Healthy media literacy: bridging critical media literacy and health literacy to promote positive body image and health

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Title Healthy media literacy: bridging critical media literacy and health literacy to promote positive body image and health
Publication Type dissertation
School or College College of Humanities
Department Communication
Author Kite, Lindsay D.
Date 2013-12
Description In light of rampant body shame, disordered eating, physical inactivity, and widespread misunderstanding of what constitutes a healthy body, it is crucial to identify mechanisms by which women can resist distorted health discourse and redefine health for themselves outside of appearance-oriented ideals. Through following a group of 42 women ages 18-35 as they engaged in a health and media literacy curriculum developed for this study, and by using critical feminist methods to analyze participants' responses to open-ended surveys before, during, and 2 weeks after completing the curriculum, this study seeks to identify effective means for resisting appearance-focused health ideals. Through the development of a practical and accessible healthy media literacy curriculum and analysis of participants' self-reported beliefs and behaviors throughout the process, this project contributes praxis-oriented research to assist scholars, health educators, and individual women in cultivating and promoting resistance to distorted health discourse. The findings of this study also suggest that women who engage with a healthy media curriculum can develop and cultivate strategies to resist distorted health discourse by writing body image narratives that bear witness to their own lived experiences.
Type Text
Publisher University of Utah
Subject Body image; Health promotion; Healthy media literacy; Media literacy; Media studies; Objectification
Dissertation Institution University of Utah
Dissertation Name Doctor of Philosophy
Language eng
Rights Management Copyright © Lindsay D. Kite 2013
Format application/pdf
Format Medium application/pdf
Format Extent 1,415,515 bytes
Identifier etd3/id/3394
ARK ark:/87278/s6km2m23
Setname ir_etd
ID 196958
Reference URL https://collections.lib.utah.edu/ark:/87278/s6km2m23
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