Promoting Adolescents’ Moral Advertising Literacy in Secondary Education

Adams, Britt, Schellens, Tammy and Valcke, Martin Promoting Adolescents’ Moral Advertising Literacy in Secondary Education. Comunicar, 2017, vol. 25, n. 52, pp. 93-103. [Journal article (Paginated)]

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English abstract

Minors are daily confronted with advertisements, which are occasionally controversial. In order to promote adolescents’ moral advertising literacy, this intervention study explores how to stimulate secondary education students’ knowledge on advertising law and their moral judgement of advertisements. Because a lot of new ?especially online? advertising formats have arisen during the last years, 191 students from 12 classes were randomly assigned to either a no tablet condition or a tablet condition (to raise authenticity of learning material). The results show that students who use tablet devices perform less well on a post-test about advertising law. Regarding adolescents’ moral judgement of advertisements, thematic analyses reveal that especially the use of nudity and feminine beauty are labelled as contentious in both conditions, because of, inter alia, the negative effects for adolescent girls’ self-image and the desire to lose weight. After the intervention, the tablet condition has proven to be more effective in promoting critical thinking about nudity/feminine beauty in advertisements. However, none of the conditions did provide evidence that a critical attitude towards alcohol advertising is encouraged. In this regard, implications for future research in the context of advertising literacy education are discussed.

Spanish abstract

Los menores de edad se enfrentan diariamente a anuncios que pueden resultar polémicos. Con el fin de promover la alfabetización ética en publicidad en los adolescentes, este estudio explora cómo estimular el conocimiento de los estudiantes de Educación Secundaria acerca de la ley de publicidad y su juicio moral hacia los anuncios. A raíz de los formatos de publicidad ?especialmente online– que han surgido en los últimos años, 191 estudiantes de 12 clases fueron asignados aleatoriamente a una de estas condiciones: uso o no uso de tablets (para aumentar la autenticidad del material de aprendizaje). Los resultados muestran que el desempeño en el post-test sobre la ley de publicidad de los estudiantes que usaron tablet es peor. En cuanto al juicio moral de los adolescentes sobre los anuncios, el análisis temático revela que especialmente el uso de la desnudez y la belleza femenina resultan polémicos en ambas condiciones, debido, entre otros motivos, a los efectos negativos para la autoestima de las adolescentes y al deseo de perder peso. Tras la intervención, el uso de tablets ha demostrado ser más eficaz para promover el pensamiento crítico hacia la desnudez y la belleza femenina en los anuncios. Sin embargo, no se hallaron evidencias de que alguna de las dos condiciones favorezca el desarrollo de una actitud crítica hacia la publicidad del alcohol. En este sentido, se plantean futuras líneas de investigación en el contexto de la alfabetización publicitaria.

Item type: Journal article (Paginated)
Keywords: Moral literacy, advertising, advertising formats, secondary education, adolescence, qualitative techniques, quantitative techniques, tablet devices, Alfabetización ética, publicidad, formatos publicitarios, Educación Secundaria, adolescencia, técnicas cualitativas, técnicas cuantitativas, tablets
Subjects: B. Information use and sociology of information > BJ. Communication
G. Industry, profession and education.
G. Industry, profession and education. > GH. Education.
Depositing user: Alex Ruiz
Date deposited: 16 Jan 2018 11:54
Last modified: 16 Jan 2018 11:54
URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10760/32156

References

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