The NJCASA curriculum aims to use media literacy to address sexual violence and harmful gender norms. It consists of 8 hour-long sessions that analyze how media portrays gender and violence. Sessions include introducing media literacy, examining how media creates gender norms and attitudes towards violence, and having students create their own media. The curriculum seeks to promote healthy relationships and challenge social norms by teaching critical analysis of mainstream media and alternatives. While largely comprehensive, the curriculum could more fully discuss gender identity and sexuality to be fully inclusive.

1. NJCASA: A Media Literacy Curriculum to Address Sexual Violence and Harassment
Overview and Analysis by Dianna Carlson
Considering that media is seen and experienced everywhere, it is about time that we use its persuasive ability to
shape social norms. That is to say, instead of promoting the latest videogame, society could benefit from promoting
healthy relationships and challenging current social norms with positive, non-violent media. This is the idea behind media
literacy which “is the ability to think critically about what we see every day and create alternatives to mass media:
(Prevention). Informed by the EMPOWER (Enhancing and Making Programs and Outcomes Work to End Rape) project,
the New Mexico Media Literacy Project partnered with NJCASA to develop a media literacy education curriculum to
address sexual violence called “Gender and Violence: How Media Shape Our Culture.”
There are eight separate sessions which are each an hour long: Introduction to Media Literacy, Gender, Media
Creating Fantasy: Media Creating Gender, Media Creating Fantasy: Attitudes Towards Violence in Media, Media
Creating Fantasy: Attitudes Towards Real-Life Violence in the Media, Taking Action!: Becoming Proactive Media
Consumers, Reconstruction, and Wrap-up which is an optional session (NJCASA 5-7). Structured so that it can be easily
recreated, the curriculum also allows a margin of variability for the range of maturity levels which a facilitator may
encounter. Although this “comprehensive prevention plan [was developed to be] specific to New Jersey,” (NJCASA 2) it
is seemingly applicable to any state. This curriculum is aimed at youth between eighth and ninth grade as well as college
aged adults due to the fact that younger generations spend, on average, eight hours a day interacting with media (NJCASA
1). NJCASA utilizes the public health model and principles of social justice through eight sessions of interacting with
media and organized discussion which will challenge the current messages being sent out by media and allow the
opportunity to create their own media and new norms that reflect their lived experiences and hopes for the future
(NJCASA 3). First established in 2010, this curriculum has been expanded upon to support sustainability and ongoing
community engagement which is evident in the later sessions where the youth create new media (NJCASA 58) and learn
how to become active bystanders (NJCASA 53).
The reach, goals, process and outcome evaluations, social ecologies, and risk and protective factors are clearly
explained to “reflect the needs and realities of the communities they serve and engage” (NJCASA 4). There are many
strong features present in this curriculum but there are areas for improvement as well. The curriculum calls for repetition
of the guidelines for creating a safe space at the beginning of every session; the reiteration of which holds all participants
accountable throughout each session and is thus, invaluable to the process and the outcome (NJCASA 22). The notion of
dosage regarding the time allotted for each session is well scripted but the time between each session is not as transparent-
will the sessions occur once every week, biweekly, or once a month? It is therefore unclear how sustainability will be
supported in this updated version if the dates of the sessions are too close together or too far apart. Coordinating a
schedule with each school prior to the beginning of the school year may ensure efficient dosage and support sustainability
and thereby make these challenges negligible. The curriculum is mindful of process and outcome evaluation and
accordingly provides numerous measures for ensuring desirable results throughout the sessions. For example, facilitators
are equipped with reflection sheets following every session to evaluate the process and outcome and better the results for
future sessions. Recommendations and modifications of the activities and media examples are also presented to assist
facilitators in “alleviat[ing] lulls in discussion and facilitator anxiety” (NJCASA 8) in order to maintain the level of
understanding and keep everyone on task. Facilitators are even given specific questions to use to address the media

2. samples so that they may be aware of their own background and biases in leading the discussions which then strengthens
the opportunity for the participants to be able to recognize and confront their own perspectives regarding the example of
media.
The curriculum presents definitions of sex and gender and distinguishes the differences between intersex and
transgender but the session on gender lacks inclusive terminology. Gender is defined as “the combination of social and
cultural messages we get about what it means to ‘be’ a girl or boy. For example, girls have a vagina, dress a certain way,
and are not as aggressive as boys” (NJCASA 22). There is also no mention of gender identity, especially of non-binary
identities such as bi-gender, gender-fluid, gender-queer, or non-gender conforming identity until the discussion section
four pages later and the discussion is not centered on that aspect until the next session. Without defining gender identity
early in the conversation, the participants may assume that gender is inherently feminine and female or masculine and
male even though this is one of the stereotypes the curriculum is working to change. The notion of assigning gender at
birth is briefly touched upon when dissecting the association of the colors pink and blue with baby girls and boys.
However, merely asking “does sex determine a person’s gender?” (NJCASA 23) is not enough to make the distinction
clear that society assumes a baby’s gender aligns with their sex at birth. Thus, a facilitator may avoid such issues by
defining gender identity and its variability before discussing stereotypes.
The purpose of this curriculum is to remove assumptions of gender through the recognition of gender as a social
construct so as to prevent sexual violence. In the instructions for the Gender session, there is an option of asking
participants to bring in examples of how gender is portrayed in media; showcasing “women and girls in gender
conforming and non-conforming ways. The same should be done for men and boys” (NJCASA 21). Deconstructing the
gender binary is crucial in the effort to combat gender violence; the activities within this curriculum illustrate this vital
work by critiquing media depictions of gender, reimagining what it means to be a woman or man, and recognizing when
certain identities are not represented. By beginning the discussion reviewing conformity to binary gender roles, facilitators
can help in expanding beyond the binary to discuss the disregard of those who do not conform. The intersectionality of
race, sexual orientation, and gender identity in the media is addressed among the optional activities in sessions two and
three (NJCASA 27-8, 33-4); including those intersectional activities would exceed the hour limit and the choice of which
activities to include is significant in the overall scheme of evaluation. Adopting more inclusive terminology and opening a
safe space to discuss non-binary and other marginalized individuals means that marginalized groups are not left out of the
discussion in the way they are often left out of media.
“Gender and Violence: How Media Shape Our Culture aims to promote community support and connectedness
through group activities, dialogue, and partnership-building between sexual violence programs and local community
organizations and youth. Session Six’s emphasis on individual action and participation is the primary venue for this work;
participants are given space to practice challenging media depictions of gender and gender-based violence” (NJCASA 4).
In challenging media, this curriculum identifies protective factors such as the “promotion of healthy sexuality (when
sexuality is discussed), providing alternatives to traditional/hyper masculinity, [and] providing alternatives to dominant
gender roles” (NJCASA 4). Facilitators could strengthen the promotion of healthy sexuality by including this protective
factor during the activities regarding sexual orientation and gender identity or by using the eighth session to address all the
protective factors and other nuances within the article, It’s difficult to know what a facilitator will feel comfortable
discussing or deem important to discuss beyond what has been outlined, but NJCASA has designed a detailed curriculum

3. which works to take all of these aspects into consideration while still allowing adaptability based on the participants. By
learning how to be conscious of the media around us and the media we consume and creating our own media, this
curriculum helps to impact gender norms away from hyper masculinity and violence towards mutual respect and the
freedom of expression.
The curriculum can be downloaded using the following link: http://njcasa.org/media-literacy/
References
New Jersey Coalition Against Sexual Assault [NJCASA]. (2015). Gender and Violence: How Media Shape Our
Culture. Lawrenceville, NJ: New Jersey Coalition Against Sexual Assault.
“Prevention Will Help Create a Safe and More Respectful New Jersey.” NJ Coalition Against Sexual Assault: Prevention.
NJCASA, 2015. Web. 30 Oct. 2015.