Abstract

Technological transformations and, especially, the accelerated process of digitalization have changed the profiles and production routines of the media. At the same time, universities have had to adapt their journalism curricula to new training needs. This paper analyzes the evolution of the technical-digital training of the journalism degree in Spain over the last two decades through a comparative study of three stages: before, during, and after the adaptation to the EHEA (2000-2010-2020). The research brings together, as valuable reference material, the curricular offerings of 112 programs and 242 subjects that show the educational evolution of the digital environment over the last 20 years , with a longitudinal and epistemological approach. The trends identified by this diagnostic work confirm, among other aspects, how the design of journalism curricula has evolved at a slow and asynchronous pace in digital training until the last decade and with disparate speeds between universities. Added to this is the conformation of a highly varied epistemological heritage that, beyond the specific names of the subjects, denotes a progressive commitment to digital and multimedia teaching, combining generic hybrid knowledge with more specialized training in terms of languages and formats.

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

This work is part of an I+D project involving thirteen Spanish universities in which needs and wants in the field of media education in higher education are studied in the areas of Communication (Communication Studies, Journalism and Advertising) and Education (Teaching, Pedagogy, Psychology and Social Education). The objective of this study focuses on analysing the college textbooks directly related to Media Education most used in Education and Communication,. The report has been developed based on six educational competence dimensions: language, technology, interaction processes, production and distribution processes, ideology and values and aesthetics. Using each of these parameters the scope of the analysis and the scope of the expression were taken into account, based on guidelines set by Ferrés and Piscitelli in their well-known proposal of indicators for defining new media competence and which is structured around two areas of work: the production of own messages and interaction with others. The results were obtained by applying a quantitative methodology through a content analysis of semantic fields. The main conclusions point to a greater presence of the «Ideology and Values» dimension, and almost non-existent representation of the «Aesthetics» indicator.

Abstract

The changes occurring in the media environment over the last decade force us to revise the parameters from which media education is to be implemented today, in a new age of communications. This article seeks to provide some criteria that media education or media literacy should follow, and especially a coordinated proposal of dimensions and indicators to define the new media competence. The proposal has been made by the authors of this article from the contributions made by 50 renowned Spanish and foreign experts in Media Literacy. The proposal focuses on six major dimensions: languages; technology; interaction processes; production and dissemination processes; ideology and values, and the aesthetic dimension. And it is structured around two areas of work in every dimension: the production of their own messages and the interaction with outside messages. We propose to develop this media education in the context of participatory culture, combining critical and aesthetic thinking with the expressive capacity; the development of personal autonomy with social and cultural commitment. Finally, we propose to combine technological revolution with neurobiological revolution, assuming changes produced in the conception of the human mind, especially as regards the importance of emotions and unconscious processes over reasoned and conscious ones.