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The effects of BeNetWise program on youth media literacy: A mixed methods research
Author(s) -
Cheng Kevin P.C.,
Leung Chun Kit,
Mok Joanne C.Y.,
Datu Jesus Alfonso D.,
Valdez Jana Patricia M.,
Huang Hong,
Unsworth Kris,
Chan Andy,
Ng Cecilia,
Chu Samuel Kai Wah
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
proceedings of the association for information science and technology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.193
H-Index - 14
ISSN - 2373-9231
DOI - 10.1002/pra2.2017.14505401053
Subject(s) - media literacy , consumption (sociology) , media consumption , literacy , production (economics) , scale (ratio) , psychology , medical education , pedagogy , sociology , advertising , business , social science , medicine , geography , economics , cartography , macroeconomics
Existing literature has demonstrated that cultivating media literacy skills may optimize various indicators of student success. However, limited research has been conducted to examine how media literacy programs can improve effective consumption and production of media contents. The present research addresses these gaps through providing preliminary evidence about the effectiveness of BeNetWise, which is a two‐year project launched in Hong Kong to educate youth on proper attitude and behavior in the cyberworld. This study was based on a sample of 196 secondary school students who participated in the media literacy intervention. The Chinese version of the New Media Literacy Scale was used to assess functional consumption, critical consumption, functional prosumption and critical prosumption. The results indicated that students who were exposed to this program significantly improved on functional consumption, critical consumption and critical prosumption. Findings point to the advantageous impacts of the BeNetWise project on the adaptive consumption and production of various media contents.