Developmental findings and considerations to inform media literacy instruction

Session Type: Conversation Roundtable

Abstract

US children and adolescents’ increasing media presence via social networking sites and access to diverse digital media tools is indisputable (see Auxier, et al., 2020). This situation continually raises concerns among parents, educators, and policy-makers about children and adolescents’ vulnerability to the potential risks that digital media poses. Efforts to remediate this vulnerability often entail media literacy education whereby elementary and secondary school-age children may learn how to safeguard their privacy and that of others online, and to evaluate the credibility of the information that they access via different media sources (Hobbs, 2017). This form of education has been a priority of the European Union (McDougall, et al., 2018), if not in the US. To date, relatively little is known overall about how students representing different developmental periods interpret the content they access via the media and the potential risks entailed in their responses to that content (Blumberg, Deater-Deckard, Flynn, et al., 2019). This information is warranted to inform developmentally appropriate media literacy instruction. Panelists will share current findings and considerations needed to prepare this form of instruction. These findings will take into account how children and adolescents access and interpret the information presented via digital contexts (e.g. social media, virtual reality) and how that access and interpretation may be mediated by the adults in their lives (e.g. teachers, parents). Panelists also will consider assumptions that may guide adult mediation of children and adolescents’ media use (e.g. digital native perspective).

Sub Unit

• Technology, Media & Child Development

Moderator

• Fran C Blumberg, Fordham University

Panelists

• Rozane Jenny De Cock, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (KU Leuven)

• Rachel Besharat Mann, Wesleyan University

• Rachel M Flynn, San Francisco State University

• Erica Kleinknecht, Pacific University