The purpose of this research was to test the effects of media literacy interventions on copycat suicides and media violence as well as to examine the unintended effects and moderating factors that reduce the positive effects of the interventions. In H...
The purpose of this research was to test the effects of media literacy interventions on copycat suicides and media violence as well as to examine the unintended effects and moderating factors that reduce the positive effects of the interventions. In H1, the effects of media literacy interventions on the topic of copycat suicides and media violence were verified, and in H2, it was verified that narrative-type suicide reports as a moderating factor would reduce the positive effects of intervention by increasing transportation into attack messages (suicide reports). In H3, how priming would cause a boomerang effect of media literacy intervention on media violence was verified. To verify such hypotheses, two experimental studies were conducted on adolescents. The results showed positive effects on some outcomes such as knowledge and norms in study 1(copycat suicide) and knowledge and criticism in study 2(media violence). However, the type of news reports (narrative vs. reverse pyramid) did not appear to influence on the audiences nor to moderate the intervention effects. Unintended effects were found in the results of study 1 and H3. In study 1, it appeared that knowledge and transportation affected behavioral intention as mediating variables. Increased knowledge due to media literacy intervention had a positive impact in reducing behavioral intention in copycat suicides and the increased transportation to suicide reports due to the intervention gave a negative impact in increasing behavioral intention reversely. A mediating model of knowledge & transportation on behavioral intention was proposed based on such results. In verifying H3, a boomerang effect was found in that priming reduced intervention effects on media violence by increasing perceived realism of participants. The theoretical and practical implications of this research were further discussed.