![Sample our Humanities journals, sign in here to start your FREE access for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5939/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Humanities.jpg"})
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of Beyond Blame: Challenging Violence in the Media, at increasing students' knowledge about the effects of media violence and the core concepts of media literacy. During the 2007–2008 academic year, 1,693 sixth–eighth grade students from school districts around southern California participated in the study. Students were assigned to one of three treatment conditions: trained teacher, untrained teacher or control. Compared with controls, students in both intervention groups were more likely to agree that media violence may cause aggression, fear, desensitization and an appetite for more media violence at the post-test. Students in the trained group were also more likely than controls to understand the five core concepts/key questions of media literacy post-intervention.
Acknowledgements
Support for this research was provided by the Southern California Injury Prevention Research Center, which is funded by a grant from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (5 R49 CE000199-02). The authors would also like to acknowledge Kiran Alluri for his assistance on the study.