Naslov
Media literacy as compared to other elements of the information literacy model

Autori
Vidaček Hainš, Violeta ; Kirinić, Valentina ; Pletenac, Ksenija

Izvornik
Medijska istraživanja (1330-6928) 13 (2007), 1; 69-85

Vrsta, podvrsta i kategorija rada
Radovi u časopisima, članak, znanstveni

Ključne riječi
media types; media literacy; information literacy

Sažetak
The ever-increasing exposure of pre-school children to various media types needs to be matched by an appropriate level of media literacy development. Media literacy is a part of information literacy, whose other constituent parts are the basic, technology and library literacy. In order to study the development of various elements within the information literacy model, as well as their interdependence, three surveys were designed intended for pre-school teachers, six-year old pre-school children in kinder­gartens and their parents. These three groups of respondents were selected so as to determine the correspondence and potential overlap between estimations obtained from those three groups. The results revealed that six-year old children on average tend to be exposed to information via various media types, both at home and in kindergarten, for as much as 25 hours a week. The most frequently used source of information is television, followed by video, picture books, the computer and so on. A positive correlation between the level of media literacy and technology literacy devel­opment among pre-school children was also confirmed. Furthermore, in most pre-school children an initial stage of library literacy was revealed. The level of complexity of the investigation process as a constituent part of library lit­eracy therefore depends on the availability of various media types (television, the computer etc.) and exposure to them. When the assessment of basic liter­acy development is concerned, our results indicate that letter recognition and the reading skill in six-year old children, being constituent parts of basic liter­acy, are not connected with the level of information literacy development at that particular age. Additionally, the results emphasize the significance of the social component, that is, the role played by adults reading stories and other texts to children. To conclude, owing to children’ s high exposure to various media both at home and in pre-school institutions, it is essential to make a systematic effort toward monitoring and improving the educational content in pre-school curricula. This calls for additional training of parents aimed at facilitating the selection of quality content. Another aspect of such training to be provided through ex­pert advice should focus on limiting the media exposure time during which children acquire information and obtain information literacy at home.

Izvorni jezik
Engleski

Znanstvena područja
Informacijske i komunikacijske znanosti, Pedagogija

POVEZANOST RADA