Media Literacy Interventions to Facilitate Positive Body Image and Embodiment

This chapter explores the media literacy approach to body image and eating disorder risk reduction through a positive body image and embodiment lens. While most media literacy research in the field to date has focused on reducing eating disorder risk factors, available evidence is discussed for how media literacy programs can impact the physical, mental, and social power domains relevant to the developmental theory of embodiment. The media literacy approach appears well suited to investigations of positive body image and embodiment. While media literacy primarily focuses on reducing the perceived importance of appearance and weight, the mechanism by which this is achieved needs further exploration where it is likely that such “positive” features play an important part.