Communication Commons^™

Framing The Fight: Revolutionary Feelings In Virtual Communities, James Reilly

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This study considers how social media impacts emotional processing, and ultimately social movement development. Through a multidisciplinary lens, I explore how social media fits within larger media ecologies, particularly during times of social upheaval and collective action. Grounded in an examination of organizational efforts in advance of the 2011 Egyptian revolution, I look at how communication patterns create common emotional cues that help form the movement. Considering framing, emotional habitus, and subjective agency within digital spaces, I demonstrate how social media has emerged as an articulating space for social movements to develop and plan before drawing wider, offline populations to …

Ai And Advocacy: Maximizing Potential, Minimizing Risk, Matthew Salzano, Nicholas Fung, Ada Lin, Sofia Marchetta, Faith Colombo, Kaylah Davis, John Flynn, Carlos Fuentes, Fion Li, Malar Paavi Muthukumaran, Angelica Paramoshin, Chrisanne Pearce, Vianney Ramos, Charles St. Hilaire, Xi Zheng, Wei Zhuang

School of Communication and Journalism Faculty Publications

New Generative AI tools are revolutionizing writing and communication. This report focuses on AI and advocacy, the act of influencing public policy and resource allocation decisions within political, economic, and social systems and institutions. This report identifies three major opportunities and accompanying risks, plus one strong recommendation for advocates considering using AI. We argue that AI can be useful for advocates, but they must be careful to center human judgment and avoid risks that could distract from their important work or even contribute to societal harms.

Beyond The Headlines: Media And Information Literacy (Mil) In Times Of Conflict, Anna Kozlowska-Barrios, Lusine Grigoryan, Michael Hoechsmann, Andzongo Menyeng Blaise Pascal

Journal of Media Literacy Education

The wars of the 21st century are not the first media wars, and many tropes and schema have long histories, particularly propaganda and the othering of a purported enemy. What is new today is that although mass media remains a central and hegemonic source of insight and perspective, citizen journalism, social media, spreadable media, and surveillant, data-driven media have grown in significance at an exponential level, adding a layer of complexity. In this article, we focus on disparity in media coverage and make the point that media and information literacy provide a valuable set of lenses from which to view …

Are They Tools? Anglophone West African Countries’ Students’ Misconception Of Media Literacy And Critical Thinking For Combating Misinformation, Muhammed Jamiu Mustapha, Mutiu I. Lasisi, Victor Vladmirovich Barabash

Journal of Media Literacy Education

This study examines the media literacy and critical thinking levels of students of West African higher educational institutions as tools for combating misinformation in the sub-region. Data analysis using the mediation approach revealed differences in students' understanding of media literacy and critical thinking and partially predicted their efficacy in combating misinformation. This stems largely from a misunderstanding of media literacy and critical thinking concepts as tools, as well as a lack of adequate provision for teaching the concepts and considering them as strategic tools for combating misinformation in the region. The study recommends concrete policy and managerial solutions to the …

The Influence Of Online Distance Learning And Digital Skills On Digital Literacy Among University Students Post Covid-19., Mohammed Fadel Arandas, Ali Salman, Syed Arabi Idid, Yoke Ling Loh, Syaira Nazir, Yuek Li Ker

Journal of Media Literacy Education

Online distance learning policies were formulated and implemented among some Malaysian universities long ago, but their value emerged since COVID- 19. Emanating from the diffusion of innovation theory, this study examined the perception of higher education students on the influence and relationship between six independent variables (compatibility, observability, relative advantage, complexity, trialability, and digital skills) and one dependent variable (digital literacy). A total of 524 respondents were sampled, comprising students from six public and private Malaysian universities. The findings from the correlation analysis show a significant positive relationship between the six independent variables and the dependent variable. Meanwhile, in the …

Mapping The Media Education Approaches In Instructional Materials Development: Conjunctions And Disjunctions, John N. Ponsaran

Journal of Media Literacy Education

This qualitative inquiry centered on the critical exploration of media education approaches that guided the praxis of student assessment reform, particularly textbook task design. Correspondingly, this instructional media research is predicated on the fundamental premise that textbooks and the student tasks contained therein are informed and shaped by the academic authors’ positionalities, paradigms, and pedagogies. By focusing on the purposiveness of designing textbook tasks as a social practice, this research was able to identify and unpack the conjunctions as well as disjunctions of what the academic authors as media producers intend the students to learn, answer, perform, tackle, and act …

Ai-Powered Learning: Blending Ai With Active Learning In The Information Literacy Classroom, Kevin J. Reagan, Wilhelmina Randtke

Georgia International Conference on Information Literacy

In 2016, the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy in Higher Education launched in response to more voluminous, less-vetted online information, including misinformation and content farms. Subsequently, the ACRL Framework has been widely adopted, and numerous high-quality lesson plans and resources for teaching the frames already exist, including published lesson plans and textbooks. Now, generative AI tools, such as ChatGPT and other chat bots present new challenges for information literacy educators. For instance, in addition to teaching students how to identify issues such as fake news, the information literacy professional has to address topics such as ethical AI use, AI hallucination …

When And Why Do Arabs Verify? Predicting Online News Verification Intention During The 2023 Gaza War, Menna Elhosary

Theses and Dissertations

Guided by the network gatekeeping and secondary gatekeeping theoretical frameworks, this study employed a 2 (news headlines: pro-Palestine/anti-Palestine) x 2 (news sources: the Times of Israel/Al-Jazeera English) experiment embedded in an online survey on a purposive sample of Arab social media users (N= 452), aiming to understand the antecedents of online news verification during the 2023 Gaza War1. The study investigated the motives that might have encouraged or discouraged Arabs from verifying the war-related news circulated on social media. A model was proposed to examine the role of confirmation bias in shaping perceptions about sources and messages, thereby impacting online …

An Analysis Of Ethical Practices In Production Of Youtube Editorial Content In Rwanda., James Munyaneza

Theses & Dissertations

Many scholars have investigated the impact of digital technologies on journalism ethics, citing falling ethical standards and urging the protection of the basic tenets of journalism. YouTube has emerged as a major conduit of information, thereby helping democratise content. But scholars like Ward have wondered if the old journalistic ideals of objectivity and editorial independence apply to citizen journalists as much. Indeed, Hulin attempted to draw a line between journalists and other online content producers, noting that journalists retain a major responsibility in the promotion of democracy. Democracy, he argues, still needs professional journalists. As such, media outlets need to …

Book Review Reading Images: The Grammar Of Visual Design, Wim Honders

Journal of Media Literacy Education

No abstract provided.

Critically Analyzing The Meanings Of “Critical” Media Literacy, W. James Potter

Journal of Media Literacy Education

This study provides a critical analysis into how authors of publications about critical media literacy express what they mean by the term. The use of multiple strategies to examine the degree to which these authors exhibit a sharing of meaning led to the conclusion that there are far more differences than commonalities across definitions of critical media literacy. The implications of this conclusion raise important questions about the value of a literature where authors seem to express so many different meanings for the concept that they use to label their common concern.

Media Literacy Policy In Morocco: A Strategic Milestone Missing, Abderrahim Chalfaouat, Karim Essoufi

Journal of Media Literacy Education

In the digital age, diverse walks of human life have reconfigured profoundly. In the Moroccan society, digitalisation plans and the skyrocketing numbers of internet users necessitate coping literacy policies. While several community initiatives have been taken to improve the quality of media literacy, they, as bottom-up efforts, cannot suffice to meet the needs of the whole Moroccan population. Rather, the absence of a central, nationwide, cross-sectoral media literacy policy significantly challenges the effective coordination of official strategies and community initiatives in media education. This article investigates current practices in media literacy in Morocco. Using document analysis, it delves into data …

Pre-Service Training On Media Education For Teachers At Czech Universities, Karolína Mackenzie

Journal of Media Literacy Education

The study shows the content of future teachers’ education and their needs to teach media education in their future practice. The preparation of future teachers within the faculties of education varies considerably across Europe, as does the level of teaching in primary and secondary schools. In the Czech Republic, media education is a cross-cutting topic in primary and some types of secondary schools and is rather rarely found in the university training of future teachers. The research shows the areas in which future teachers were prepared in their teacher training, their sense of readiness to teach and their needs in …

Podcasting Practices: Mediators Of Archival Work, Ela Teacher Education Curricula, And Digital Identities, Nancy Heiss, Morgan King, Courtney Adang, Donna E. Alvermann

Journal of Media Literacy Education

This paper investigates how a semester-long online course in a language and literacy teacher education department coupled a podcast project with archival pedagogy and restorying to explore how ELA (English Language Arts) teachers (preservice, inservice teachers, and those seeking re-entry) worked collaboratively to enrich understandings of instruction embedded in a high-tech environment. The course was taught in the southeastern United States at the height of a global pandemic. After the semester ended, three graduate students (from a class of 21) joined the instructor to qualitatively analyze data collected during the previous 14 weeks. Data sources included digitally stored videos, archived …

Teaching Critical Race Media Literacy Through Black Historical Narratives, Christine Mcwhorter, Tiffany Mitchell Patterson

Journal of Media Literacy Education

On the 400th anniversary of American enslavement the New York Times (NYT) 1619 project launched an interactive digital experience including a popular podcast centering the contributions and narratives of Black Americans. This study sought to understand how HBCU students responded to learning Black music history through what we term a “pop culture podcast.” This study explored the ways in which this particular podcast could support the development of Critical Race Media Literacy (CRML) based on a media discourse at a Historically Black College/University (HBCU). This study employed survey research and focus group discussions with HBCU students in two courses. The …

Spartan Daily, November 28, 2023, San Jose State University, School Of Journalism And Mass Communications

Spartan Daily, 2023

Volume 161, Issue 40

Reputation Themes From Communication Perspective: A Qualitative Systematic Review, Omar Abu Arqoub

Journal of the Association of Arab Universities for Research in Higher Education (مجلة اتحاد الجامعات العربية (للبحوث في التعليم العالي

The article aimed to systematically review communication reputation-related research to shape the reputation literature from a communication perspective. After investigating several databases, a total of 366 peer-reviewed communication journal articles focusing on reputation were selected based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria of the study. A qualitative text mining and thematic analysis approach was conducted using the NVivo program to examine the most frequently used words and major emergent themes. The results revealed that the topmost frequently repeated words in communication reputation-focused articles were “crisis,” “public,” “reputation,” “communication,” “media,” and “relations.” Also, this study discussed the six major themes that …

Policy Paper Media Under Pressure: The Trouble With Press Freedom In Kenya, George Nyabuga

Graduate School of Media and Communications

Press freedom in Kenya has undergone significant changes over the past few decades. This resulted in a complex and evolving landscape, where the country boasts of a diverse and lively media landscape, with numerous newspapers, television and radio stations, and a growing online presence giving a credible impression of a plurality of perspectives and voices in the media. Further, the 2010 Kenyan Constitution is recognized as one of Africa‘s most progressive in terms of press freedom protections. It calls for an independent regulator – the Media Council of Kenya – to oversee the media and its standards and safeguard journalists‘ …

Spartan Daily, August 24, 2023, San Jose State University, School Of Journalism And Mass Communications

Spartan Daily, 2023

Volume 161, Issue 03

Prevalence And Factors Associated With Vaping Cannabidiol Among Us Adolescents, Hongying Daisy Dai, Roma Subramanian, Avina Mahroke, Ming Wang

College of Journalism and Mass Communications: Faculty Publications

IMPORTANCE e-Cigarette use and vaping marijuana (cannabis) are popular among US adolescents. Cannabidiol (CBD) is a compound found in the cannabis plant that has recently increased in use.

OBJECTIVES To examine the prevalence of and factors associated with youths vaping CBD

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS This cross-sectional study included a nationally representative sample of students from middle and high schools (typical age, 11-18 years) in the US from the 2022 National Youth Tobacco Survey, conducted from January to May 2022.

EXPOSURE Demographic characteristics, harm perception of tobacco use, and vaping behaviors.

MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES The main outcomes were weighted …

Show Or Tell? A Systematic Review Of Media And Information Literacy Measurements, Daniel Schofield, Reijo Petter Kupiainen, Vegard Marinius Frantzen, Anette Novak

Journal of Media Literacy Education

Media and information literacy (MIL) is a key concept in several research fields and measuring the levels of MIL is considered valuable for policy stakeholders. However, the concept is complex, and few systematic reviews of research on measuring MIL levels have been conducted. This article draws on a systematic review of peer-reviewed studies measuring MIL between 2000 and 2021. Out of a total of 4008 publications, 236 were included in the analysis, and 87 were analysed in depth. A key finding was that several studies applied broad understandings of MIL, often based on initiatives by international organisations such as UNESCO, …

Online Media Literacy Intervention In Indonesia Reduces Misinformation Sharing Intention, Trenton Ford, Michael Yankoski, Matthew Facciani, Tim Weninger

Journal of Media Literacy Education

Media literacy is widely viewed as an important tool in the fight against the spread of misinformation online. However, efforts to boost media literacy have primarily focused on Western-media and Western-oriented social media platforms, which are substantively different from the media and platforms used widely in the Global South. In the present work, we focus on the media ecosystem of Indonesia and report the results of an online media literacy intervention consisting of short-videos that were targeted specifically to social media users in Indonesia (N= 656). We found that participants in our media literacy intervention were 64% more …

Media Literacy And Covid-19 Communication: Work And Home Sphere Differences, Donnalyn Pompper, Tugce Ertem-Eray

Journal of Media Literacy Education

As a learning process wherein we ask questions to enhance knowledge, media literacy offers a powerful lens for examining how people practice communication across diverse applied contexts such as professional communicators shaping messages about COVID-19. Borrowing a page from Renee Hobbs’ (1998, 1999, 2010, 2011, 2021) media literacy education research, we sought to compare/contrast media content creators’ (journalism, advertising, public relations, marketing communication) information-seeking behaviors during the 2020-2022 COVID-19 pandemic for both their paid work and unpaid volunteer work, as well as for their own and family edification. Blending the media literacy lens with social construction theory (Berger & Luckmann, …

Improving Indonesian Seniors’ Digital Resilience And Quality Of Life Through The Digital Academy For Seniors Program, Mite Setiansah, Nuryanti Nuryanti, Edi Santoso, Agus Ganjar Runtiko, Wiwik Novianti

Journal of Media Literacy Education

Digital literacy education is essential for everyone, including seniors to sustain their quality of life. The Digital Academy for Seniors aims to instill digital skills among seniors through a non-formal learning program. This qualitative research aimed to provide a comprehensive description of how the program can develop digital resilience and improve the quality of life of seniors. This study concluded that the program can improve the knowledge and attitudes of seniors in using digital media safely. Both of these are important assets for seniors to develop their digital resilience so that they can take advantage of digital media to support …

Parental Education In Media Literacy, Social Media And Internet Safety For Children In Bosnia And Herzegovina, Dragana Trninić, Anđela Kuprešanin Vukelić, Jovana Mlinarević

Journal of Media Literacy Education

Parents have a great responsibility to protect their children while online, and to make sure that they are using digital technologies in a safe manner; at the same time, parents are not sufficiently educated and are unfamiliar with all regulatory mechanisms and possibilities of controlling and protecting their children online. Children need some help to take advantage of all positive aspects of digital trends and to protect themselves from those which are potentially negative. The international framework in the legal sense, which is in charge of standardizing the protection of the interests and rights of children on the Internet, is …

Social Media Usage And Self-Esteem: The Moderating Role Of Media Literacy, Comparison Tendency, And User Motivation, Feng Li

Dissertations

Studies on Facebook and Twitter have shown that social media usage negatively influences individuals’ self-esteem. Many scholars believe media literacy could help reduce this negative impact. Social comparison tendencies and user motivations may also influence this dynamic. The current study is designed to test the moderation effects of media literacy, comparison tendency, and user motivation influencing WeChat Moments usage on individuals’ self-esteem. A group of Chinese college students (N= 299) participated in an online survey. Results show no negative association between WeChat Moments usage and self-esteem. Media literacy only negatively moderates this effect among those who reported having 20-50 friends. …

Breaking Glass: A Pedagogical Approach To Understanding Voice In Media, Casey James O'Ceallaigh

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation aims to examine the remediation of voices in media, specifically focusing on the reproduction of voices across different genres and the pedagogical approaches used to teach writing and media literacy. Much of the extant media is created with practices that historically have excluded minority groups, such as people with disabilities and people who speak other languages in addition to English in the US. This project develops a theory of interstices, which are both physical and metaphorical spaces in genres that can become sites of intervention through the composition process. These interstices are burdened by their many complex relationships …

Re: Beyond Fake News, Nate Floyd, Jaclyn Spraetz

Journal of Media Literacy Education

A student success librarian with a Ph.D. in mass communication and an information literacy librarian with an M.A. in secondary English education describe their efforts to innovate in the field of news literacy by incorporating the media effects research tradition. By highlighting the emotional, behavioral, and cognitive elements of information processing, the authors hope to show students how professional norms, institutional and market pressures shape the news while their own predispositions influence how they interpret the news they consume. The authors emphasize agenda-setting and framing, two fundamental media effects paradigms, and report on their effort to develop news literacy classes …

Book Review: The Digital Is Kid Stuff: Making Creative Laborers For A Precarious Economy, Karolína Šimková

Journal of Media Literacy Education

No abstract provided.

Fit For Purpose? Taking A Closer Look At The Uk’S Online Media Literacy Strategy, Poppy Gibson, Steve Connolly

Journal of Media Literacy Education

Now more than ever, media literacy is essential as we navigate our daily lives (Mesquita-Romero et al., 2022). The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted how we need to frequently navigate media spaces filled with changing, and not always credible, information (Austin et al., 2021). Media literacy affects our habits as well as our social connections (Hobbs, 2021). This short opinion piece from two educators in the field provides an exploration of the Online Media Literacy Strategy (OMLS) published by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, UK, in 2021. The aim of the OMLS was to predict how media literacy may evolve …