A Study on the Perceived Media Literacy Level of Preparatory Year Students in a University Setting

A Study on the Perceived Media Literacy Level of Preparatory Year Students in a University Setting

Media literacy is defined as the ability to encode and decode the symbols transmitted viamedia and to synthesize, analyze and produce mediated messages. Media literacy raisesquestions about the impact of media and technology, which has the potential to increaseindividuals’ awareness about the effects of media on daily life. The aim of media literacy isto help students become competent, critical and literate in media forms because they needto interpret what they see or hear and prevent the interpretation from controlling them.Therefore, perceptions of students about their media literacy is a topic that requiresattention at various education levels. The present study aimed to identify preparatory yearprogram students’ self-perceptions about media literacy and to explore whether theybenefited from mass media in learning a foreign language, English in this context. Data werecollected using Media Literacy Level Determination Scale developed by Karatas (2008).Open-ended questions that aimed to reveal students’ perceptions of media literacy wereasked with a view to supporting the data obtained from the scale. Both data collection toolsalso aimed to find out the factors associated with media literacy. The findings of the studyare believed to open a perspective for the stakeholders in language teaching process byproviding insight into the university students’ stance towards media literacy.

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