Media Literacy and Social Media

Limited evidence from evaluation studies suggests that food-related media literacy programs improve nutritional knowledge and dietary behaviours of children, adolescents and families in the short-term, but the long-term impacts are not known.

A series of studies investigating the effects of a six-week family-based media literacy program found that the program decreased youth’s susceptibility to food marketing, increased families’ discussions about food-related media messages, improved the home food environment, increased youth's vegetable and fruit intake and improved parents’ management of media in the home (beyond limiting screen time). Results may be limited by the small sample size, short study duration with lack of long-term follow up, non-randomization of study participants, use of self-reported measures and low participation rates by male parents.

A small 2020 study (n=36 healthy children aged 10.5±1.5 years) investigating the impacts of a brief media literacy intervention on children’s food decision-making behaviours found that the media literacy program had no impact on the type or amount of food children consumed, although it did reduce the relative importance of taste in food decisions, children’s perception of unhealthy foods as tasting good and the perceived influence of advertising on food preferences. Results may be limited by the small sample size, short study duration, the lack of participant demographic information provided by the study authors and that some of the language in the media literacy program may promote a problematic relationship with food (e.g. describing foods as “good” or “bad”).

See Additional Content: What are the key elements in planning and implementing school nutrition interventions?