Current Attitudes Concerning Media Literacy - Research Proposal Example

? Here Nova Southeastern PSYC 3000: Research Methods This study is created to identify attitudes toward media literacy, current methods of teaching this in the classroom, and the actual level of media literacy of the participants. Participants will be teachers, students and ordinary people. Some data will be collected via the Internet, and some via phone or VoIP. Participating teachers who volunteer to conduct this survey with their students will be emailed the forms and surveys or given links to the surveys. Media literacy is a very important subject as media exerts considerable influence upon our behavior. We adopt attitudes, vote in elections and referendums, adopt life styles and purchase products according to what we believe is true and good, but the media changes these attitudes, often without our realizing it. With the Internet adding to the mix. Media literacy is more important than ever beforein order that we can make more informed decisions. Contents Testing Current Attitudes Concerning Media Literacy 5 Methodology 7 Participants: 7 Materials and Procedures 8 Surveys and Interviews 8 References 11 Testing Current Attitudes Concerning Media Literacy Testing Current Attitudes Concerning Media Literacy Media Literacy is the ability to understand exactly how people are being influenced by the media(Zhang, 2011). Media is all displayed, broadcast or otherwise distributed literature. Literature is defined as any message distributed or published; it includes test, music, works of art, and video. All of these can be broadcast, displayed on public screens, billboards and other public signage, printed in magazines, books, and newspapers, or displayed in any number of different ways on the Internet. Literature is generally accepted as having a textual message, even if the medium is visual or musical (McQuarrie & Phillips, 2008). The reason for this study is to try to understand how well the public understands the influence the media has on all their decisions. It is hoped that this will help educators design better lessons in media literacy. People in our society are constantly surrounded by media messages. Because this is so, many of these messages go unnoticed consciously, but subconsciously every message has an influence(Hota, Caceres, & Cousin, 2010). In fact, cognitive processing helps us filter media messages, but messages that we do not pay attention to go unprocessed (Zhang, 2011)(McCoy, 2000). Therefore, they go unfiltered for validity and importance. For example, ads on television influence us, even though we don't pay attention to them. Most of these ads are very simply designed to promote brand recognition and attitude. Attitude is promoted by what is associated with the brand(Thomaselli, 2004). In order to help people make better decisions in their lifestyle selections and purchasing, it is necessary to make them aware of how their attitudes, decisions and purchasing are being influenced by the media(McCoy, 2000). In the media not all messages are advertising. The media includes advertising, but the more powerful hidden power of the media is not the advertising, but the content (Frechette, 2002). Brand placement within movies and television shows is a very important way for companies to promote brand recognition, and to shape attitudes by associating the brand with the show or the character with advertising and sponsorhip of the show or with product placement (Forceville, 1998). This is something that most people do not notice much. Worse is that people do not really think about the fact that every media message is designed to sell something, a product, a brand, a life style or an attitude. Sponsors actually influence television content by telling the networks what kind of shows they will sponsor(Jewler, 1995). These and other misleading practices in both the text and the visuals often go unnoticed (McQuarrie & Phillips, 2008). This situation was well tested twenty years ago, but times have changed since then and the Internet truly complicates everything, because the line between information and advertising has blurred even more (Kitson & Morgan, 1924) (Buck, 1993). Therefore, this research project aims to test the current perception and attitude concerning media literacy. In addition it is hoped that one component can be added to actually test the media literacy of some or all participants. Methodology Participants: The participants for this study will be recruited in two ways. First, teachers of classes at different levels will be asked to have their students participate. Whether or not the teacher is teaching media literacy in the classroom will not influence selection. However, the facts of whether and how teaching of media literacy is being done will be part of the demographic questions on the separate interview or survey of teachers. In order to use this data properly, a separate link will be created for each different group. While all the same questions will be asked and all data will be analyzed in total, this is an easy way to divide classes, teaching methodology, age group and grade level. We will attempt to get at least two classes at each level Grade 6-undergraduates. Students at lower levels will not be included for the practical necessity of creating a second simpler survey if they were included. Teachers will be interviewed, either in person, via telephone or via VioP on the Internet. Their interviews will collect information about their attitudes towards media literacy, its importance and whether or not they teach it and how. The interviewer will record the answers in a manner acceptable to the teacher, preferably with a recorder. In some cases, MP3 Interviews can be sent and the teacher can respond on line or record a response and send, post, or email the answers. Internet participants will be asked whether they are teachers, students or neither. Teachers will have a different survey than students and others. Demographic questions will identify age group, gender, education level, income group, ethnic origin, language group. These will help us identify if anyone group has consistent types of results. Materials and Procedures Teachers will be asked to have the students take the survey in the computer lab or on the Internet. Where Internet connection is not available to students, a CD will be provided, and the results can be collected via floppy, flash drive, LAN or email. All of this will be discussed with teachers. Surveys and Interviews The main survey will be in two parts: questions designed to identify attitudes concerning media literacy, and questions designed to measure media literacy. The survey for teachers will also ask them whether they teach media literacy, whether it is a separate course or integrated, and the methodology they use for teaching. They will also be asked to rate the media literacy of their students, their fellow teachers and the world in general. The question concerning the methodology of teaching will be a fill-in the blank, and will require manual scoring in order to accommodate the many different styles of teaching. Teacher participants will be asked if they are willing to do a short interview. These interviews will be designed just to identify the teachers level of media literacy and the way they teach it if they do. Their interviews will be kept extremely short, as only a few questions can give us a great deal of information. Teachers will be asked to allow us to record the interviews, but they will be identified only by number and connected demographic information. For interviews, and 800 number or a Skype connection will be provided. Several time segments will be provided for the teacher to choose among in order to accommodate different schedules and time zones. Results will have to be transcribed from the recordings or manually entered from notes taken if recordings are not allowed. In fact, it is probable that they will be asked to agree to have the interview recorded if they wish to participate. In this way all callers will know that they will be recorded and this will be mentioned before the recording started in order to remind them. The surveys will be created in two parts. One part will consist of questions concerning attitudes concerning media messages. The other will be a test of media literacy. The part of the survey which is designed to identify attitudes will use Likert scale of 1 to 10. It will contain only 10 questions, each one designed to measure different parts of the attitude: value to individuals and society, need, difficulty of teaching or learning, perceived change in necessity, attitudes of retailers, attitudes of government, attitudes of politicians, participants’ attitudes, and how media literacy relates to ethics. The part which is designed to identify the media literacy level will have a variety of answer types, including true false, Likert scale of 1 to 10, and multiple-choice. This portion will consist of 20 questions in order to provide measurable results (Sheperis, Young, & Daniels, 2010). The methodology which will be used to measure media literacy will be a combination of questions about how the media influences people, examples for participants to identify the message, and questions concerning how participants believe this influences behavior. These will be assessed according to standards used for identifying or assessing media literacy, as established in various media literacy curricula and lesson plans, and it will be created with Pyrczak’s (2008) recommendations for question creation. With these various methods it is felt that the research will show a clear picture of attitudes, knowledge and education. Using the Lickert scale for attitude will give us a more useful number (Sheperis, Young, & Daniels, 2010). The demographic information will allow a more useful analysis of the affected populations and differences may be identifiable(Pyrczak, 2008), since some of what the participant brings to the survey can possibly be extrapolated (Rosenblatt, 1978). References Buck, R. (1993). 10 trends to watch. Brandweek, 34(30), 58. Forceville, C. (1998). Pictorial metaphor in advertising [electronic resource] / charles forceville London ; New York : Routledge, 1998. Frechette, J. D. (2002). Developing media literacy in cyberspace : Pedagogy and critical learning for the twenty-first century classroom. Westport, CT, USA: Greenwood Publishing Group, Incorporated. Hota, M., Caceres, R. C., & Cousin, A. (2010). Can public-service advertising change children's nutrition habits? Journal of Advertising Research, 50(4), 460-477. Jewler, A. J. (1995). Creative strategy in advertising / A. jerome jewler Toronto, ON : Nelson, c1995; 5th ed. Kitson, H. D., & Morgan, H. K. (1924). Minor studies in the psychology of advertising. Journal of Applied Psychology, 8(4), 446. McCoy, K. (2000). Information and persuasion: Rivals or partners? Design Issues, 16(3), 80-83. doi:10.1162/07479360052053342 McQuarrie, E. F., & Phillips, B. J. (2008). It's not your father's magazine ad. Journal of Advertising, 37(3), 95-106. Pyrczak, F. (2008). Evaluating research in academic journals: A practical guide to realistic evaluation (4th ed.). Glendale, CA.: Pyrczak Publishing. Rosenblatt, L. M. (1978). The reader, the text, and the poem: A transactional theory of the literary work. Illinois: Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press. Sheperis, C. J., Young, J. S., & Daniels, M. H. (2010). Counseling research: Quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc. Thomaselli, R. (2004). Nielsen to measure sports sponsorship. Advertising Age, 75(18), 14-14. Zhang, L. (2011). Advertising in a new age of media. China Business Review, 38(1), 16. Appendix A Informed Consent Form Dear Participant, First, we want to thank you sincerely for you participation. It will help educational research and, perhaps, influence media literacy curriculum in the future. We will no record names or any other information which might aid in identifying the participants. Demographics questions are asked merely in order to understand and better analyze the results by certain groups, and will not be tied to any one set of answers, but only used to understand how differences may influence attitudes. If you are a teacher, you will be asked if you are willing to participate in an interview, either via telephone or VoIP, such as Skype. An 800 call in number will be used and several time frames will be suggested, and monitored for calls, in order to accommodate different schedules and time zones. You will also be asked demographic questions, but your call in number of Skype name will not be recorded. However, the conversation will be recorded in order to speed the process. These recordings will be transcribed later and the recordings will be destroyed. If you are not willing to be recorded, please do not volunteer to be interviewed. We must do this in order to keep the interviews very short. They are important, so we will appreciate participation. Any participating minor child must have the informed consent of his or her parents in order to participate in this study. If you plan to monitor the study yourself, please print the informed consent form (this document) and send it home to parents for signatures. If no signed document is returned, the child may not participate in this study. In the case of older children who will take the survey at home, please send this form home the directions on how to participate. I have read and understand this document and give my permission for my child to take part in this study. Parent Signature___________________________________ Date___________________ Parent Signature___________________________________ Date___________________ I have read and understood this document and give my informed consent for anonymous data to be collected and used for this study. I understand that if I am interviewed no identifying information will be collected, my phone number and Skype name will not be recorded and the recorded conversation will be transcribed and destroyed. I certify that I am of legal majority age. Signature___________________________________________ Date ________________ Read More