Assessing the media literacy of adolescents in information search and multimedia creation
(2019) IAMCR 2019: Communication, Technology and Human Dignity — Location: Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Madrid (Espagne) (7.July.2019)
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- Abstract
- In this presentation, we report on the first results of an international study (2018-2022) on the assessment of the media literacy of teenagers related to online information search and multimedia creation, in the French-speaking community of Belgium (Université catholique de Louvain, our team), Québec (Université du Québec à Montréal), France (Université de Rouen) and Switzerland (Université de Genève). We consider media literacy as a set of competencies. Competencies involve “a personal ability to adapt oneself to novel situations in new and non-stereotypical ways” (Rey, Carette, Defrance, & Kahn, 2012, p. 13) that exceeds the mere acquisition and mastery of knowledge and skills, and includes the contextual selection and combination of the most relevant among them in complex situations. Our theoretical framework draws on prior work to distinguish between competencies pertaining to the semiotic, technical and social dimensions (Fastrez, 2010; Fastrez & De Smedt, 2012) of information search and multimedia creation. Additionally, we examine the relationship between the level of media literacy of individuals and their dispositions towards self-learning (Carré, 2005; Grasset, 2016). Our work combines different types of instruments that have traditionally been used separately. On the one hand, cognitive approaches to media and digital literacy tend to measure knowledge and skills through standardized tests (Gui & Argentin, 2011; Mittermeyer, 2004; Thirion & Pochet, 2008; van Deursen & van Dijk, 2010) and self-assessments (Literat, 2014; van Deursen, Helsper, & Eynon, 2015), which do not account for how individuals mobilize their knowledge and skills in the context of novel situations. On the other hand, critical-cultural approaches have focused on the qualitative description of situated media practices (e.g. (Aillerie, 2011; Coutant & Domenget, 2014)), which lack generalizability, and seldom make the leap from practice description to competence assessment (Litt, 2013; Martens, 2010). Our project is structured in three cumulative phases on three different samples. Phase 1 (2018-2019) includes a survey of information search and multimedia creation practices, the assorted self-assessed competencies, and dispositions towards self-learning. Phase 2 (2019-2020) will combine the survey with a test including simple tasks requiring predetermined bits of knowledge or skills, and a complex task (producing an explanatory website summarizing a web search) drawing on their knowledge and skills. Phase 3 (2020-2021) will add qualitative interviews with a subsample of respondents to the survey and test. Data collection for Phase 1 (self-reported competencies and practices, dispositions towards self-learning) is underway with a large sample (N=2000 in each country) of 13 to 15-year-old adolescents, and will be completed in May 2019. Our presentation will focus on the first results concerning the relationship between self-assessed competencies and declared practices, as well as on the relationship between self-assessed competencies and declarations toward self-learning items. A correlation between perceived media literacy and perceived self-learning would cast a light on media education and education towards learning to learn in autonomy as being potentially mutually beneficial. More generally, the project will produce a multifaceted model of media literacy articulating its elementary levels (knowledge and skills) with its advanced levels (competencies), and a multilevel measurement method that could be adapted to other age groups and media activity domains. The results will also inform media education public policies, by identifying how to reduce media competencies gaps.
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Bihl, J., & Fastrez, P. (2019). Assessing the media literacy of adolescents in information search and multimedia creation. IAMCR 2019: Communication, Technology and Human Dignity, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Madrid (Espagne). https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/216661