Here's some notes from a media study (below) that I took. I inserted the link if you want to take a look, but this is what I gathered for information pertinent to us (a lot of it didn't relate to what we needed):
From a study called: “Representation of Gender and Race in Images of Information Technology in Magazines Popular with Middle School Students” by Joseph Bunt, Ohio State University
http://www.csm.ohiou.edu/mediamessage/AFJMCgenderraceITinmagazines.pdf
“Middle School students devote more than 8 hours a day to media use, including reading magazines; and, during these middle school years, girls are most likely to discontinue studies in mathematics, science, and information technology.”
National survey of media use (age group of children that includes MS years): “high rates of media penetration”:
99% had television
97% had VCR
96% had audio system
83% had video game
74% had cable/satellite TV connection
69% had computer
Middle school years = highest total media consumption
Television: 3 hours, 37 minutes
Print media: 32 minutes
A time in their life when they are making "pivotal academic choices"
I think that this demographic is so unique in that middle school is probably one of the most impressionable times in a girl's life, you know?
ReplyDeleteThink about it, this is the time when girls give up on math and the sciences, it's also when all those body image/self confidence issues are peaking.
If there were a way to use the news to make girls confident about their intellect and just hang in there with the math and sciences it may make a huge difference in their adult lives.
Just a thought.
I'm gonna guess that that print media is a lot more Cosmo Girl and Seventeen than New York Times and Boston Globe.
ReplyDeleteI'm going to agree. But I'll go back in and take a look at the article. There was also a 180 page diseration on a similar subject, so I'll skim that and see what it has to say. Clarification on what "print media" means to this demographic is definitely key to understanding them. I have a list of Web sites that come up when you search "middle school girls" in Mashable that I research last night (and will post later). Let me know just it's an eye opening experiene into what grabs these peopls attention. And pretty damn scary, too.
ReplyDelete