructing reality, the program would benefit from including strategies that harness behavioural change outcomes such as providing pathways for social action or leadership opportunities for young people (beyond school).
73
3. Measurement
The current evaluation highlights several ways in which future evaluations could be conducted. Firstly, future evaluations should track individual participants when using a pre/post approach. Using individuals as units of analysis rather than class groups lends greater validity to rigorous measurement tools such as SATAQ-3. Secondly, future evaluations should include a six month follow up with students to test how enduring the effects of the SeeMe program are. If budgets permit, it would also be beneficial to consider the inclusion of a control group in any future evaluation.
Thirdly, future evaluations could expand the participant group to include teachers and/or principals to gain insight into the barriers faced in implementing the program and any challenges envisioned for its future adoption. Including a parent perspective would also offer indirect but important indicators (and possibly other influences on body satisfaction) of the type of individual change SeeMe seeks to achieve.
Finally, it is recommended that more targeted evaluation strategies be focused on student leaders in the future: a longitudinal approach could track their involvement and capture the impact of SeeMe over time. As they are a key part of the SeeMe project, an examination of the perceived role and effectiveness of the student leaders (as experienced by the rest of the participant group) would also be of benefit in future evaluations.
74
REFERENCES
Australian Communications and Media Authority (2009) Digital Media Literacy in Australia: Key indicators and research sources , ACMA, Canberra
( http://www.acma.gov.au/WEB/STANDARD/pc=PC_311472 accessed 2 Aug 2011)
Arke, E. T & Primack, B. A (2009) Quantifying Media Literacy: development, reliability, and validity of a new measure, Educational Media International , Vol. 46, No. 1, 53-65
Ben-Tovim, D.I. and Walker, M. K. (1991) The development of the Ben-Tovim Walker Body Attitudes
Questionnaire (BAQ), a new measure of women's attitudes towards their own bodies, Psychological
Medicine , Vol . 21, no. 3, 775-784
Dart, J. and Davies, R. (2003) A dialogical, story-based evaluation tool: The Most Significant Change
Technique, American Journal of Evaluation 24 (2), 137–155
Garner, D. M., Olmstead, M. P. & Polivy J. (1983) Development and Validation of a Multidimensional
Eating Disorder Inventory for Anorexia Nervosa and Bulimia, International Journal of Eating Disorders ,
Vol. 2, no. 2, 15-34
Garner, D. M., Olmstead, M. P., Polivy J. & Garfinkel, P. E. (1984) Comparison between weightpreoccupied women and anorexia nervosa, Psychosomatic Medicine , Vol . 46, Issue 3, 255-266
Guimond, S., Branscombe, N. R., Brunot, S. Buunk, A., Chatard, A., Desert, M., Garcia, D. M., Haque, S.,
Martinot, D., & Yzerbyt, V. (2007) Culture, Gender and the Self: Variations and Impact of Social
Comparison Processes, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology , Vol. 92, No. 6, 1118-1134
Educational Services Australia (2011) SeeMe Media Literacy Project Research and Scoping Study Report ,
Report prepared for the Queen Victoria Women’s Centre Trust, April 2011
75
Frost, J., & McKelvie, S. J. (2005) The Relationship of Self-Esteem and Body Satisfaction to Exercise
Activity for Male and Female Elementary School, High School, and University Students, Athletic Insight ,
Vol. 7, no. 4, 36-49
Hobbs, R. & Frost, R (2003) Measuring the Acquisition of Media Literacy Skills, Reading Research
Quarterly , Vol. 38, No. 3, 330-355
Jourard, J., & Secourd, P. F. (1955) Body-Cathexis and the Ideal Female Figure, Journal of Abnormal and
Social Pscyhology , 50, 243-246
Hall, S (ed) (1997) Representation: Cultural representations and signifying practices , Sage Publications
Ltd, London
Kagawaa, M., Uchida, H., Uenis, K., Binns, C. W. and Hills, A. P. (2006) Applicability of the Ben-Tovim
Walker Body Attitudes Questionnaire (BAQ) and the Attention to Body Shape scale (ABS) in Japanese males and females, Eating Behaviors , Vol . 8, Issue 3, 277-284
Kaucz, A (2007) Gendered Evaluation, Australasian Evaluation Society Conference Paper , Melbourne www.
aes .asn.au/ conference s/2007/ Papers /Antonia%20 Kaucz .pdf
date accessed 14 June 2010)
Knight, E., Gunawardena, C. N., & Aydin, C. H (2009) Cultural Interpretations of the Visual Meaning of
Icons and Images used in North American Web Design, Educational Media International , Vol 46, No. 1,
17-35
Mission Australia (2010) National Survey of Young Australians: Key and emerging issues , http://www.missionaustralian.com.au/ date accessed 18 March 2011
Mission Australia (2011) National Survey of Young Australians: Key and emerging issues , http://www.missionaustralian.com.au/ date accessed 1 May 2012
76
Neumark-Sztainer, D., Sherwood, N. E., Coller, N., & Hannan, P. J (2000) Primary Prevention of
Disordered Eating Among Preadolescent Girls: Feasibility and Short-Term Effect of a Community-Based
Intervention, Journal of the American Dietetic Association , Vol. 100, No. 12, 1466-1473
Neumark-Sztainer, D., Goeden, C., Story, M., & Wall, M. (2004) Associations between Body Satisfaction and Physical Activity in Adolescents: Implications for Programs Aimed at Preventing a Broad Spectrum of
Weight-Related Disorders, Eating Disorders , 12, 125-137
O’Dea, J. A (2004) Evidence for a Self-Esteem Approach in the Prevention of Body Image and Eating
Problems among Children and Adolescents, Eating Disorders, 12, 225-239
Pasha, G. & Golshekoh, F. (2009) Relationship Between Socio Cultural Attitudes, Appearance and Body
Dissatisfaction among Students of Islamic Azad University, Journal of Applied Sciences , Vol. 9, No. 9,
1726-1732
Rouner, D., Slater,M. D., & Domenech-Rodriguez, M. (2003) Adolescent Evaluationof Gender Role and
Sexual Imagery in Television Advertisements, Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media , September
2003, 435-454
Stice, E., Chase, A., Stormer, S., & Appel, A. (2001) A Randomized Trial of a Dissonance-based Eating
Disorder Prevention Program, International Journal of Eating Disorders , Vol. 29, No. 3, 247-262
Thompson, K. J., van den Berg, P., Roehrig, M., Guarda, A. S., & Heinberg, L. J. (2004) The Sociocultural
Attitudes Towards Appearance Scale-3 (SATAQ-3): Development and Validation, Published online in
Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com, date accessed 14 July 2011)
Tiggemann, M. & McGill, B. (2004) The Role of Social Comparison in the Effect of Magazine
Advertisements on Women’s Mood and Body Dissatisfaction, Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology ,
Vol. 23, No. 1, 23-44
77
APPENDIX A: Invitation to participate and consent form
Invitation to participate in an evaluation project
Evaluation title: SeeMe Media Literacy Project
Dear Student
You are invited to participate in an evaluation project. This statement provides information about the project and your proposed involvement. Please read this statement carefully and be sure that you understand its contents before deciding whether to consent to this participation. If you have any questions please contact me; my contact details are at the bottom of this letter.
Who is involved in this evaluation project? Why is it being conducted?
The purpose of the SeeMe Media Literacy Project is to develop and pilot an interactive online media literacy curriculum resource that aims to address young people’s concerns and raise their critical awareness of the media’s unrealistic portrayals of body image and gender roles. During Term 4, an online resource consisting of learning modules that promote critical awareness of the media’s representation of body image and gender stereotypes will be piloted in the classroom setting.
This evaluation is being conducted by The Foundation for Young Australians in order to better understand the impact of the SeeMe Media Literacy Project and its outcomes for participants. It has been approved by the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development. Your school has been approached because of its involvement in the SeeMe Media Literacy Project
What is the evaluation project about?
This evaluation project aims to evaluate the SeeMe Media Literacy Project and to understand the impact it has on young people. As a participant of the SeeMe Media Literacy Project sharing your experience and any related outcomes are of benefit to assessing the success of the program. Your input to this
evaluation will help us to understand important aspects of the SeeMe Media Literacy Project and its relationship to young people, media literacy and the impacts of gender stereotypes and body image ideals in the media.
If I agree to participate, what will I be required to do?
If you agree to participate in this evaluation project, you will be invited to participate in the following:
Complete an online survey at the commencement of the pilot and again at its conclusion
Some students who participated in the SeeMe pilot might be asked to participate in 45 a minute Most Significant Change session (see attached for details).
What are my rights as a participant?
As a participant in this evaluation project, you have:
The right to withdraw your participation or consent at any time, without prejudice
The right to have any unprocessed data withdrawn and destroyed, provided it can be reliably identified
The right to have any questions answered at any time.
What will happen to the information I provide?
The findings of this evaluation project may be published as a report, in professional journals and presented at conferences. No material will refer to any participant directly by name. No information that is gathered via the evaluation project will be disclosed unless it is to protect you or others from harm, a court order is produced, or you provide me with written permission to do so.
All documentation associated with the evaluation project will be kept in a locked filing cabinet and on a password protected computer. On request, you may have access to any material relating to your involvement in the project. At the end of the evaluation project all data will be stored and destroyed after five years.
Whom should I contact if I have any questions?
79
If you have any questions about the evaluation project or your involvement in it, please contact Naomi
Berman on 9604 6227 or at Naomi.berman@fya.org.au.
For questions regarding the SeeMe Media Literacy Project, please contact Sarah Morris, Project Officer
(SeeMe Media Literacy) at 8668 8106 or s.morris@qvwc.org.au.
Yours sincerely
Naomi Berman
Manager, Policy and Evaluation
Foundation for Young Australians
Consent form for students
Evaluation title: SeeMe Media Literacy Project
By signing this form, I indicate that:
1.
I agree/do not agree ( strike out the option which does not apply ) to participate in the evaluation named above. The details of this evaluation have been explained to me and a written copy of the information has been given to me to keep.
2.
I understand that:
(a) I am free to withdraw from the study at any time and to withdraw any unprocessed information related to me
(b) All information I provide will be confidential, subject to any legal requirements.
3.
I agree/do not agree to be referred to by pseudonym and not identified by name in any publications arising from the research.
Your name: ________________________________________
Your signature: ____________________________________
80
Date: _____________________________________________
What is Most Significant Change?
Most Significant Change (MSC) is a way of doing research using stories. It helps researchers to find out how participants feel about a program and how it may have affected them. The stories you tell should be about what you thought was the most important thing that happened to you (whether it was good or bad) as a result of being part of the SeeMe Project. Perhaps you changed your views about something, learned a new skill or discovered an ability you didn’t realise you had, or learned a better way to express yourself about something important to you. You choose what story to tell.
During the first part of a MSC session, stories are collected in small groups (usually three participants) and discussed amongst the group to decide which story is most significant. Once a story has been chosen, the larger group comes together again to discuss the selected stories. This involvement by participants represents a key value of Most Significant Change.
Depending on the size of the group and the number of stories collected, a further selection might be made to produce an agreed handful of stories. These stories are then passed onto a panel which is made up of some of the members of your group, with assistance from the researchers, for further discussion and a final selection, so there is just one story left. Please note that your story can be anonymous – there is no need to provide your name. If your story is selected to be read by the panel we will remove any details that may identify you.
The point of the MSC is not about picking the good from the bad stories, but rather the most common shared experience captured by a story. Comparing these stories to some of the insights gained in other parts of the evaluation provides a fuller picture of the experience of being in SeeMe Project.
We anticipate MSC will be a fun and learning experience for all who take part, and has the added benefit of enabling people to see how valuable their contribution is.
81
APPENDIX B: Open comments
PRE SEEME
Do you have any additional comments you would like to make about appearance and the media? i think that there is way too many things on tv and in magazines about how you look because you cant change they way you are
Im a muslim so really theres no need to show myself....its what i am inside that matters and everyone is equal in islam whether your black or white. when i watch movies they dont show much on being good-looking but magazines do and ...yeah thats about it. kinda the same questions... repeating no at the moment i'll get back to you guys if i do.
Sometimes I look at myself in the mirror and think of how I look to other people. Sometimes I feel fat, sometimes I feel thin and I get confised about what people are comparing me with in their mind...But I do 2t want to be in a2ther persons body because even though I am 2t happy with myself sometimes, I still like what I look like... the media has a big infuence on peoples opinions of themselves and eachother, if magazines, movies etc etc didn't base things on almost entirely body image, then a lot of people would be happier with the way they look because they wouldn't know any differently the media influences young teens and adults into thinking they have an ugly body but that doesnt affect me im very proud of my body image inside and out .
The media is tremendously idiotic! They lie about everything!
This was areally good survey
TV shows, commercial, music videos, Movies do make you want to have the same look, fashion as them, They attracte you and make you want to be one of them....
We shouldn't compare ourselves to anyone else. Being yourself is what's important. why dont use people who are abit of chubby? and why dont you use MUSLIMS?
In your opinion, are women from different cultures presented in the media? - If no, can you please explain why you think this?
1. There isnt often a lot of them but they do bring them in and show them in media. because media don't care what culture you're from only your looks because some cultures dont get as much media attention as others. because you do not see women from other cultures in media... I do not really know why. because you dont really see them you always see americain or aussie stars and occasionally other cultures because you only see the modern type of people i don't know
I say no because. The only women that are represented in the meda are the typical blonde skinny australian girls
I think no, because many media programs try to use the best of the best women and usually that ends up being super models or celebraties. muslim women are critized about their niqab and stuff and thought as to be terrorists even though the REAL terrorists are 2t cared upon what they do. its mainly muslim women in the media shown as oppressed even though they choose to wear what they wear. no, you rarely see other cultures in the media, this could be because of their different beliefs and religions. not much of them well there are, but only a little. most of the women or nearly are amarican, australians etc. you dont see people from arica much or even south america much. my point is that there are 2t mush cultural women in media.
82
In your opinion, are men from different cultures presented in the media? - If no, can you please explain why you think this? because media don't care what culture you're from only your looks
Because nearly ever guy in the world are the same. because some cultures dont get as much media attention as others. because you do not see men from other cultures in media... I do not really know why.
I think no, because the media programs try to use the best of the best men, and usually that ends up being supermodels or celebraties. its a bit more common to see men from different cultures but still you mainly see the americains or aussies
Like the Girls, it genrally skinny young men who are australian in the media the arabs in the BOMBED up countries are thought to be terrorists even though they have the real terrorists attacking them
You often see more men from differetn cultures then woman, but not generallyon the media as much as aussie and amaerican.
Do you think women in different roles are presented in the media e.g., women as carers, businesswomen, female leaders, sports stars, students, etc - If no, please explain why you think this? because they are not needed and there arnt a lot of shows on them different jobs are more interesting than others.
Most people think men suit those roles better
Do you think men in different roles are presented in the media e.g., men as carers, businessmen, male leaders, sports stars, students, etc - If no, please explain why you think this? different jobs are more interesting than others most stuff in the media isnt about that
Do you feel people who look like you are presented in the media? - Can you please explain your answer because everyone are in different shapes and sizes because i am differnet to everyone else "im uniqe because i am scarfed and not much muslims are shown on tv unless theyve committed a crime
Because I feel that there is no-one on T.V/ media that looks like me
Because I'm not the average type of body shape the media would usually use for campaigns etc. because in the media they usually change who you are because they always look good and wear alot of makeup done by makeup artists
Because they alwayslook great because to me everyone is different because you don't find muslim women/girls presented in the media
Depends, if they are pretty and smart then yes, but sometimes media producers only choose somebody that has achieved high goals and are experienced in media. everyone's different, no one looks the same
I think everyone is different in their own way no one can be the same.
I think this because some ads want people to think that they are 'normal' im 14 ? im not sure im skinny and a lot of models or movie stars a really skinny
83
im the colour skin of rihanna and a bit like her so yeah in media shows like the news they are but not really anythinge else lately the media has become much more diverse, not a lot but a little bit. this could be because this generation has been brought up not to discriminate anyone and just accept people for who they are. people like me are not in the media
People who are over-weight arent presented on TV or a show, or even modeling.
Sometimes they are but mostly not because society is ruling everyones beliefs and if you aren't up to the best level they wont present you in the media
They probably are in the media.
They usually have people who are really skinny and pretty
Do you have any additional comments you would like to make about gender and the media? - Open-Ended
Response
I think the media should choose more "normal" people, as in pick someone off the street and place them in the media program. sometime it is sexist and racist
1.most of the Question i don't know how to answer It
EVERYONE SHOULD BE PUT ON TV. No matter if they are fat or skinny, Black or white. the media potrays muslims as terrorists and though to be making "weopons of masdistruction" (al-qaeda-who nobody ever saw) and americans throw bombs at them and potraying them as "USA HEROS" but they kill in2cent people and that in2cent people are being turned a blind eye on and showing in the media as "muslim terroists" and especially the 9/11 ...straight away the newspapers right muslim people are doing this. its heartbreaking to know we have haters for nothing.
POST SEEME
Do you have any additional comments you would like to make about appearance and the media? repeating questions much? i am happy with my look cause i know i am 100% prettier and better looking then them cause most or all those
FAMOUS people do beauty operations but i dont need any cause i look GOOOOOOOOOOOOD!! ;] i DONT need to look like these STARS because they PHOTOSHOP loners? why would i want to look like a movie star when i have a body better then theres and when i say better i emphasize on the word BETTER ...........i am really happy with the way i look :) what is the meaning of these question
The media should be more honest to the public in my opinion
I am greatly persuaded by the media because im surrounded by it and its turned out to be a big influence
Sometimes I wonder if the people on TV are real or not, but then I realise that advertisments are fake and only some are truthfull.
In the media world, they are "fake" people. When they are not on the ad it is a normal person with make-up on and nice tan and other additional features but when it gets to the people who add the lighting on the face and air brushing.
In your opinion, are women from different cultures presented in the media? - If no, can you please explain why you think this? they only show us australians because they think australian women are all that when really black people are just as good would you agree with me mister cazzo?
I rarely see indigenous cultures, foreigners in advertisements. no cause everyone is the same in the way they are no one can change that.
84
because the people in the media a racist no ,of course not i dont want to discriminate these white ladies. BUT THERE IS TOO MUCH OFF THEM, BRING
BLACK INTO MEDIA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! its mostly beautiful young women and heir mostly white( no rasicm) i dont know
Because it is not veiwed as attractive to no be 'anglo' and the covergirl image of beautiful.
It's just the typical australian skinny girl because the media are stereo typical
In your opinion, are men from different cultures presented in the media? - If no, can you please explain why you think this? no just like i said up there !!!!
Same as women cause they are all the same yes but but only if it is something bad about them or if they are famous sometimes, but i think generally it is a bit racist. Like The Big Bang Theory, where you have an Indian man, but he is portrayed a certain way. because the media are stereo typical
Do you think women in different roles are presented in the media e.g., women as carers, businesswomen, female leaders, sports stars, students, etc - If no, please explain why you think this?
I think they only show attractive models. so you can see what they look like. but not much
No ,What happened to somali daycare ladies? never put family daycare ladies
Generally it is just the blonde bimbos that are in the media.
No, there are only attractive models/actresses becuas the old stereotype is women stay at home; cook, clean and not work.
Do you think men in different roles are presented in the media e.g., men as carers, businessmen, male leaders, sports stars, students, etc - If no, please explain why you think this?
Same as the reason for the women.
No,What about the men that do afterschool care?
More so than women, because of they way men have always been, working and so on.
There are only attractive models/actors
Do you feel people who look like you are presented in the media? - Can you please explain your answer yes cos youngpeople are because a lot of the people have been photoshopped
They show a lot of sexy people. im 14. because im not like famous or have done anything big
85
No-one looks like me. because the media puts pressure on other people. because they just show good looking models not people with model bodies and a little fat because im a classic because i am scarfed and they only show mee if i did something bad
They love me soo much they put in the media privately i said no because they do not know my adress because i niether look like them or are like them beacause i hardly find anyone looking like me
Becuase i dont know them everyone is individual you can't have two people that are exactly the same its hard to explain
They are 'perfect' while everyone in the real has flaws
I think that its unfair that you say "people like me" because that means that your saying I should be like that person on TV.
Whe people are advertising they want there model to look like an average person.
I am happy as with the way i look but i am not as skinny as those girls who are in mags
Do you have any additional comments you would like to make about gender and the media? - Open-Ended
Response this is too long there has to be more female sports on t.v and why do people mostly watch male sports then female sports......... men ,women same thing they photoshop people and make us beleive theyre naturally beautiful when its all computerised i think they should ude real and normal beautiful people in adverts just the way you are yes i have what was that for
Companies using media as a form of advertisement will generally try to come off as open minded and honest so they will try to represent different cultures and shapes etc. it is very SEXIST!
Do you now believe you make more informed choices about media (for instance what programs to watch, magazines to avoid etc)? - If yes, in what ways?
I am more aware of the techniques of showing products. not everyone is going to be airbrushed and perfect, but you can try your best like not everybodys is perfect and looks like magazine people mannnyy! i have a great life now i always watch TV and i alwys do what i want :) so i dont have to pressure myself but i watch anything i know that everything may not be like it seems and you have to look deeper
I think morre about it than usual
I don't read magazines anyway, and I don't listen/read advertisements. because we know whats behind everything
I consider what techniques are used
86
looking at different advertisments techniques used, becuase i now know more about the truth behind the image. some tv shows are just fake and they are making it so staged i tend to look deeper into commercials and magazines
Has SeeMe changed the way you participate in social activities or events? - If yes, in what ways? i now that body image isnt everything i have been more interested with what people do to models before commercials give it a go i dont care what people think because it boosts up my self esteem it has made me more confident i see the disadvantages of the event and make a decion many i think more about what i do
What has been the impact of SeeMe on the way you view the world and your future careers and choices? -
Open-Ended Response i dont see models the same anymore i learnt nothing just to give everything a go and roll with it
It hasn't really had an impact on my world and future careers and choices. everyone is different and beutiful in there own ways i like to do what i want and i dont like listening to peoples opinions over mine. to make us feel good about ourself it makes me see that i dont need to be pretty or anything i have to be myself
YES confidence well i dont know what its done to me, i guess no difference SO-RR-Y that no matter how you look and think you should always be urself cause why be a second rate version of someone else when you can be the original version of urself?! i dont know i now try seeing people behind all the make up and extensions
I will be thinking more positively than negatively sometimes. See things on the bright side
I wouldnt like to be a model or anything....
None nup
Not to be brainwashed there was not much impact i look at advertisments differently
I want to be an actress or a vet, and to be an actress television is pretty important to me, so I have to watch what I watch.
87
Would you recommend others participate in SeeMe? - Please explain why/why not? its boring its good it fun and you learn things from it because i didn't learn anything. it was boring and useless its educational because it shows a good perspective on the world around us
I'd reccomend it only to people who are low on self esteem bcaus eif it changed me, then it will change them because its a good program because it helps people who have low self esteem its very interesting it veryy informative because its a valuble leason that can change your opinon for good because it can teach people a lot about self appearance its dumb
Because it helped me a lot in my mind. it helped me being organised
It depends on the knowledge of the person, c'est tres penible
I personally didn't learn anything because i knew it already good way to learn how the media works
It gives you a better outlook on advertising
I had already known everything that we taked aboutbefore we started it was an average program but you do learn heaps from it.
It explains some things that is useful to us when we are older. it is a very fun program
It is a great way to learn what happens in the advertising world it is very informative and teaches you alot about body image
What didn’t work about SeeMe? - Open-Ended Response it needed to be more interesting
Nothing, it thought it was very goo the way they presented the media techniques.
The activities. my body image everything worked its a success
UM I DONT KNOW ...ALL I CAN SAY IT WAS GREAT
SAME QUESTIIONS, should get new cool questions they kept on asking the same question again and again in the survey
88
the same colour everytime
Repetitive information.
Edmodo, educational facebook?Tad boring. Also there was quite a lot of stuff we already knew. Also some bits of it make you feel kinda stupid.
It was really boring
I think Edmodo was a bit pointless and making it look like facebook didn't make it more appealing the student leaders, i think they should have been adults. Not to be mean but i didnt feel they were enjoying even talking about the topic.
Sometimes it didnt really make sense, but other times it explains stuff thourghly. i found everything worked fine.
In your opinion, how might SeeMe be improved? - Open-Ended Response mo0re edmodo in every way possible add fun things
Just more practice i guess. more activities :)
Try to make it more fun, so there's that balance of imformation and fun. its all improved no need for changes. by getting more people into it more questions have more pictures and videos and more fun activities if possible
ABOUT MY BODY IMAGE a bit less of surveys i dont know make it cooler add a section where young teen or whatever age can tell their stories and relate to each other in a way it's all good it doesnt need inprovement i think i was good as it was, but maybe have poeple come in and talk about it more add more topics to be talked about
Maybe more colourful other than blue if you could actually see the youtube video's that are on the see me website
Stop repeating information.
A bit more at students level would be better. More for teens
More interesting maybe a bit more fun
By having more things that relate to us, some of things I couldn't relate to so I found it difficult
Have more to talk about and go into more depth on certain topics. It was a bit boring so it needs to be more exciting or something? nothing more activities
89
MAKE IT MORE HANDS ON!! a few more online interactive activities
On a scale of 1-5 (5=Excellent; 4=Good; 3=Satisfactory; 2=Needs improvement; 1= Poor), please rate the
SeeMe WEBSITE for the following: - If you rated any of the above less than 3 can you please explain why? kept on asking the same questions
Not all information is relevant
On a scale of 1-5 (5=Excellent; 4=Good; 3=Satisfactory; 2=Needs improvement; 1= Poor), please rate the
SeeMe SUPPORT MATERIALS for the following: - If you rated any of the above less than 3 can you please explain why? because. because thats hpw i feel some of the sites ARE BLOCKED should get timing more accurate
Do you have any further comments you would like to add about SeeMe? - Open-Ended Response onlygood thing was edmodo you should have talked about black women more and there beauty not all these white people in my face ofcoarse yes can u help us be more confident its a good website, why are the sites blocked great program very cool website it was good and i enjoyed using the website.
Change the URL because when you go to seeme.com it's a dating site or something. really well organised.
90
APPENDIX C: Most Significant Change Stories
Melbourne Girls College
GROUP 1
STUDENT A: Chosen story
“The SeeMe Project has resulted in me thinking every time I am affected by advertising – ‘Am I being brainwashed?’ The answer is almost always yes. I have been recognizing the advertising techniques in heaps of ads, especially ‘compelling offers’ which is used for the bad a lot in television advertising. I think the SeeMe Project has really helped me recognize the advertising techniques.”
STUDENT B:
“What has changed for me? Nothing has changed for me. I still see ads the same way as I did before and the way I live my life hasn’t altered in any way. What we learnt in SeeMe was valuable and interesting information but it didn’t influence me to change the way I am.”
STUDENT C:
“What has changed for me is: the way that I view certain advertisements. Thinking about what messages are being sent, and understanding what they mean. Just generally looking more in-depth.”
GROUP DISCUSSION POINTS:
- ‘Buy 1 get 2 free’ = compelling offers in advertising = bad.
- Results – thinking more about ads
- Brainwashed? Yes!
- Influence nothing, advertising, valuable, interesting, techniques, view, messages.
- Valuable and interesting information
- Being sent from multi-billion dollar people in suits who don’t love you.
GROUP 2
STUDENT A: Chosen story
“During this project, I have learnt new things. I look at advertising differently, I try and work out who the targeted audience is. Whenever there are people on the screen I look at how much make-up they have on and I have a better understanding on what advertisements try to provide.”
STUDENT B:
“I learned more about advertising and the different techniques of advertising. I now know about gender stereotyping and how to avoid it.”
91
STUDENT C:
“After doing See Me I can now identify methods of advertising that I wasn’t aware of previously. Nothing has changed in the way of body image; teenagers get told most of the information on the websites on a daily basis.”
GROUP DISCUSSION POINTS:
We are now aware of:
Stereotypes
Particular audiences
Advertising methods
GROUP 3
STUDENT A: Chosen story
“See Me has taught me new perceptions of the advertisement industry. Not to believe everything I see and also the different advertising techniques that are used.
I did already know a little bit about the techniques but See Me taught me and gave me information I didn’t know and I think that has made me more aware of advertising.”
STUDENT B:
“Since participating in the See Me project I have looked at advertisements differently, and have no believed in everything a ad might say. I have learnt more about stereotypes and body image.”
STUDENT C:
“From participating in the See Me Project, my perspective hasn’t really changed on much. Sometimes I do look at advertisements differently but from all of the discussions we’ve had, I already knew a lot of the stuff we did. I’ve also noticed more on the whole gender stereotypes and how companies market products to either males or females. Also, how particular things use targeted audiences and the different appeals to seduce people to buy what they are selling. Now that I can see it more I try and think about the actual product.”
GROUP DISCUSSION POINTS:
- New perceptions
- Advertising industry
- Open eyes
- Previous knowledge
- Advertising techniques
- Don’t believe everything you see
92
- Marketing
- Information
- Stereotypes
- More aware
- Body image
GROUP 4
STUDENT A: Chosen story
“My point of view on media and advertisement has changed quite a bit since I did See Me. I look at women on magazines and I think that they might have been photoshopped. I think of any advertisement differently now than in the past because of what I’ve learnt and what goes on behind everything. I’ve learnt that people don’t just use their natural beauty and they prefer to go with the cosmetics or anything that is popular and common. There were a lot of stereotypes in a lot of advertisements as well.”
STUDENT B:
“After participating in the See Me project I look at advertising differently. I actually think about how they’re advertising their products and if its effective. I also think less about gender stereotypes and more about the Individual.”
STUDENT C:
“Not much has changed but I do look at advertising and body image differently. I look at how people advertise and different techniques used to grab people’s attention.”
GROUP DISCUSSION POINTS:
- Different advertisement techniques
- The words were deep
- The words are meaningful
- The things written are true
- Media is always used.
- A lot of stereotypes
GROUP 5
STUDENT A: Chosen story
“For me, the See Me project has changed my views on advertising – I now look at and try to find which advertising techniques have been used and I tend to pay more attention to the ad itself. I have also
93
learnt more about body image and how the models in magazines are not usually a realistic version of that person, which often causes us to believe that is what we should look like. * hope *”
STUDENT B:
“What has changed for me? Ever since we started the See Me project, I started to see advertisements differently, understanding the story behind them and I realized everything is not as it seems. For me, now when I see a model, I really start to look deeper and try and figure out some advertising techniques that we learnt during the See Me project. So in conclusion, the See Me project has helped me realize that some products are fake and that we can’t always trust what we can see.”
STUDENT C:
“What has changed for me is that I have realized how many changes that people can make to one photo.
Also, how advertisements sell things to people in the smartest of ways.”
GROUP DISCUSSION POINTS:
- Representative
- Sums up
- Contains useful info
- Understanding
- Explains
- Informative
- Clear
- Change of view
- Truth
- False persuasion
Doncaster Secondary College
GROUP 1
STUDENT A:
“Things that have changed about me are that my views for advertising and makeup and those type of beauty products. I have also learnt about gender stereotypes and having a social status.”
STUDENT B:
“Since I started See Me I have thought about things differently. I think before doing certain things so I’m not just benefiting myself. It has made me think more about things in life.”
STUDENT C:
94
“How to advertise things. I’m more confident. The way I look at school. I learnt a lot about gender stereotypes.”
GROUP DISCUSSION POINTS:
- It was inspiring
- Made sense
- Covered all topics
- Gender stereotypes
- We shop differently
- CARES
- Different T.V. shows
- Different magazines
- Different hairstyles
- Different cereal
GROUP 2
STUDENT A:
“The See Me project has made me change the way I look at different people. I have learnt to respect people and not use stereotypes or gender stereotypes. Also, I have learnt the advertisement techniques on how people persuade you to buy something.”
STUDENT B:
“The See Me project has made me realize what health issues I’d get if I would gain even 10 kg really quickly, and all the advertisement techniques used to persuade me to buy something.”
STUDENT C:
“The See Me Project has made me realize a number of things including: stereotypes, gender stereotypes and more. I have learnt a lot about advertising and how it works. This program has opened my eyes to a number of subjects.”
GROUP DISCUSSION POINTS:
- Gender stereotypes
- Persuasian
- Advertisement techniques
- RESPECT
- Confidence at outings
95
GROUP 3
STUDENT A:
“See Me has made me think about things, like how I see others and myself. Something we did really opened my eyes; it was when we look at the model and how much they photoshopped the girl to make her look good.”
STUDENT B:
“The See Me activity changed me because it showed that there are different beauties and not only looks count. How to work better in groups or on my own. It was a different learning environment to just writing on paper.”
STUDENT C:
“See Me has changed the way I see myself and that skinny girls in magazines aren’t the most amazing things, because most of their photos are edited anyways.
GROUP DISCUSSION POINTS:
- See Me has changed me
- Personality counts too
- So what if others are prettier than you? Personality counts and everyone is beautiful in their own way.
- Photoshop is not always the answer.
- Seeing yourself as a different person.
- Looking at models differently.
- Nobody is perfect!
GROUP 4
STUDENT A:
“It has not changed me, but it has made me think more about certain things like body image and gender stereotypes.”
STUDENT B:
“The things I learnt are that I view school differently. I also learnt a lot about what social status and those types of things. My view on advertising and different types of products has changed. I learnt a lot about gender stereotypes.”
STUDENT C:
“The only thing that has really changed for me would be the way I look at people advertising/selling their products.”
96
STUDENT D:
“It has been a very enlightening experience for me and although I learnt a lot, I didn’t change as a person.”
GROUP DISCUSSION POINTS:
- Body image
- gender stereotypes
- It has changed me, but it hasn’t changed me as a person.
GROUP 5
STUDENT A:
“The See Me program has made me change my views and opinions on the beauty industry. The beauty industry are liars and produce unrealistic creations of people, body image and what people should wear.
The beauty industry are not considerate of people’s feelings when they make models skinnier, more beautiful or extremely unrealistic. Teenagers and adults alike have body image issues because of the lies produced by the media.”
STUDENT B:
“The See Me Project has changed my views on my appearance. That you don’t have to be really skinny to be pretty. It has also shown me to be happy with myself. And that there are stereotypes at school.”
STUDENT C:
“The See Me Program has changed me by showing me that body image is not everything. You do not need to wear heaps of makeup to look beautiful. To not believe everything an ad or someone has told you, and to have a healthy lifestyle.”
GROUP DISCUSSION POINTS:
- Change
- Teenagers & adults
- Views and opinions – visions
- Lies
- Beauty
- Creations
- Unrealistic
- Body image
- Feelings
- Models
- Extremely
97
- Issues
- Media
- Skinnier
- Produced
GROUP 6
STUDENT A:
“I now have a much better understanding of body image and how the media effects the way people feel about it. Advertising has proved to be a big effect on young people. Magazines distort the images of people to make them look thinner and better.”
STUDENT B:
“It has changed the way I see advertising and how people judge your body image.”
STUDENT C:
“I now look at ads differently in my day to day life.”
GROUP DISCUSSION POINTS:
- Body image
- Understanding
- Magazines
- Better
- Thinner
- TV
- Advertising
- Gender stereotypes
- Distorted images
- Young people
- Effect of Ads
- Newspapers
GROUP 7
STUDENT A:
“Since doing the See Me program I have become more aware of advertising, beauty products/cosmetics and how they try to con you into buying their products. And, I have also learnt that there is a boring site called edmodo, and how much people photoshop photos. The End”
98
STUDENT B:
“As a result of doing See Me, nothing much has changed but it made me like English less. I also know that some things are not what you think they are.”
STUDENT C:
“Since doing See Me my life hasn’t really changed. I am now aware that photos in magazines and billboards are photoshopped a lot and that makes me happier.”
GROUP DISCUSSION POINTS:
- Aware
- Photoshop
- Advertising
- Beauty products
- See Me
- Photo
- Buying
- Cosmetics
- You’re not as gullible
- We think about advertising
- That all the Miss Universes look the same, the judges look for a particular look!
East Preston Islamic College
GROUP 1
STUDENT A:
“Products don’t always work. A lot of people buy these products because they’re a fan of the celebrity that is doing it. My view of advertisements has changed.”
STUDENT B:
“My view of advertisement has changed. For example: products don’t always work, being who you are, people use the product because their celebrity uses it (such as Justin Bieber’s use of ProActiv and now everyone uses it.”
STUDENT C:
“Products don’t always work. My view of advertisements have changed. They use celebrities to make people buy their products.”
GROUP DISCUSSION POINTS:
- Products don’t always work.
99
- Celebrities don’t care about the products.
- All they care about is the money that they get.
GROUP 2
STUDENT A:
“My way of thinking changed for me. Such as, not believing everything that is advertised on TV to be necessarily true, despite whether it has famous people claiming it.”
STUDENT B:
“Well good things have changed for me because we see the media changes people very easily. Many people are believing in what ever the media says. Also, I have seen the world differently because of the project. Many people close to me have changed because of the products the media have put up on TV.
GROUP DISCUSSION POINTS:
- Advertised
- Famous people
- T.V.
- Changed
- Thinking
- Believing
- Convincing
- True
GROUP 3
STUDENT A:
“Over the course of the See Me literacy program, it has opened my eyes to what the world of advertising has to offer. Not all we see on TV is real. Most likely the products that are put on the market don’t actually help us, these companies are just trying to make money. I’ve also learnt that the stereotypes implemented in this industry shouldn’t be implemented into greater society. EVERYONE
DOESN’T HAVE TO BE PERFECT!!”
STUDENT B:
“The difference are that I know how people would like for you to look to be accepted in the society.
Now I know what you see on TV is not all true.”
STUDENT C:
“I have learnt that photoshop can turn you from ugly looking into looking like a model. “
100
GROUP DISCUSSION POINTS:
- Stereotypes
- Advertising
- Cover ups
- Photo shop
- Being perfect
- Gender stereotyping
- Media
GROUP 4
STUDENT A:
“It was a very good time consuming activity, and took away our study time to study the questions for our exams. It has opened my eyes to what the world of advertising has to offer.”
STUDENT B:
“It was very time consuming and took away our study time to study the questions in the exams but was fun to do and it was social and inter-active with classmates and teachers.”
GROUP DISCUSSION POINTS:
- Celebrities are used for advertisements
- Ads/media representations
GROUP 5 – only one story provided in given content for this group
STUDENT A:
“What I have learnt doing the See Media project is how media works and its tactics towards young people today. Whenever I see an ad selling something I think twice and think what I have learnt in See
Media. I think media nowadays differently.”
GROUP DISCUSSION POINTS:
- Its good
- It makes sense
- It reflects on all of us
- Some ads are not real
101
APPENDIX D: Additional teacher champion and student leader quotes
The following is a selection of excerpts from student leaders, teacher champions and delivery partners gathered internally by the QVWC team for marketing and communications purposes, as well as MSC stories collected during the (MSC) teacher training session.
I found the SeeMe Project really fun because I met new people and learnt about new things that
I hadn't heard of before. I think it was a good experience to have -Student Leader
I feel that the site is a huge success! It is expanding everyone's knowledge and their self esteem is already growing. It is helping shape how teenagers feel about themselves and could really help thousands of people -Student leader
Being involved with the SeeMe project has been a fantastic experience. It has given my students an opportunity to develop their leadership qualities, as well as strengthen their understanding of the media’s impact on body image. Furthermore, the program has provided me with an opportunity to develop and implement a number of resources that have proven advantageous within the classroom Teacher champion
Most of my current working life is spent sitting at a desk designing education resources for an audience that I mostly imaging – out of my own 20 years of teaching, out of contact with my friends who are teachers, through kids I know and so on. We do user testing – but often I am not there for the testing – we send it out and schools report back. So for me, the chance to see the maturity grow and blossom over weeks has been a real treat – a rare opportunity. A couple of people I work with were sceptical about the peer involvement in this process – I have been really knocked out by the integrity of the process, by the fact that the QVWC has been really true to the idea of consultation, and that the end product is emerging as being strong and beautiful. For me, the change is feeling even more committed to consultation, and into putting money into consultation in projects - MSC story, Delivery partner
Being involved with the SeeMe project has been a fantastic experience. It has given my students an opportunity to develop their leadership qualities, as well as strengthen their understanding of the media’s impact on body image. Furthermore, the program has provided me with an
102
opportunity to develop and implement a number of resources that have proven advantageous within the classroom –Teacher champion
This and other comments can be viewed at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czp6U488MDQ
103
APPENDIX E: SeeMe Questionnaires (Pre/Post)
104
SeeMe Media Literacy Project - Questionnaire (pre)
Thank you for participating in the SeeMe Media Literacy Project evaluation, your input is highly valued. This survey is designed to help us better understand the SeeMe program and provide us with valuable insights regarding young
people’s knowledge about and attitudes towards the media.
The questionnaire will only take 10mins to complete and your responses will be kept strictly confidential. Your participation is completely voluntary and you can withdraw at any time. If you have any questions please refer to the
contact details at the end of the questionnaire.
Thank you for your time and support.
Section 1 About You
This first section seeks basic information about you that will help us with the analysis of the results.
Which school do you currently attend?
Doncaster Secondary College
East Preston Islamic School
Melbourne Girls College
Are you?
Female
Male
What is your age?
13
14
15
Other (please specify)
In which country were you born?
Australia
Other (please specify)
Are you of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander descent?
No
Aboriginal
Torres Strait Islander
What is the main language spoken at your home?
English
Other (please specify)
How happy are you with the way your body looks?
Totally
A lot
Pretty much
A little
Not at all
Section 2 Attitudes towards Appearance
We would like to know more about your views on the media and the ways people are represented in the media.
To what extent do you agree/disagree with the following statements
Definitely
Disagree
Mostly
Disagree
Neither Agree nor Disagree
Mostly Agree
TV programs are an important source of information about fashion and 'being attractive'
I do not care if my body looks like the body of people who are on TV
I compare my body to the bodies of people who are on TV
TV commercials are an important source of information about fashion and 'being attractive'
I would like my body to look like the models who appear in magazines
I compare my appearance to the appearance of TV and movie stars
Music videos on TV are not an important source of information about fashion and 'being attractive'
I would like my body to look like the people who are in movies
I do not compare my body to the bodies of people who appear in magazines
Magazine articles are not an important source of information about fashion and 'being attractive'
I wish I looked like the models in music videos
I compare my appearance to the appearance of people in magazines
Magazine advertisements are an important source of information about fashion and 'being attractive'
Pictures in magazines are an important source of information about fashion and 'being attractive'
Movies are an important source of information about fashion and
'being attractive'
I do not try to look like the people on TV
Movie stars are not an important source of information about fashion and being attractive
Famous people are an important source of information about fashion and 'being attractive'
Definitely
Agree
Do you have any additional comments you would like to make about appearance and the media?
Section 3 Gender
This next section explores your views about gender and the media.
Please indicate the extent to which you agree/disagree with the following statements.
Definitely
Disagree
Mostly
Disagree
Neither Agree nor Disagree
Mostly Agree
Definitely
Agree
The bodies of females shown in the media are mostly accurate
The bodies of males shown in the media are mostly accurate
The presentation of women in the media is true of people I know
The presentation of men in the media is true of people I know
In your opinion, are women from different cultures presented in the media?
Yes
No
If no, can you please explain why you think this?
In your opinion, are men from different cultures presented in the media?
Yes
No
If no, can you please explain why you think this?
Do you think women in different roles are presented in the media e.g., women as carers, businesswomen, female leaders, sports stars, students, etc
Yes
No
If no, please explain why you think this?
Do you think men in different roles are presented in the media e.g., men as carers, businessmen, male leaders, sports stars, students, etc
Yes
No
If no, please explain why you think this?
Do you feel people who look like you are presented in the media?
Yes
No
Can you please explain your answer
Do you have any additional comments you would like to make about gender and the media?
Thank You
Thank you for completing this questionnaire, your opinion is important to us. If you have any questions about this questionnaire or the evaluation in general please contact Naomi on: 03 9604 6201.
Sometimes questionnaires can start you thinking about things that may be upsetting. If any questions in this questionnaire have upset or worried you, please talk to somebody you trust as soon as possible. This might be a teacher or counsellor from your school, a friend or a family member.
Further support can be found at HeadSpace: http://www.headspace.org.au, a national organisation that helps young
people who are going through a tough time by providing health advice, support and information.
Or The Butterfly Foundation, who provide support and information for Australians who suffer from eating disorders and negative body image issues and their carers: www.thebutterflyfoundation.org.au.
SeeMe Media Literacy Project - Questionnaire (post)
Thank you for participating in the SeeMe Media Literacy Project evaluation, your input is highly valued. This survey is designed to help us better understand the SeeMe program and provide us with valuable insights regarding young
people’s knowledge about and attitudes towards the media.
The questionnaire will only take 10mins to complete and your responses will be kept strictly confidential. Your participation is completely voluntary and you can withdraw from the research any time you wish. If you have any
questions please refer to the contact details at the end of the questionnaire.
Thank you for your time and contribution.
Section 1 About You
This first section seeks basic information about you that will help us with the analysis of the results.
Which school do you currently attend?
Doncaster Secondary College
East Preston Islamic School
Melbourne Girls College
Please indicate which modules you completed as part of the SeeMe project (tick all that apply)
Module 1 Gender Stereotyping
Module 2 Healthy lifestyle choices:
Module 3 Body Image
Module 4 Fashion and cosmetics
Module 5 SeeMe Invisible Me
Are you?
Female
Male
What is your age?
13
14
15
Other (please specify)
In which country were you born?
Australia
Other (please specify)
Are you of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander descent?
No
Aboriginal
Torres Strait Islander
What is the main language spoken at your home?
English
Other (please specify)
How happy are you with the way your body looks?
Totally happy
Very happy
Pretty much happy
A bit happy
Not at all happy
Section 2 Attitudes towards Appearance
We would like to know more about your views on the media and the ways people are represented in the media.
To what extent do you agree/disagree with the following statements
Definitely
Disagree
Mostly
Disagree
Neither Agree nor Disagree
Mostly Agree
TV programs are an important source of information about fashion and 'being attractive'
I do not care if my body looks like the body of people who are on TV
I compare my body to the bodies of people who are on TV
TV commercials are an important source of information about fashion and 'being attractive'
I would like my body to look like the models who appear in magazines
I compare my appearance to the appearance of TV and movie stars
Music videos on TV are not an important source of information about fashion and 'being attractive'
I would like my body to look like the people who are in movies
I do not compare my body to the bodies of people who appear in magazines
Magazine articles are not an important source of information about fashion and 'being attractive'
I wish I looked like the models in music videos
I compare my appearance to the appearance of people in magazines
Magazine advertisements are an important source of information about fashion and 'being attractive'
Pictures in magazines are an important source of information about fashion and 'being attractive'
Movies are an important source of information about fashion and
'being attractive'
I do not try to look like the people on TV
Movie stars are not an important source of information about fashion and being attractive
Famous people are an important source of information about fashion and 'being attractive'
Definitely
Agree
Do you have any additional comments you would like to make about appearance and the media?
Section 3 Gender
This next section explores your views about gender and the media.
Please indicate the extent to which you agree/disagree with the following statements.
Definitely
Disagree
Mostly
Disagree
Neither Agree nor Disagree
Mostly Agree
Definitely
Agree
The bodies of females shown in the media are mostly accurate
The bodies of males shown in the media are mostly accurate
The presentation of women in the media is true of people I know
The presentation of men in the media is true of people I know
In your opinion, are women from different cultures presented in the media?
Yes
No
If no, can you please explain why you think this?
In your opinion, are men from different cultures presented in the media?
Yes
No
If no, can you please explain why you think this?
Do you think women in different roles are presented in the media e.g., women as carers, businesswomen, female leaders, sports stars, students, etc
Yes
No
If no, please explain why you think this?
Do you think men in different roles are presented in the media e.g., men as carers, businessmen, male leaders, sports stars, students, etc
Yes
No
If no, please explain why you think this?
Do you feel people who look like you are presented in the media?
Yes
No
Can you please explain your answer
Do you have any additional comments you would like to make about gender and the media?
Section 4 Media Literacy
This next section explores your understandings of the media since participating in SeeMe.
Since completing SeeMe to what degree do you feel you can now identify the following from any given media source?
To a great extent Somewhat Very little Not at all
The purpose of the message
The target audience for the message
The values or points of view represented in the message
The points of view that may be missing from the message
The techniques used to attract/hold your attention
Do you now believe you make more informed choices about media (for instance what programs to watch, magazines to avoid etc)?
Yes
No
If yes, in what ways?
Section 5 General
Has SeeMe changed the way you participate in social activities or events?
Yes
No
If yes, in what ways?
What has been the impact of SeeMe on the way you view the world and your future careers and choices?
Would you recommend others participate in SeeMe?
Yes
No
Please explain why/why not?
What didn’t work about SeeMe?
In your opinion, how might SeeMe be improved?
Section 6 The Online SeeMe Resource
We are interested in knowing how you found the online resource itself.
On a scale of 15 (5=Excellent; 4=Good; 3=Satisfactory; 2=Needs improvement; 1=
Poor), please rate the SeeMe WEBSITE for the following:
1 2 3 4 5
Ease of access
Ease of use
If you rated any of the above less than 3 can you please explain why?
On a scale of 15 (5=Excellent; 4=Good; 3=Satisfactory; 2=Needs improvement; 1=
Poor), please rate the SeeMe SUPPORT MATERIALS for the following:
1 2 3 4 5
Ease of access
Ease of use
If you rated any of the above less than 3 can you please explain why?
Do you have any further comments you would like to add about SeeMe?
Thank You
Thank you for completing this questionnaire, your opinion is important to us. If you have any questions about this questionnaire or the evaluation in general please contact Naomi on: 03 9604 6201.
Sometimes questionnaires can start you thinking about things that may be upsetting. If any questions in this questionnaire have upset or worried you, please talk to somebody you trust as soon as possible. This might be a teacher or counsellor from your school, a friend or a family member.
Further support can be found at HeadSpace: http://www.headspace.org.au, a national organisation that helps young people who are going through a tough time by providing health advice, support and information. Or The Butterfly
Foundation who provide support and information for Australians who suffer from eating disorders and negative body image issues: www.thebutterflyfoundation.org.au.
