Research Article
Eylem Simsek, Ali Simsek
CONT ED TECHNOLOGY, Volume 4, Issue 2, pp. 126-137
ABSTRACT
The meaning of citizenship has usually been associated with the power of individuals in the process of social decision-making. Throughout the history, effective citizenship has required functional literacy skills as the fundamental factor for attending societal life. In the past, the 3Rs (writing, reading, and arithmetic) were considered to be enough for a normal citizen because people could communicate satisfactorily based on these skills in public spheres. They could also benefit through traditional literacy skills from the mainstream communication channels like newspaper, radio, and television. Depending on the linear characteristic of the mass media, participation of citizens was limited in the social arena. However, new communication technologies have changed the nature and scope of citizenship. New kinds of literacies have emerged regarding the new media such as Internet, Web, Twitter, blogs, YouTube, Facebook, mobile technologies and so forth. Today’s citizens are expected to attend social processes anytime and anywhere. Thus, they are required to have mastery in new literacies which allow them to use all kinds of emerging technologies to share their views and make their voices heard. In fact, this comes as a requisite for real democracy because digital citizenship is largely based on contemporary literacy skills in which the technology plays an important role. This paper elaborates various kinds of new literacies and discusses their relationships with the current practices of digital citizenship from a technological perspective.
Keywords: New literacies, Digital citizenship, Media literacy, ICT skills, Effective citizenship, Web 2.0, Social networks
Research Article
Jale Balaban-Sali
CONT ED TECHNOLOGY, Volume 3, Issue 4, pp. 265-277
ABSTRACT
This study examined new media literacy skills of university students based on Jenkins and his colleagues’ classification. Toward this purpose, an online Likert scale was administered to a sample (n=170). This scale included a multi-component understanding of media literacy such as tackling the consumption of media messages and the original creation of multimedia material. The Cronbach’s Alpha reliability coefficient of the scale was 0,93. The instrument was structured around three main sections; demographics, media use characteristics, and new media literacies (NMLs). The third section aimed to assess participants’ new media literacy skills by presenting them 60 items about their social and cultural modes of engagement, online interaction, and media consumption and creation patterns. The statements were conceptually built around the 12 NMLs skills identified by Jenkins and his colleagues. These skills are: Play, appropriation, distributed cognition, collective intelligence, judgment, transmedia navigation, networking, negotiation, and visualization. The results of the study showed that individuals who spent more time on Internet, social media, and blogging had the highest NMLs levels. Furthermore, young participants’ NMLs levels were higher than those over the age of 32.
Keywords: New media literacies, Social media skills, New media literacy assessment, Digital literacies, Measuring new literacies