What is JUS Media?
Want to learn more? Want to bring JMGC to your institution? [Click here!]
JUS Media? is a research-based multi-format global health intervention that builds food-focused media literacy among youth and parents globally who are acculturating to U.S. culture through U.S. media exposure, whether they are living within or outside the United States. This transdisciplinary intervention, which blends psychology with nutrition and media sciences, is designed for Americanizing youth because Americanization puts individuals at risk for unhealthy diets. There is a question mark in the program name because JUS Media? is designed to combat the impact of U.S. cable TV and other media on eating habits by teaching youth and parents to question the health messages embedded in food advertising while arming them with knowledge about the persuasion tactics used to target them as potential consumers. Our goal at JUS Media? is for more teens and parents to wonder: Is it just media? Just entertainment? Or are there deeper lifestyle messages built into my media? What’s in my media? Dr. Gail Ferguson the Principal Investigator and Program Director of JUS Media?
Want to learn more? Want to bring JUS Media? to your institution? [Click here!]
JUS Media? has many versions to reach many youth and families!
JUS Media? Programme. The original 2-session, in-person version of JUS Media?, called “JUS Media? Programme”, is a workshop for Black adolescents and their mothers in Kingston, Jamaica who are experiencing remote acculturation to U.S. Culture as they use U.S. media on the island. Our NIH-funded efficacy studies in Jamaica found that families who received the JUS Media? Programme reported better nutrition knowledge, higher vegetable consumption, and more critical thinking about food advertising than those who did not (Ferguson et al., 2021; Nelson et al., 2020).
JUS Media? Global Classroom – Jamaican Islander (JMGC-JI). The in-person intervention was then digitized into a brief 1-2 session animated school-based version called “JUS Media? Global Classroom – Jamaican Islander” (JMGC-JI) to increase scalability and accessibility of the program for remotely acculturating youth in Jamaica. The JMGC-JI was piloted in Jamaican schools as a virtual class, and findings demonstrated that it is feasible, acceptable, and effective in Caribbean classrooms.
JUS Media? Global Classroom – Somali American Version (JMGC-SA). The JMGC-JI was culturally adapted from Jamaican culture to Somali American culture in partnership with Somali American teens in the Minneapolis metro area of Minnesota, USA. Black Somali American teens experience tridimensional acculturation on account of their families’ refugee backgrounds, and they are impacted by the same food marketing tactics. This version of the program is also a brief 1-2 session digital intervention called JUS Media? Global Classroom – Somali American Version. It is designed for use of Somali American teens in U.S. schools or other group settings for youth. (Simenec et al., 2023)
JUS Media? Global Classroom – Jamaican American Version (JMGC-JA). The JMGC-JI was culturally adapted from the Jamaican island context to the Jamaican American context in partnership with communities in South Florida. The JUS Media? Global Classroom – Jamaican American Version (JMGC-JA) is for use among Jamaican American teens in the United States, who are impacted by similar food marketing tactics in U.S. media. This version of the program is also a brief 1-2 session digital intervention that can be used in schools or other group settings for youth.
Cultural Adaptation Tools
Blueprint Storyboarding. Our team created a blueprint storyboarding tool to facilitate the cultural adaptation of digital programs to extend their use across multiple cultural groups. We use as an example our process of culturally adapting JMGC to create the JMGC-JA and JMGC-SA (Simenec et al., 2022). Download the blueprint storyboard here. Click here to request a consultation on culturally adapting your intervention!
Original In-Person JUS Media? Programme Workshop – Jamaican Islander Version
JUS Media? Global Classroom – Jamaican Islander Version (JMGC-JI)
JUS Media? Global Classroom – Somali American Version (JMGC-SA)
JUS Media? Global Classroom – Jamaican American Version (JMGC-JA)