Joshua Yi

Professor Flewelling
English 101
9 May, 2015
Annotated Bibliography #2
Babad Elisha, Eyal Peer, and Renee Hobbs. Media Literacy and media bias: Are media
literacy students less susceptible to nonverbal judgement bias? Psychology Of Popular
Media Culture 1.2 (2012): 97-10. PsycARTICLES. Web. 9 May 2015.
Social scientists Babad Elisha, Eyal Peer, and Renee Hobbs, in their article published in
the journal of Psychology of Popular Media Culture:Media Literacy and Media Bias: Are Media
Literacy Students Less Susceptible to Nonverbal Judgement Bias? (2012) conducted research to
examine the effects of nonverbal judgement bias on high school students and found that students
who had participated in a media literacy course were less susceptible to the bias. Their claim is
supported by comparing the results of the two groups involved in the research - control group
against the media educated group. Their purpose is to gain a deeper understanding of how biases
work, and to come up with possible solutions to help others extinguish destructive biases through
the means of media literacy education.
Elisha, Peer, and Hobbes conducted a controlled experiment on high school students to
observe the effects of a media literacy course on students. They provided a group of students
with a course that aimed at providing students with tools to detect biases in the media. After the
course, the students were asked to participate in an experiment that measured biases. Two
groups of students - a control group and media literacy students - were asked to watch an
interview with a politician in which the interviewer displayed either hostile or friendly nonverbal

behavior. It was found that the students who enrolled in the media literacy course judged the
hostile interviewee more favorably than the students in the control group. They write, ... media
education is intended to shift students from mindless processing to mindfulness, to become
autonomous thinkers rather than passive, automatic receivers of media messages (98).
Mindfulness and autonomy are the focal point of development. The media literacy course
produces the ideal media consumer that Gladstone passively advocates for in her graphic novel.
If media consumers would only educate themselves, not only of the biases conducted by the
media, but of the biases conducted by themselves, then perhaps the media would reflect an image
of its consumers that is less distorted and more aligned to an accurate representation of reality.

Elisha, Peer, and Hobbes conducted a controlled experiment on high school students to observe
the effects of a media literacy course on students. They provided a group of students with a
course that aimed at providing students with tools to detect biases in the media. After the course,
the students were asked to participate in an experiment that measured biases. Two groups of
students - a control group and media literacy students - were asked to watch an interview with a
politician in which the interviewer displayed either hostile or friendly nonverbal behavior. It was
found that the students who enrolled in the media literacy course judged the hostile interviewee
more favorably than the students in the control group. They write ... the media literacy course
probably succeeded in shifting students from mindlessness, peripheral, or heuristic processing to
a mode of mindfulness, central, and rational processing of media-related information. They
become better consumers of public media, capable of dealing with potential undue influences
(104). The purpose of their media literacy course shares the same purpose of Gladstones
graphic novel: to inform media consumers of the unseen influences in the media, and
furthermore, to educate the public on how to accurately digest the media. If media consumers

would only educate themselves, not only of the biases conducted by the media, but of the biases
conducted by themselves, then perhaps the media would reflect an image of its consumers that is
less distorted and more aligned to an accurate representation of reality.