Media Literacy of Schoolchildren in a Post-Transitive Society: Study Results

Abstract

Topicality. The current study is based on the research «Media Consumption among schoolchildren: Information Age and Socialization of Children in a Post-Transition Society» (Faculty of Journalism, 2013-2016). The research shows how parents and teachers understand the effects media have on their children. The study describes how Russian children of school age use different sources of information nowadays and why they use them. It also analyzes the role and place of traditional mass media in children’s life, looks into the level of their immersion into the information environment. The authors discuss if the society needs accurate and relevant information in order to improve the approach to these processes, and to develop media content strategies that meet the needs of children’s socialization. Objective. The study determines the degree, to which different groups of school children are immersed in various information environments, types of social media they use and the role of older generations in children’s media consumption. Design. In this work, in-depth interviews with respondents are used as the main method of study. The interviews include questions regarding the following issues: family traditions of media consumption, children and mass media, new media and traditional media. Interviews with teachers included a block of questions dedicated to media education problems. These interviews were conducted in five Russian cities: Uglich, Yakutsk, Perm, Kaliningrad and Moscow. The respondents included 104 parents and 78 teachers. Results. The current research doesn’t underestimate the use of the mass media for children of school age. Still, there is no universal strategy of mass media's integration into the educational process. Conclusion. The results are quite contradictory. Parents argue that their children need mass media to analyze the reality and to get new knowledge, but their practical use of the media is focused primarily on entertainment. Talking about the control, parents often mention restraining measures. This points to a problem of digital divide between generations, as well as highlights the instability of the Russian media system, which produces content of quite poor quality.