Media, marketing and critical health literacy: WACE Year 12 Health Studies Unit 4
“Analyse how media and marketing influence health behaviour and apply critical health literacy to evaluate health messages”
Media and marketing shape health behaviour by promoting products, normalising lifestyles and setting body and beauty ideals, through advertising, social media, influencers and product placement. Some of this supports health (campaigns, accurate information) but much of it pushes unhealthy products and unrealistic ideals for profit. Critical health literacy is the skill of analysing these messages, spotting persuasion and bias, and deciding what to trust. WACE wants you to analyse the influence and apply critical literacy to evaluate a message.
What this dot point is asking
WACE expects you to explain how media influence actually works and then show the consumer skill that counters it. A strong answer identifies the technique used in the message, explains its effect on behaviour, and applies critical health literacy to evaluate and respond to it. Marks reward this applied analysis tied to the stimulus.
How media and marketing influence health behaviour
Marketing is designed to change behaviour, usually to sell a product. Techniques include emotional appeals, celebrity and influencer endorsement, associating a product with happiness, attractiveness or belonging, repetition that builds familiarity, and targeting specific audiences such as young people. Social media adds personalised advertising, influencer content that blurs the line between opinion and paid promotion, and constant exposure to curated, edited images.
These techniques shape health in several ways. They drive consumption of energy-dense food, sugary drinks, alcohol and, in some markets, tobacco and vaping products. They set body and lifestyle ideals that can harm body image, self-esteem and eating behaviour, particularly among young people. They normalise behaviours by making them appear common and desirable. In a globalised media environment, these messages reach almost everywhere, which is why this links to globalisation and health.
The deepest influence of marketing is not a single advertisement but the steady normalising of behaviours and ideals. Repeated images of drinking as fun, of edited bodies as standard, or of fast food as everyday make those things feel normal and expected. A critical consumer learns to notice this background influence, not only the obvious sales pitch, because the normalising effect shapes behaviour more powerfully than any one advertisement.
Positive uses of media
Media is not only a threat to health. Public health campaigns use the same channels to spread accurate prevention messages, reach large audiences quickly and shift social norms in healthy directions, such as anti-smoking or sun-safety campaigns. Reliable health information is widely available online. The challenge for the consumer is telling helpful, evidence-based content apart from persuasive marketing, which is exactly what critical health literacy provides.
Applying critical health literacy
Critical health literacy is the appraisal and action level of health literacy applied to media. A critical consumer asks who created the message and why, whether the creator is selling something or has a conflict of interest, whether the claim is supported by evidence, what technique is being used to persuade, and whether the image or lifestyle shown is realistic. Having appraised the message, the consumer decides whether to act, seeks a reliable source if unsure, and can recognise and resist manipulation. At its highest level, critical literacy also drives action on the conditions, such as supporting regulation of harmful advertising to children.
How this maps to the exam
Expect a stimulus containing an advertisement, social media post or campaign. Identify the technique used and analyse its likely effect on health behaviour. Then apply critical health literacy to evaluate the message, judging its reliability and intent and explaining how a critical consumer would respond.
The marks come from moving past describing the message to analysing the technique and applying the consumer skill. Work a stimulus through these stages.
Name the technique, not just the content
For an influencer post promoting a "fat-burning" tea: name the techniques (influencer endorsement, an edited aspirational image, a discount code creating urgency) rather than describing what is shown.
Analyse the effect on behaviour
Explain the influence: the endorsement borrows the influencer's trust, the edited body sets an unrealistic ideal, and the code pressures an impulse purchase, so a young follower may buy a product with no evidence behind it.
Apply the critical-literacy questions
Run the appraisal: who made it (a paid promoter), why (to sell), is there evidence (no, just a testimonial), is the image realistic (edited). State each judgement.
Decide and act
Conclude with the response: a critical consumer distrusts the claim, checks an independent source, and does not buy on the strength of the post. At the highest level they support regulation of unhealthy advertising to young people. Analysing then appraising then acting is the full-mark sequence.
Students often describe what an advertisement shows but do not appraise it. The marks come from analysing the persuasion technique, judging the source and intent, and explaining how a critical consumer evaluates and responds. Move from describing the message to evaluating it.
Exam-style questions
Questions in the style of SCSA exam questions on this dot point, each with a worked answer. They are written by ExamExplained unless tagged "Past paper"; the year shows the paper a question is modelled on.
WACE 2022-style6 marksAnalyse how social media and influencer marketing can influence the health behaviour of young people, and explain how critical health literacy helps them respond.Show worked answer →
A 6 mark response needs techniques analysed, their effect, and the critical literacy response.
- Analyse the techniques
- Influencer endorsement blurs opinion and paid promotion; personalised advertising and constant exposure to curated, edited images normalise products and body ideals; repetition builds familiarity and a sense that a behaviour is standard.
- Explain the effect
- These drive consumption of products (energy drinks, vapes, supplements) and set unrealistic body and lifestyle ideals that can harm body image, self-esteem and eating behaviour, especially in young people.
- Critical health literacy response
- A critical consumer asks who made the message and why, whether it is paid, whether claims have evidence, and whether the image is realistic, then decides whether to trust or act and seeks a reliable source if unsure.
Markers reward named techniques, their behavioural effect, and an applied critical-literacy response rather than description alone.
WACE 2023-style4 marksExplain why marketing's normalising of behaviours can influence health more than a single advertisement.Show worked answer →
A 4 mark response needs the normalising mechanism and why it is powerful.
Mechanism. Repeated images (drinking as fun, edited bodies as standard, fast food as everyday) make behaviours and ideals feel normal and expected, working in the background rather than as an obvious sales pitch.
Why more powerful. Because it shapes what people assume is normal over time, it influences behaviour more deeply than any one advertisement, and it is harder to notice and resist.
Markers reward the normalising mechanism and a clear reason it outweighs a single ad.