ABSTRACT

Often coined as digital natives, contemporary teens are ascribed a paradoxical status of skilled but vulnerable media users. Therefore, media literacy initiatives often target young audiences in order to mitigate detrimental media effects as well as to facilitate emancipatory media engagements. The literature on media literacy draws from diverse disciplines (e.g. educational sciences, media studies) and examines a wide range of thematic areas (e.g. privacy, news, citizenship). However, the voices of those who are the target population of media literacy policy and research are seldom heard. We identify the absence of teenagers’ perceptions and experiences as a limitation in contemporary debates on media literacy. Therefore, this study aims to shed light on how teenagers give meaning to media literacy, how they perceive the contemporary discourse on the importance of media literacy for teens, and in which way they encounter concrete media literacy initiatives at school. Based on in-depth interviews with 31 high-school students between 16 and 18 year old, we found how teenagers primarily have a risk discourse in mind when talking about media literacy. Contextualizing these perceptions, it became clear that both the public discourse and media literacy initiatives largely draw from protectionist approaches.

IMPACT SUMMARY

a. Prior State of Knowledge:

Teenagers and children are oftentimes seen as avid but vulnerable media users. Therefore, this demographic is often the target population of media literacy initiatives. Drawing from a wide range of disciplines, the field of media literacy aims to both understand and facilitate youth’s critical engagements with media.

b. Novel Contributions:

We identify the lack of a meaningful engagement with teenagers’ own conceptualizations of media literacy as a limitation in scholarly and policy debates. To address this, we contextualize how teenagers give meaning to media literacy by exploring their experiences with media literacy discourses and initiatives in secondary education.

c. Practical Implications:

This study has practical implications for policymakers who aim for an emancipatory approach of media literacy. Gaining insight into teenagers’ perceptions and experiences is paramount to move beyond the top-down development of media literacy initiatives. The results are also important for media literacy researchers because of its implications for future study designs.

摘要

通常被称为数字原住民，当代青少年被认为是熟练但易受伤害的媒体用户的矛盾地位。因此，媒体素养倡议通常针对年轻受众，以减轻不利的媒体影响并促进解放性媒体参与。有关媒体素养的文献来自不同学科（例如教育科学、媒体研究），并研究了广泛的主题领域（例如隐私、新闻、公民身份）。然而，作为媒体素养政策和研究目标人群的声音却很少被听到。我们将青少年感知和经验的缺失视为当代媒体素养辩论的局限。因此，本研究旨在阐明青少年如何赋予媒体素养以意义，他们如何看待当代关于青少年媒体素养重要性的论述，以及他们在学校遇到具体的媒体素养倡议的方式。通过对 31 名 16 至 18 岁的高中生的深入访谈，我们发现青少年在谈论媒体素养时主要是如何考虑风险话语的。将这些看法结合起来，很明显，公共话语和媒体素养倡议在很大程度上都借鉴了保护主义方法。

影响总结

一种。先前的知识状态：

青少年和儿童通常被视为狂热但易受伤害的媒体用户。因此，这一人群通常是媒体素养计划的目标人群。媒体素养领域涉及广泛的学科，旨在理解和促进青年对媒体的批判性参与。

湾。小说贡献：

我们认为，青少年自己对媒体素养的概念化缺乏有意义的参与是学术和政策辩论的限制。为了解决这个问题，我们通过探索他们在中等教育中的媒体素养话语和倡议的经验，将青少年如何赋予媒体素养赋予意义。

C。实际影响：

这项研究对旨在解放媒体素养的政策制定者具有实际意义。深入了解青少年的看法和经历对于超越自上而下的媒体素养计划发展至关重要。这些结果对媒体素养研究人员也很重要，因为它对未来的研究设计有影响。