Julian Owens D and Bradley Smith H
The average American teenager spends nearly eleven hours a day engaged in social media and accessing digital music multimedia, which has negative effects on health and educational attainment. Curricula that contain youthfriendly media could improve learning, reduce risky and problem behavior and improve health outcomes, but may be controversial given some of the content. This study was designed to assess stakeholder’s perceptions of a curriculum built around Popular Youth Music Media (PYMM) called Musics Energy: The Message in the Music™ (ME: MIM). This intervention consists of six modules implemented over 24 sessions. ME-MIM uses PYMM to teach students how to deconstruct music by collaborating, communicating, reading closely, thinking critically, conducting research and taking useful notes by listening. In-depth interviews and focus groups were conducted with 11 middleschool students and 6 teachers across multiple school districts. The constant comparative method was employed to explore emerging and recurring themes. Major themes were that ME: MIM was acceptable to most students and conditionally acceptable to most teachers. Stakeholders indicated that ME:MIM may be used as a component of a culturally informed, carefully monitored curriculum. Given the findings of this study, ME:MIM appears to be an acceptable and feasible approach to addressing health risk behavior, education disparities and educational engagement, especially among those who may be at higher risk for school disengagement and those who are exposed to more programmed media messages.
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