Priority Focus in Media Literacy of Youth

Solntseva Elena Sergeevna PhD in Philology Assistant Professor at Saint Petersburg State University 199034, Russia, Saint Petersburg, Universitetskaya nab., 11 shelestelena@yandex.ru Other publications by this author

IntroductionMedia literacy is a phenomenon that is receiving increasing attention with the development of the electronic information environment throughout the 21st century.

If we take a closer look at the components of the word itself – media and literacy ? it becomes clear that the phenomenon of media literacy, on the one hand, is based on the fundamental skill of literacy, that is, mastery of oral and written speech ^[1], the ability to read and write, understand the meaning of what is written and heard, express your thoughts. This is recognized as one of the most important indicators of the cultural level of the population and is directly determined by the level of economic and political development of society. On the other hand, it is based on the concept of "media" – "a set of different types of data (in addition to text messages) containing additional audio and visual information, as well as means to convey this data to the recipient (media)" ^[2]. Thus, in general, media literacy is based on the skill of reading and reproducing media data.

In modern scientific literature, the concept further acquires a whole range of meanings, including, in particular, the ability to analyze messages in different types of media. The purpose of such an analysis is to detect various kinds of influence – manipulation in the form of propaganda or censorship, fake messages, subjective presentation of facts and presentation of information through the prism of the interests of a certain group of the population, for example, owners or sponsors of the publication ^[3].

From this point of view, media literacy comes close to the concept of critical thinking. Critical thinking is "a system of judgments that is used to analyze things and events with the formulation of reasoned conclusions and allows you to make reasoned assessments, interpretations, as well as correctly apply the results to situations and problems" ^[4]. It is aimed at autonomous and critical interpretation of the flow of information, its content, value and consequences. In relation to the media sphere, the ability to think critically when getting acquainted with media content means analyzing news information, formulating your own conclusions about current events based on the information received.

In addition, the analysis of the flow of information in modern media is also the ability to assess the emotional background of the message and its orientation in the plane of "bad – good", as well as the ability to distinguish opinion from fact, and fake from truth. On the one hand, opinion, subjective interpretation of facts, the emphasis that the author of a media message puts when creating his content, can negatively affect the audience and generate an unreasonable emotional reaction, and on the other hand, fake as one of the means of deliberate misleading and manipulation is intended to scare, misinform or deceive the addressee ^[5]. In this regard, the ability to recognize a subjective author's assessment or unambiguously false information (fakes) should also be included in media literacy.

Critical thinking and analysis of the proposed media information is further transformed into critical understanding, that is, the formation of one's position and views based on critical perception of information. Critical understanding of media content contributes to the creation and strengthening of an individual view of the problems included in the field of media coverage. Critical understanding is described as a tool of democratic processes, as a key factor in the development and determination of media literacy promotion policy ^[3]. Ultimately, critical thinking, the ability to analyze media content and critical understanding form a certain level of media literacy of people, which affects their behavior in society, that is, leads to specific actions / counteractions of people in society, therefore, the importance and relevance of research in this area is beyond doubt.

Media literacy can also be understood "as a movement designed to help people understand, create and evaluate the cultural significance of audiovisual and printed texts" ^{[6, p.1.; 7]}, that is, as the ability to analyze the cultural context of creating media content. In what historical epoch, in what social conditions media communication develops, will directly affect the nature of the perception of such a message. The context as a whole – linguistic (the specific lexical environment of a word) and extralinguistic (time, place, author of content creation) ^[8] ? becomes a key factor in understanding modern media and brings the phenomenon of media literacy into the field of interdisciplinary cognitive-discursive research.

In addition, media literacy includes the ability to create media messages themselves, which already implies the development of a passive viewer and his transformation into a so-called "prosumer". The prosumer himself takes part in the production of media and is familiar, for example, with such practices as content uploading, sharing, networking, remixing, etc. ^[9]. This also includes the ability to recognize different genres and forms of media content existence and work with them.

Despite the existence of a large number of definitions of media literacy and a general definition of the subject of media literacy, the priority of the skills and abilities included in it has not yet been described. Studies of the phenomenon of media literacy have been conducted in Russia since the 2000s, while the main focus of these studies is on the definition of this concept and methods of media literacy formation ^[10], as well as the comparison of media, information and computer literacy ^[11]. Sociological surveys regularly conducted in Russia are primarily devoted to assessing the level of media literacy of the population (see, in particular, the comparative analysis of the research group ZIRCON Zadorin I.V. and co-authors).

The most recent study (over the past 3 years) on media literacy is devoted to the study of this phenomenon as part of inclusive education of students with disabilities ^[12]. Thus, media literacy today becomes associated with human rights and freedoms, for example, with the right to education or freedom of expression, that is, there is a shift in media literacy in the legal field ^[13]. Competent consumption and creation of media content is carried out according to certain rules aimed at not violating the rights and freedoms of other participants in media communication. "In the Russian professional community, the main document is the Moscow Declaration on Media and Information Literacy, approved by the results of the international conference "Media and Information Literacy in Knowledge Societies", held in Moscow in 2012. According to the document, media and information literacy is understood as "a set of knowledge, attitudes, skills and abilities that allow access to information and knowledge, analyze, evaluate, use, create and distribute them with maximum productivity in accordance with legislative and ethical standards and with respect for human rights" ^[14]. Media literacy is associated with information or digital literacy. Then netiquette (virtual etiquette) is also included in media literacy.

Media literacy needs to be taught, as well as reading or counting. Considering media literacy as a part of media education, we come to certain indicators that must be achieved so that a person can be considered media literate ^[15]. These indicators include, for example, among personal skills, the degree of mastery of technical means of creating media content (computer, programs, etc.) ^{[16; 17; 18]}; cognitive abilities of encoding/decoding messages, their analysis and interpretation ^[19], as well as among socially conditioned skills – the degree of mastery of communication skills (interaction with by other participants of the media space) ^[20]. Studies on the achievement of these indicators are published annually in the media literacy reports of different countries (see, in particular, the reports of P. Celot «Study on Assessment Criteria for Media Literacy Levels. Final Report. Brussels» (October 2009), «DSMS Online Media Literacy Strategy» (Crown copyright 2021), «U.S.Media Literacy Policy Report» (2020))

In general, media literacy includes, on the one hand, the ability to analyze media content and the context of its existence and development, the ability to create media content, the ability to behave within the framework of legal norms and rules of etiquette, and on the other, the process of learning and acquiring appropriate skills within media education. In turn, media education is becoming an integral part of modern continuing education ^{[21; 22]}. Nevertheless, the main emphasis is placed on the acquisition of media literacy skills among young people ^{[23; 24; 25]}, that is, at earlier stages of personality formation.

Like any other skill, media literacy is formed taking into account certain fundamental criteria that affect the student's ability to acquire certain skills and abilities. Among the factors determining the criteria of media literacy, the level of education and age are considered, among others ^[26], as well as the availability of media, the level of development of the media industry and civic education of members of society ^{[27, p.157]}. Presumably, the more educated a person is, the older and more experienced he is, the more active his civic participation and the more open the media industry of a given society is, the higher the level of media literacy of each member of such a society will be. However, full-scale studies of the dependence of the level of media literacy on these criteria have yet to be carried out.

In this study, an attempt is made to establish, on the one hand, the priority of the skills included in media literacy, based on the opinion of respondents among young people by conducting a survey on what they themselves consider key skills for the formation of media literacy. The survey was chosen as the method of conducting this study due to the lack of a unified and clear approach to the study and teaching of media literacy and, as a result, with the need to clarify the skills that form this concept, based on the interests and expectations of the respondents themselves. On the other hand, the survey establishes the dependence of priority skills for the formation of media literacy on the age of the audience. The novelty of this study is justified by the lack of a sufficient number of fundamental studies in this area to date, which would reflect the idea of the priority areas of media literacy and their dependence on the age of the audience.

Research progressAs part of the study, a sociological standardized questionnaire survey of respondents aged 10-29 years was conducted.

The basis for the selection of the subjects was, first of all, age characteristics, since the objectives of the study were to determine the task of establishing priority skills in the field of media literacy among young people. "Youth is understood as socio-demographic, distinguished on the basis of age characteristics, features of social status and conditioned by certain socio-psychological properties that are determined by the social system, culture, patterns of socialization, education of this society, modern age limits from 14-16 to 25-30 years" ^[28].

The survey was conducted in person, the answers were recorded in writing. The main purpose of the survey was to obtain information about the respondents' opinion on which of the proposed skills they consider to be a priority in teaching media literacy. The questionnaire consisted of three questions, the first of which ("Specify your age") determined the age group of the respondents. The second question ("Mark how you prefer to find out the news") determined your preferences in using media, and the third question ("What do you consider the most important thing in media literacy – competent work with media content?") I was directly concerned with the priority skills included in media literacy. Respondents were asked to set the order of priority for the skills included in media literacy and rate them from 1 to 3 (where 1 is the most important, 3 is the least important). Relevant for this study was information about key skills in the field of media literacy, marked as the first (1) by young people aged 18-29 years (students) and 10-18 years (schoolchildren).

The answer options included the most common skills included in media literacy and highlighted on the basis of the theoretical study of different approaches described above. The options were listed in a chaotic order so that the task of prioritizing these skills was fully performed by the respondents themselves. The list included the following:

· know the meaning of new words (public, zabaytit, krinzhovy, etc.)

· recognize the emotional background of the message

· understand the "subtext"

· be able to distinguish opinion from fact

· be able to create attractive content

· fact-checking (fact verification)

· be able to read

· be able to distinguish fake from the truth

· think critically

· evaluate the media message in terms of good/bad

The data were collected anonymously and used in a general way for statistical evaluation of the problems identified by the objectives of the study. A sample of the questionnaire is shown in Fig.1.

Fig.1 Sample questionnaire of a sociological survey on the topic "Media literacy of youth"The hypothesis that the skills that are key to the formation of a media literate person depend on their age was taken as the starting point of the study.

Depending on the age of the audience, the level and needs of its media literacy may differ significantly.

The percentage of priority skills marked by schoolchildren is shown in the following diagram (Fig. 2):

Fig. 2. Priority skills that form the media literacy of schoolchildren (10-15 years old).According to the results of the youth survey, 33 of the surveyed schoolchildren aged 10 to 15 years noted the ability to evaluate media messages from the point of view of good/bad (33%).

Such an assessment determines whether further more detailed study of the content will take place. In addition, the ability to distinguish fakes from the truth becomes important (24%). As follows from the diagram, media literacy for schoolchildren also includes the ability to create attractive content (15%). The lowest priority was the ability to read (6%), recognize the emotional background of the message (6%), know the meaning of new words (6%) and think critically (6%). The options "understand the subtext" and "fact-checking" were not marked once.

At a more mature age comes a more complex skill of critical perception of media content, in which, in addition to the ability to intuitively distinguish fake from the truth, there is a need for meaningful confirmation / refutation of the information received, i.e. critical thinking and fact-checking. The percentage of priority skills marked by students is shown in the following diagram (Fig. 3):

Fig. 3. Priority media literacy skills of students (18-29 years old).According to the results of a survey for young people, students aged 18 to 29 out of 52 respondents, 15 noted the ability to think critically as the main one (29%) and 9 noted fact-checking (17%).

Further, the ability to distinguish fake from the truth (13%), to distinguish opinion from fact (13%), and the ability to read (8%) became less priority skills. The lowest priority was understanding the meaning of new words (2%), the ability to create attractive content (2%) and evaluate messages from the point of view of "bad – good" (2%), as well as understanding the "subtext" (2%). At the same time, the ability to recognize the emotional background of the message was not noted once.

In general, when comparing the results of surveys of schoolchildren (10-15 years old) and students (18-29), a difference in priorities became visible: if schoolchildren have basic skills in the field of media literacy based on the recognition of positive and negative in media content, then for students the main skills are associated with critical thinking. The assumption of the initial hypothesis about the dependence of the priority skills that form the media literacy of young people on age has been confirmed.

ConclusionsMedia literacy includes, on the one hand, basic reading and writing skills, technical skills and digital data processing skills, and on the other hand, more complex skills and critical perception skills of media content, analysis of the context of its existence, recognition of various manipulation techniques, assessment of the emotional component of the message.

As a result of the conducted research, a certain priority of the skills included in media literacy and the dependence of these skills on the age of the audience was established. The skills that form media literacy can be called age-oriented – the need for them and the degree of their development are directly related to the age of the audience. Students need, first of all, to evaluate the message from the point of view of "bad – good", "I will read on or not", and also not to be influenced and manipulated. Students need a more meaningful approach to data analysis, and from a simple "good-bad" ratio, the emphasis shifts towards critical thinking and understanding ("I don't believe everything"), a comprehensive analysis of incoming media information, including fact-checking and distinguishing between opinion and fact. Based on the comparison obtained, it can be concluded that there is a difference in priorities in the field of media literacy depending on the age of young people. The prospect of this study may be further study of the phenomenon of media literacy in relation to other age groups of society.