NEDIC Conference Journal 2018

construction of their media artifacts, and field notes.
This study was conducted over 4 weeks (2 1/2 hours
per week) and included 26 adolescent female
participants ages 12-17. They were invited to
participate through Girls Inc. who were running
programs in the community.
During the last session, the girls were
encouraged to create digital artifacts that could be
used to combat media messaging around body
image. The girls were told that their artifacts would
be on the website www.teachbodyimage.com.
4.1 Critical media health literacy
A framework was developed to measure the
criticality and health levels in the artifacts that the
girls produced. This framework incorporates the
work of several other researchers: Nutbeam’s levels
of health literacy [20], Kellner and Share’s levels of
media literacy [24] and a framework used to
examine the level of criticality in preservice teacher
lessons [25]. It made sense to combine critical
media literacy with health because of the number of
health messages provided in the media, and the
implications of receiving media messages [26]. The
framework used to evaluate the artifacts designed
by the girls in this study is presented in Table 1.
Table 1. Health Literacy/Media Literacy framework
(HL/ML) for artifact evaluation
Levels
Description
Basic media Media that articulates basic
health literacy understandings about health.
Media health Aesthetically pleasing media
arts
about a health issue that
demonstrates basic
understandings of health.
Media health
literacy
Interactive
media health
literacy
Approaching
critical media
health literacy
Critical media
Media uses media conventions to
create a health artifact that
demonstrates the ability to
question basic understandings of
personal health.
Media questions basic
understandings of personal and
social health in way that
communicates more than telling.
Media questions health
information from a political or
social or consumer lens, then
reconstructs and shares the
health message as a way of taking
social or political action.
Media questions health
health literacy information deeply from a
political, social and consumer
lens, then reconstructs and share
the health message as a way of
taking social and political action.
Source: Scheidler-Benns, 2016 [19]
5. Findings
In general, the girls took the topics introduced in
the workshop seriously. They were eager to share
their thoughts and listen attentively to each other.
Often their conversations had to be interrupted in
order to move to the next activity. The discussions
often became lively and many times several girls
were raising their hands at once to share their ideas.
They appeared to feel safe and secure despite the
research team being present, taking notes,
observing, and recording. The girls created six
artifacts during the fourth and final session.
Although all girls were involved in creating the
artifacts, 17 out of the 26 produced artifacts to share
on the website.
5.1 Description of the artifacts
The girls created six artifacts during the fourth
and final session. The choice of media was left up to
the girls and they were free to present their voices in
whatever medium they chose. We asked them to
create something for the website to share.
The first artifact created was a picture of
Soundwave. The toy looks like a robot and contains
many accessories including a photographic memory
from data storage capabilities, shoulder-mounted
rockets, radio wave sensors, and a tape deck. In her
words, the girl described it as a comparison between
a Transformer Soundwave and an average man.
Soundwave is 13 feet, 5 inches and an average guy is
only 5 foot 10 inches. Soundwave’s top speed is
Mach 4.1 and the average guy can move at 14 miles
per hour. She explained that this toy presents a
stereotype that boys have to be tall and strong. She
said that she always thought that girls’ toys were
stereotypical but she had come to realize that boys’
toys were as well. The girl’s interview revealed that
she had chosen this character because she was
concerned that boys were worried about body image
too. She felt that the toy may pressure boys to want
to be a certain size and strength, rather than
embracing their uniqueness. Her message to boys
and girls alike was to not let toys set a guideline for
what size you have to be because there is no toy that
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