An Investigation into the Relationship between Postgraduate Students’ Digital Participation and New Media Literacy Skills (NMLs): A Correlational Study
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.22046/LA.2022.22Keywords:
Media, Literacy, Infobesity, Info-Toxication, New Media LiteracyAbstract
A huge portion of digital media users, known as digital natives and millennials, inappropriately consume and produce much online [new] media content in stark violation of media studies ethics and UNESCO guidelines. This has become a new reality, a norm, and worse the modus-operandi for many university students in many countries, including Morocco. This quantitative study deployed a correlational design. An online survey, a newly tested self-report assessment tool for media literacy developed by Literat (2014), based on the twelve new media literacy skills (NMLs) developed by Jenkins (2007) was utilised to investigate the extent to which the participants’ digital participation correlates with the use of new media literacy skills. The sample (N=25) consisted of postgraduate students (2020-2022) belonging to the MA degree program, Applied Language Studies hosted by the faculty of art and humanities, Meknes, Morocco. In sharp contrast, with the available bulk of previous studies, key results pinpoint that there is a negative weak correlation between the participants’ digital participation and the use of new media literacy skills. Higher levels of media literacy skills are not associated with a higher degree of digital participation in the study context. The results provide a basis for stakeholders to issue a wake-up call about the ascendancy to integrate new media literacy skills programs and interventions in various curricula across different departments at the tertiary level.References
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