Abstract

This paper aims to measure a population’s level of knowledge and active use of certain digital tools that play a primary role in developing their media literacy. To achieve it, an Online Digital Literacy test was designed to measure the knowledge and active usage of 45 different online software packages. This tool works as a reliable indicator to identify a population’s media literacy development in terms of its linguistic and technological dimensions. More than 1,500 subjects of different gender, age and level of studies were tested in different cities within the autonomous community of Castilla and León in Spain, to measure their competence using these tools. The resulting data has enabled the identification of the level differences between age groups and gender and to formulate proposals in respect of digital literacy to enhance the public’s competence in terms of media education. The general results indicate that people’s Online Digital Literacy level is lower than ideal and that there is a level divide in relation to gender and age and that the average user has a social and recreational profile as a consumer of pre-existing content on the Internet rather than as manager, instigator or creator of his or her own content. This paper’s conclusions therefore raise awareness of these deficiencies and encourage academic institutions to design specific digital literacy educational programmes to help citizens become media empowered.

Abstract

Social organizations, local governments and the media in Brazil are confronting themselves over the need for an oversight board to guarantee quality television programming, and establishing a system to determine which television programs are appropriate for which television time slots. Across Brazil, a representative body of children and young adults have determined that the right to receive quality programming is not currently being met. Children of the new generation see themselves as having a right to access new technologies which enable them to produce their own messages according to their own creativity, interests, and social participation. This new generation wants to go beyond education in order to watch and conquer their «right to screens».

Abstract

Nowadays in Brazil, some social organizations, governments and mass media are discussing the need to establish an oversight committee to guarantee the quality of television programmes, as well as the need to set a system to determine what kind of program is appropriate for every television time slot. Across Brazil, a representative body of children and young people have come to the conclusion that the right to receive quality television programmes is not enough. The children of the new generations think they have the right to access new technologies and the production of their own messages, in accordance with their own creativity, interests and lifestyle projects within society.

Abstract

This article analyses the different meanings of the citizenship concept (political, legal, social, economic, ecological and intercultural) in order to justify the current media citizenship concept, which is particularly useful and valid for media education. The ultimate goal is to rebuild the social, ethical and political dimension of educommunication on a practical and philosophical foundation. With this in mind, we have analysed two very powerful and current ap proaches, the ethics of dialogue and ability, mainly because of their links to communication and their contribution to the human development concept, which is on the media education agendas of international organizations such as UNESCO or the European Commission. From the philosophical foundation proposed, the criteria for evaluating and reconstructing the practical dimension of educommunication are: civic participation, freedom as development and critical autonomy, which are also considered goals of the educational systems in pluralistic and democratic societies, especially from a model of deliberate and participatory democracy. The paper concludes with a positive evaluation of interdisciplinary approach in the study of media education, an educational project that is crucial for the revival of civil society and the empowerment of citizens in the current communicative context.

Abstract

This experience offers a methodological approach and a set of activities which help to understand the language of advertising by analysing adverts shown in magazines. We started revising aspects related to photography, then we moved to study texts in advertising and we ended up with offering some proposals to make adverts using photomontage techniques. Our main objective was to get Primary students in touch with educommunication.

Abstract

This paper makes a brief description of a distance learning experience. It has been promoted by some research of the Institute of Communication (ININCO) based on the project named «Media, Education and Communication». The purpose of the virtual lesson «Learning to watch TV» is to train primary school teachers from an educommunicative perspective. It is part of the curriculum of education for the creative use of television.

Abstract

This work analyzes some aspects on which the development of critical thinking is based starting with the contributions of critical theory to the educommunicative perspective, as a bedrock for reflection on the media. This work reviews the characteristics of the critical subject and differentiates between critical reading and critical thinking. The former works as an analytic strategy that searches the re-reading of texts or audiovisual messages to identify categories attached to discussion and interpretation; the latter highlights ways to learn to think autonomously which leads to the proposal of interpretation strategies that target creative thinking. The objective of this article is to present orientations coming from Social Communication as an academic discipline that sustain Critical Readings conceived as educommunicative strategies. The methodology used to develop this study is the review of documents and content analysis. The result is a guide that proposes actions for critical media readings in the classroom. The conclusion is that the promotion of a critical attitude involves identifying the political personality of the cultural industry and the communicational process; it means constant questioning of the transparency of media messages, with the aim of creating independent, inquisitive and creative citizens.

Abstract

This article analyzes the educational use of digital educommunication media (DEM) by four groups of professors working at the faculties of Philosophy and Letters and of Engineering at the Autonomous University of Chihuahua (UACH) and at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). Seven hypotheses and three research questions were posed, which were related to the use of DEM (specifically: images, animations, and video; presentations (PowerPoint/Prezi); digital texts; the Cloud; social media/instant messaging; and email), their qualities and the differences regarding their use, among the different groups studied. A two-phase mixed-methods explanatory sequential approach was employed, with a first phase of quantitative data collection and a second qualitative phase. A stratified sample of 177 professors was selected, which was distributed proportionally between the two selected faculties and universities. All professors completed a 144-item questionnaire in the first phase, and on the basis of their answers, ten professors were selected to be interviewed in the second phase, to ensure the diversity of the interviewed group in terms of sex, age, faculty, and educational level at which they teach, as well as their teaching experience and experience in the use of DEM. Among the results, we found that: a) the choice between using DEM or traditional media in class was not determined by teachers’ perception about their students’ learning with technology; b) the characteristics of each DEM determined its use, but the use of a given DEM was not related to the activities that it could enable; c) the professors exclusively teaching in graduate programs, the younger ones, those from UNAM, or those of Engineering did not present significant differences to their counterparts in terms of their use and assessment of DEM; and d) the qualitative data reaffirmed these trends and helped typify the challenges and opportunities of using DEM, particularly those that arose from the period of the exclusively online education model that was adopted owing to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Abstract

Information, communication, and digitalization technologies have driven the unlimited access to knowledge, thereby promoting creativity, economic and cultural development, and the emergence of a global world at breakneck speed over recent decades. Across its multiple dynamics, this digital revolution has opened new educational opportunities that are closely connected to emerging technologies and, recently, to artificial intelligence. These advances have had an unexpected impact on people’s lives, altering the values of society and our understanding of the role of education and the modern school in this scenario of global communication. In this context, media education arises from the clear influence of electronic devices and digital technology on society. The aim of this study is to review our understanding of the scientific relevance of the terms “media education” and “educommunication” during the last two decades to describe its evolution on the basis of its terms, locations, thematic stages, and methodological approaches using a systematic quantitative–qualitative review of 598 articles collected from the Web of Science between 2000 and 2021. The results suggest that such scientific interest can be divided into two stages, viz. reflections on media education in its terminological diversity (2000–2012) and measurement, implementation, training, and educommunicative digitization in terms of technological–digital development (2013–2021). We conclude that studies in this transdisciplinary field, which have historically been spread across North and South America, Europe, North Africa, and the North/South East Asia–Pacific region, have broadened their perspective from early criticism of media education to consider the “glocalization” of media education, directing interest toward the cultural digitization of the Global South, algorithmic literacy, and the digital and ethical–critical (self-)management of individual and collective identity.