Assessing media literacy: an analysis of university students

Media literacy refers to the ability to access, analyze, evaluate, and create messages in a wide variety of media modes and formats. Even though the media is so globalized and easily accessible, it is necessary to correctly perceive and read the messages, make sense of them, analyze, evaluate, criticize, etc. Before accessing media literacy equipment, the individual is only in a passive position in front of the messages presented by the media. However, with the media literacy equipment, individuals take an active position that evaluates questions, analyzes the media messages, and keeps a distinction in the context of the criteria it sets. It is important to examine media literacy level of university students who have a great role in shaping the future. The study aims to determine university students' media literacy levels, to compare the media literacy levels of university students who took and did not take a media literacy course and determine what socio-demographic factors affect media literacy. In this study, the "Media Literacy Level Determination Scale" developed by Karataş was used with his permission. The universe of the research consists of university students studying at Yeditepe University. The sample consists of 801 students. As a result of the research, the fact that taking a media literacy course increases the level of media literacy shows that there is a statistically significant difference between students who take this course and those who do not. Another result is that when the scores in the distribution of the students according to the classes are examined, it is concluded that the media literacy levels of the senior students are higher than the other classes. When sociodemographic characteristics are taken into account, no significant difference was found in media literacy in terms of gender, family structure and place of residence.