An Investigation of Preservice English Teachers' Media Literacy Levels

Year 2025, Volume: 1 Issue: 1, 60 - 71, 24.01.2025

Mert Karaoğlu , Esat Kuzu , Nurettin Türemiş

Abstract

In today’s world, it is very common for people to come across fake news and propaganda on social media. People need to be educated to induce this type of content and information. Such education can only be possible through teachers in schools. Therefore, teachers need to have appropriate skills to guide their students on how to observe, read and critically appraise the media contents. In this sense, this study aimed to investigate the media literacy levels of preservice English teachers owing to their current level of media literacy and find ways of improving them. The participants of the study were 103 preservice English teachers who were studying at a public university. A media literacy scale, which evaluated the participants' media literacy skills in terms of knowledge, the ability to analyze and react, and the ability to judge, was used to collect data. The results revealed that the participants had a high degree of media literacy. Additionally, the male participants consistently outperformed their female counterparts, specifically regarding the dimensions of knowledge and ability to judge. Moreover, the results showed that preservice teachers' preferences regarding social media platforms were an important factor in defining their media literacy levels because Twitter users displayed higher media literacy skills across all dimensions. Nevertheless, TikTok users showed lower scores regarding the dimensions of knowledge and the ability to analyze and react. Finally, there were not any differences in the participants' media literacy levels in terms of age, academic grade, or device preference for social media access. Overall, the results implied that the preservice teachers possessed a high level of media literacy. Still, there was still room for improvement. Therefore, it was suggested that some initiatives, such as media literacy courses and activities promoting critical analysis of media, be included in the training programs to enhance their competencies.

Keywords

media literacy, preservice english teachers, social media, age, gender

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