Digital Media Literacy Research Articles

Social Media Literacy to Confront Far-Right Content: Saying “No” to Neutrality

Current conceptualizations of media literacy do not explicitly state that users should be able to identify and reject hateful, manipulative far-right content. We highlight important principles of relational developmental systems metatheory that are integral to our proposed model of anti-oppressive social media literacy. We critique current theories of digital media literacy for their political neutrality or lack of active opposition and offer a value- and action-based anti-oppressive framework for social media literacy in pursuit of social justice. We propose a model of anti-oppressive social media literacy in which we outline three potential orientation outcomes: rejection, endorsement, and ambivalence. We describe the implications and potential developmental pathways of each of these orientations in response to far-right content. We also highlight multiple layers of bidirectional mutually influential individual-context relations that may influence the development of social media users’ orientation to far-right content online. In conclusion, we discuss strengths, limitations and future directions for studying our proposed theory of anti-oppressive social media literacy.

Social Media Text Meaning: Cultural Information Consumption

As a doorway to information, social media allows a diverse range of media consumers to read a text message and comprehend the meaning of a social media text. Media users might bring up cultural consumption due to the 24-hour flow of information through social media. The fundamental issue in this situation is how media consumers interpret social media content. This research investigates the significance of social media texts, which give rise to cultural information consumption. The issue is the type of cultural consumption and how readers consume it. The data was collected through a questionnaire disseminated online to social media users, and the technique employed was media semiotics. According to the findings of this study, media users who have roles as readers, publishers, and creators of social media texts have a greater propensity to consume information and the means to actualize themselves as active media users. The increased reading interest in varied details leads to the usage of various social media texts and has created possible issues with the meaning of text messages between users. This study speaks to the necessity of a more incredible culture in digital media literacy.

DIGITAL MEDIA LITERACY AND FAKE NEWS AWARENESS AMONG DIGITAL IMMIGRANTS OF TIRUNELVELI DISTRICT

The advancement of technologies and the effect of globalization make our world into a small village. This effect has also undergone significant changes in the media. It is made available to everyone around the world without any limitations. As a result, the mass media experienced tremendous growth. It takes a lot of time of ours with itself. And also, it has vast content to explore. We can get a million results on the tab with one click on the internet. So, it is called "information overload." Because of this, it will quickly change our thoughts and actions until we do not get the desired results. The only way to solve this problem is to educate the public on using digital media effectively. That means, “Digital Media Literacy”. Some countries, like India, have a greater need for it than others. This is due to their dismal showing on a global proficiency index with digital media. However, not everybody was independently proficient in digital media. Economic, political, or geographical reasons all have a role in creating this chasm. Consequences include an increase in cybercrime and the proliferation of disinformation. These things have a significant bearing on our culture. Governments like India struggle to address these socioeconomic problems. It directly impacts people and completely upends their lives. Therefore, it is necessary to explore the connection between digital media literacy and the dissemination of fake news. Consequently, the purpose of this study is to analyse the issue by employing the quantitative research method. The data for the study will be collected using Survey Method in the Tirunelveli District of Tamil Nadu State.

Measuring Digital Literacy in Sidoarjo Regency

Digital communication has replaced reading and writing as the primary forms of communication due to the Internet and social media use. In addition, it is critical to comprehend and use digital literacy in a field because of the expanding potential of information and communication technologies. This study aims to evaluate and clarify the level of digital media literacy among residents of the Sidoarjo Regency, describing how digital literacy differs at each level of education and calculating the Sidoarjo Regency's digital literacy index. A sample of 278 respondents for this quantitative descriptive study was selected using the cluster random selection technique. The questionnaires for this survey were distributed using the social media platform, WhatsApp. It consists of eight components of digital literacy, namely the ability to find, select and analyze information; effective communication skills; collaboration capabilities; digital presence capabilities; critical and evaluative thinking skills; creativity ability; the ability to effective practical skills; and cultural, social and ethical abilities. The results of the study show that digital literacy abilities in Sidoarjo Regency based on education vary. Digital literacy skills with junior high school education have an index of 76.35. Those with high school education have a digital literacy index of 79.19. Then those with a Bachelor's degree education have a digital literacy index of 81.17. In general, the digital literacy index for Sidoarjo Regency is 80.83. In digital literacy, the people of Sidoarjo Regency can think critically and evaluatively. The index on this ability is 84.66.
 

Digital Media Literacy Strategy for the Information Disruption Era in Improving the Communication Ethics of the Yogyakarta Community

Social media users in Indonesia continue to increase. In 2022, active users of social media in Indonesia according to the research from Hootsuite reach 191,4 million people, increased by 12,6% from 2021. According to the research from Microsoft in 2020, Indonesian Netizen’s digital politeness is in ranked 29th of the 32 countries. To deal with disruption of information, good digital literacy is needed. According to research results from the Ministry of Communication and Informatics in 2021 and 2022, province that has highest digital literacy rate in Indonesia is the Special Region of Yogyakarta. Therefore, researcher choose that as a research subject. This research aim to know literacy media digital Strategy of Communication and Informatics Office of the Special Region of Yogyakarta to increase communication ethics of people, reviewed from the aspect of accessing, evaluating, and producing content. The research method used is qualitative. The results of this study are that the Communication and Informatics Office of the Special Region of Yogyakarta has awareness, responsibility, integrity or honesty, and benevolence in accessing, evaluating, and producing content. Implementation of the Strategy for the Communication and Informatics Office of the Special Region of Yogyakarta is through the Positive Content Dissemination Program, Education through Digital Media, Digitization Training, and Short Film.

우리나라 중·고등학생의 디지털 미디어 리터러시 인식 연구

The Korea 2022 National Curriculum emphasize language literacy and digital literacy in preparation for the digital transition and increased social uncertainty. The purpose of the new curriculum is in line with the international community’s emphasis on digital media literacy. In the future when technology such as ChatGPT has become widespread, literacy based on digital technology will become increasingly important. Therefore, this study empirically explores the current middle and high school students’ perceptions of the components of digital media literacy. In the “Korean Language”, “Common Korean Language 1, 2,” and “Media Communication” segments of the 2022 revised Korean Language Curriculum. In addition, it is intended to provide basic information for digital media literacy classes considering the level and characteristics of learners.
 A test tool with 16 cognitive components and 10 affective components of digital media literacy was created, and students’ responses were collected. The overall average value was 3.5 points or higher, indicating a positive perception of digital media literacy.
 This analysis established the following. First, classes and evaluations involving digital familiarity are needed. Second, digital media challenges with clear goals and objectives should be presented. Third, classes and evaluations of the critical judgement of information are needed. Fourth, sufficient time should be provided for information sharing and communication through digital media.

Hubungan Literasi Digital Perempuan Dalam Media Online Untuk Antisipasi Fenomena Kekerasan Dalam Rumah Tangga (Kdrt)

The era of media convergence makes life easier with the adoption of knowledge through online media. In addition to obtaining various information, online media also has a significant contribution in changing the behavior of its users in responding to a phenomenon in everyday life. Especially women whose roles in this era of media convergence are increasingly complex. He not only acts as the head of the household, but sometimes his role is also as the head of the family to make a basic living or just as a breadwinner to support household life. In addition, responding to the phenomenon of domestic violence that is often found in the news, makes women try to also contribute to maintaining the integrity of their household by minimizing this phenomenon in their family. Various efforts have been made, one of which is to increase understanding of domestic violence itself. Through digital literacy, it is hoped that apart from having their own understanding of domestic violence, they can also share this information with their own environment and family. So you can anticipate it if it hasn't happened yet, and minimize it if it does happen without realizing it.The phenomenon of women in the category of always doing digital literacy in using online media is 66.93%. This is almost entirely dominated by women empowerment activists in RW XIII Pucang Gading Housing. Where besides having activities outside the home as an employee, educator, NGO member, businessman, doctor and so on, they are also very responsive to the importance of gender equality in running a household life. While the results of research to adopt knowledge and understanding of digital literacy regarding steps that can be anticipated to minimize the phenomenon of domestic violence obtained results of 61.66%. One of them is that women must also be economically independent and have positive activities in order to increase welfare for the family. Thus, respect arises from the partner to put more effort into efforts to achieve in activities to seek economic sufficiency for the needs of the family which is increasing from time to time. In this study, the final results showed that there was a positive relationship between online digital media literacy and the phenomenon of domestic violence by 58.12% of respondents who had high digital literacy in online media also had a household life that was quite harmonious, far from the various categories that caused the phenomenon of domestic violence.
 

“My Little Influencer”

“My Little Influencer”

Does Social Media Use Mitigate or Exacerbate Loneliness among Korean Older Adults? Focusing on the Moderating Role of Media Literacy

As older adult populations rapidly increase worldwide, loneliness among older adults is emerging as a societal burden. Whether social media use can increase or decrease older adults’ loneliness remains debated in the literature. The purpose of this study is to clarify the effect of social media use on loneliness among older adults by examining the moderating role of media literacy on the relationship between social media use and loneliness. Considering that Korea is facing the most rapid population aging among Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries and that two-thirds of Korean older adults use social media, Korean data can provide international insights into the impact of social media use on older adults. Responses from 554 Korean respondents aged 60 to 79, extracted from the 2021 Korea Media Panel Survey, were analyzed using the PROCESS Macro Model 1. The results of this study showed that the effect of social media use on loneliness among older adults was moderated by their level of media literacy. As the amount of time spent using social media increased, loneliness increased for respondents with low-to-middle media literacy. This study’s findings emphasize the importance of educational interventions to increase older adults’ digital media literacy and expand scholarly understanding of the impact of social media use in non-Western countries.

Egyptian university students’ smartphone addiction and their digital media literacy level

This study examined the correlation between Egyptian university students’ smartphone addiction and digital media literacy. Data were gathered from a sample of 558 students enrolled at Minia University, aged 18-22, using an online questionnaire. Results revealed a significant positive correlation between smartphone overuse and digital media literacy levels. Moreover, it was found that university students obtained higher scores on the smartphone addiction scale, and social networking applications (e.g., WhatsApp, Instagram, and TikTok). Also, it was found that smartphone gaming, learning, and entertainment apps increase the likelihood of smartphone addiction and boost digital media literacy levels. These findings suggest that smartphone addiction may have positive effects on young adults; so, smartphone use should be oriented to benefit mobile users.

MATRIX OF DEPENDENCE, POSTCOLONIALISM, AND SOCIAL MEDIA REGULATION IN AN AFRICAN CONTEXT

This paper considers the relation of dependence that defines the practice of social media and internet content regulation in an African context. With social media regulation in Nigeria as a case study, it gives attention to debates drawn from postcolonial thinking, structural imperialism, and platform power, presenting new research on the concept of the matrix of dependence. To do this, I gather data by interviewing 19 stakeholders on what they perceive as credible alternatives to social media regulation in Nigeria, given their opposition to the proposed formal approach represented by the 2019 Internet Falsehood Bill. Analysis was done using Braun and Clarke’s (2021) reflexive thematic analysis. Findings point to four alternatives/themes: copying Western nations, platform self-regulation, governance built on trust, and digital media literacy. I expand on these findings to show that underlying each suggested alternative is the notion of subalternity under which Nigeria functions as it pertains to new media governance. I further argue that this construct can be applied to the wider African continent, suggesting that postcolonialism shapes the use and regulation of new media technologies in what can be understood as the matrix of dependence.

Effects of digital media literacy course on primary school students’ digital media literacy: an experimental study

Effects of digital media literacy course on primary school students’ digital media literacy: an experimental study

The Effect of Health Communication on Reader Attitudes with Digital Media Literacy Antecedents

The Coronavirus pandemic in Indonesia is increasing daily. Unfortunately, the implementation of lockdown is not enforced in some areas. Meanwhile, in these current pandemic conditions, health communication is needed. This research describes health communication concepts, readers’ attitudes, and digital media literacy. Furthermore, the digital media literacy antecedent focuses on understanding attitudes in handling hoax information and people infected with Coronavirus. A quantitative approach with the forecasting method was used in this research. It showed that Health Communication has a linear regression value of 0.49 with a significance of 0.000 on the reader's attitude variables. There is an influence between health communications on the reader's attitudes. Likewise, digital media has a regression result of 0.51 with a significant value of 0.000 on reader's attitudes indicating that digital media influences reader's attitudes. Subsequently, developing digital media literacy and reader attitudes in health communication is important. It is hoped that future research will be able to elaborate on health communication and digital media literacy in the wider community and use adapted methods.

Digital Media Literacy and Their Role at Elderly Live (Studies Phenomenology at Yang-Eyang School Community at Jember)

This exploratory descriptive phenomenological research aims to understasnd how an elderly person has an understanding of digital media and experiences when using it through theoretical perspectives, concepts, and indicators of digital literacy. Furthermore, this research also explores how to deal with intergenerational communication that occurs between the elderly and children in the context of parenting in the digital media era. Research shows that the elderly have a fairly good, critical, balanced level of understanding about the positive and negative impacts of the internet for their self and their children. Most of the elderly are able to use digital media in their daily lives to communicate, and some others can use digital media to create content. Yang-Eyang also take action to guide the elderly for apply parenting patterns that are adapted to the world of children to build intimacy. Even so, the elderly also implement several strategies to regulate children's use of digital media that run by Yang-Eyang Community.

The Need for Tobacco-Related Interventions to Incorporate Digital Media Literacy

This Viewpoint discusses the need for health promotion programs and interventions to bolster tobacco-related digital media literacy among adolescents, young adults, parents, teachers, and public health organizations.

Redefining communication standards in academia and society: The role of media competences and respectful engagement

The Covid-19 pandemic had a positive impact on the accelerated development of the digital capabilities of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) so that they can react adequately to cyber attacks or to the manifestation of negative phenomena we foresee such as the attack on scientific thinking, aggression on digital media and a distortion of public discourse through conspiracy narratives, fake news and hate speech. etc. In recent years, there has been a jump in the level of digital media literacy of university staff and students, which has led to a change in the way internal and external communication is carried out (university - civil society). Behavioral changes in communication were accompanied by the awareness of ethical aspects and regarding the content of the messages conveyed, but also a redesign of the curriculum in the field of communication and academic ethics. This article presents the set of open educational resources created on topics such as democracy and inclusive democratic participation, media literacy and the fight against disinformation and the prevention of aggression in the context of the implementation of the RespectNET project "Respectful communication through the media education network" (Erasmus + project, 2021-1-IT02-KA220-HED-000027578, https://respectnet.eu/). The main objective of the paper is to present the impact of RespectNET resources created at the level of HEIs that were intended to provide reliable educational resources for the formation of critical media and communication skills of university members and civil society activists.

Civic action on social media: fostering digital media literacy and epistemic cognition in the classroom

Social media has become a dominant force in civic life amid widespread concerns about its role in political polarisation and in the spread of misinformation. To prepare citizens to take on these challenges, we need civic education that teaches youth to be capable and responsible consumers, conveyors and producers of online information. To do so, teachers must position students as epistemic agents, fostering the skills they need to engage with online information. In this article, we present the first iteration of a design-based research project on social media and civic action. The project prepares high school students in rural, urban and suburban settings located in Northern California (USA) to engage with issues that resonate with them, to critically examine information about these issues from online sources and to use social media as a vehicle to connect with, inform and mobilise the public. We present the basic design principles that teachers have used to support apt epistemic performance, focusing on the epistemic aims (creating knowledge products that inspire civic action), ideals (taking personal responsibility for the accuracy of information when posting) and reliable processes (sourcing, fact checking and correctly representing information) embedded in their units of instruction. Drawing on teacher interviews and curriculum, we explore the affordances of the curriculum to promote civic action by leveraging student engagement in social media, while also challenging them to critically examine how knowledge is produced and disseminated on social media. We conclude with a discussion of how this work intersects with the aims and methods of social pedagogy.

Online Behavioral Advertising: Do Awareness and Privacy Concerns Protect the Users

The Internet is subjugated by free web services that use advertising and other marketing tools for revenue generation. Targeted online advertising is among most extensively used tactic by these websites in which selective advertisements are displayed based on user’s browsing behavior, socio-demographics, and interests. This trend has raised concerns due to the serious threats to the privacy. The main objectives of this study were to investigate the association between awareness regarding Online Behavioral Advertising (OBA) and Privacy Concerns among Users, the effect of awareness on buying behavior and to seek knowledge gap regarding awareness of OBA between socioeconomic segments. Data was collected via online survey (N=300). Findings confirmed a strong relationship between level of awareness regarding OBA, privacy concerns and effects of this association on attitudes and buying behavior of users (N=300, p < 0.05). Similarly, difference in awareness levels of users belonging to middle and upper-middle class was also found that confirmed the prevailing knowledge gap in the society (N=300,p< 0.05). The study highlights the need to design of recommends the academia to priotize digital media literacy of the users and policy makers in designing strategy related to privacy protection

Xenophobic violence in South Africa, online disinformation and offline consequences

ABSTRACT Despite the paucity of evidence determining the aptitude of malicious online content to influence people to resort to violence, social media is fast becoming one of the catalysts of contemporary xenophobic narratives. Malicious contents in the form of fake news and hate speech are increasingly contributing to enflame online and offline tensions and violence. Focusing on September 2019 anti-foreigner violence in South Africa, this paper aims to assess the way misleading online content migrates into real-word attitudes and actions such as anti-migrant violence, reprisals, and counterviolence actions. Based data collected online and group discussions with young Africans in two African countries after the September 2019 outbreak of violence, our findings indicate a consistent positive association between exposition of young Africans across the continent to online content on violence in South Africa and their resentment against South Africans. Nevertheless, our findings could not establish a strong positive correlation between exposition to fake news and outbreak of violence. It is then not sure if messages shared on social media resort to violent offline actions. Taking the example of South Africa, our discussion assessed the propagation of deceitful content via social media, as a strategy for actors (community and political leaders) to advance ideas and social positions in the struggle for livelihood, identity, and sovereignty. The paper concludes that investing in digital media literacy could contribute to reduce the belief in online disinformation and the migration of emotions they create, into offline attitudinal and behavioural actions.

The Importance of Informative Interventions in a Wicked Environment

The Importance of Informative Interventions in a Wicked Environment