The CDC Foundation created media literacy resources for parents to counter false and misleading information on school-related topics.

Since May 2021, the CDC Foundation has been working with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to support youth mental health and well-being through family engagement, providing opportunities to hear directly from parents and caregivers about their perspectives and attitudes on matters that may impact their child’s school experiences. In 2023, the CDC Foundation developed a set of social media resources to support improved media literacy skills for parents, enabling them to be better consumers of online information on issues related to their child’s education, mental health, and well-being. 

The CDC Foundation was interested in sharing these social media resources and understanding how parents and caregivers of school-age children responded to these materials. 

NORC helped the CDC Foundation disseminate and evaluate materials for their media literacy communication initiative.

NORC provided expert communication support for dissemination:

• We developed 508-compliant guides in English and Spanish with step-by-step instructions for parents, caregivers, and community organizations to download and share media literacy materials in their communities through different channels such as social media posts and video public service announcements.
• We promoted the CDC Foundation’s initiative webpage through pilot paid social media ads targeted to key audiences. The geo-targeted ads ran during Mental Health Awareness Month in May 2024 on Facebook, LinkedIn, and X (formerly Twitter).
• We also designed an evaluation of the media literacy materials that included a series of focus group discussions with parents and caregivers of K-12 public school students to gather feedback on the acceptability of the materials, knowledge gained from viewing the materials, and the potential for future behavior change based on this knowledge.