Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

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, …

Putting The Social In Social Media: How Human Connection Triggers Engagement, Stephanie Adomavicius

Proceedings of the New York State Communication Association

Social media has become the preferred channel of information and has altered patterns of interaction and connection. As a result, society now revolves around a two-way form of communication with constant dialogue and instant responses. Public relations practitioners have had to adapt and change their strategy in order to keep up with the times, and because of this, engagement is now considered to be a measurement of success.

In terms of social media, engagement is how users interact with content and participate in online conversations. This study will uncover what causes people to engage on social media and identify the …

Walking The Line Between Reality And Fiction In Online Spaces: Understanding The Effects Of Narrative Transportation, Sarah Gretter, Aman Yadav, Benjamin Gleason

Journal of Media Literacy Education

Recent contentions about "fake news" and misinformation online has shed light on the critical need for media literacy at a global scale. Indeed, digital stories are one of the main forms of communication in the 21st century through blogs, videos-sharing websites, forums, or social networks. However, the line between facts and fiction can often become blurry in these online spaces, and being able to distinguish between reality and fantasy can have important consequences in the lives of young Internet users. Using contemporary examples from news stories, fanfiction, advertising, and radicalization, this article outlines the features, affordances, and real-life implications of …

Puppets On A String? How Young Adolescents Explore Gender And Health In Advertising, Deborah L. Begoray, Elizabeth M. Banister, Joan Wharf Higgins, Robin Wilmot

Journal of Media Literacy Education

This article presents qualitative research on young adolescents’ abilities in communicating and evaluating health messages in advertising especially how they understand and create gendered identities. A group of grade 6-8 students learned about media techniques and movie making. In groups divided by gender, they created iMovie advertisements for health activities in their school. They represented themselves in these advertisements by creating stick puppets. Observations during lessons, examination of movies and puppets, and interviews with students and their teacher revealed that young adolescents were neither completely manipulated by media nor were they completely in charge of their responses to media’s messages …

Teaching About Propaganda: An Examination Of The Historical Roots Of Media Literacy, Renee Hobbs, Sandra Mcgee

Journal of Media Literacy Education

Contemporary propaganda is ubiquitous in our culture today as public relations and marketing efforts have become core dimensions of the contemporary communication system, affecting all forms of personal, social and public expression. To examine the origins of teaching and learning about propaganda, we examine some instructional materials produced in the 1930s by the Institute for Propaganda Analysis (IPA), which popularized an early form of media literacy that promoted critical analysis in responding to propaganda in mass communication, including in radio, film and newspapers. They developed study guides and distributed them widely, popularizing concepts from classical rhetoric and expressing them in …