Media creation and the net generation: Comparing faculty and student beliefs and competencies regarding media literacy within higher education.

摘要

This document presents a dissertation research project that involved studying: (1) faculty perceptions and student media creation competencies, (2) faculty and student perceptions of the extent to which media creation competencies are addressed within higher education, and (3) faculty and student perceptions of the importance of addressing media creation competencies within higher education.;While the perception exists that today's college students are digital natives, comfortable with all forms of new media and digital technology, previous research suggests that there may be limits to the media savvy of today's college students. This study considers the extent to which students possess competencies related to one dimension of media literacy, namely, media creation. Additionally, this study considers similarities and differences that exist between faculty perceptions and student competencies and perceptions. By using faculty interviews (N=16) and a student questionnaire ( N=409), data were gathered at a four-year university in Pennsylvania. Data suggest that students infrequently engage in media creation activities and perceive that they learn very little about media creation in college classes, yet feel that it is important to learn about media creation. Similarly, faculty members perceive that students rarely engage in media creation activities and lack media creation competencies and perceive that they rarely include course content related to media creation in their classes, yet feel that it is important for college students to learn about media creation.;Accordingly, this research suggests that, despite the perception that today's college students are digital natives, individuals of this generation typically lack the media creation competencies that are an important dimension of overall media literacy. Additionally, data suggest that, despite the perception that students should be learning about media creation, they currently rarely learn about this aspect of media literacy at the college level.