International Journal of Media and Information Literacy

3-8

Authors: Irina V. Chelysheva, Galina V. Mikhaleva

The article presents a brief review of basic approaches to media education in Russia from the genesis to present-day conditions of Russian media pedagogy. The historical analysis of media education in Russia has shown that Russian media education tradition relies on several dominant theoretical approaches such as the semiotic, culturological, aesthetic, ethical, sociocultural and critical thinking development conceptions. The study of artistic value of media production, a close link between the aesthetic approach with spiritual and moral education of the rising generation, reliance on children’s creative skills have provided the basis for many media education models realized in contemporary Russia. Contemporaneous researches focus on studying media culture, various media effects and forms of media addiction, Internet safety and digital competences. Media culture as a vast layer of human culture is also in the focus of media researches. The solution to these problems depends both on teaching the younger generation basic computer skills for digital safety and on elaborating strategies for developing children’s media competence, spiritual and moral values, critical thinking and analytical skills, social skills in the world of media culture. Potential research prospects of media education involve further development of scientific media education centers and schools promoting the investigation of urgent media pedagogy issues.

16-37

Authors: Alexander Fedorov, Anastasia Levitskaya

Based on media education activities’ techniques, the authors taught a media education course during the full academic year. The research objective was to trace the changes between the levels of students’ media competence in a control and in an experimental group. The determination of the media competence’s levels was based on the classification of the indicators of the development of an individual’s media competence developed by our research team. Media competence implies the accumulation of motives, knowledge, abilities, and skills (indicators: motivational, contact, information, perceptual, interpretative / evaluative, practice-operational / activity, creative), facilitating the use, critical analysis, evaluation and communication of media texts in various forms and genres, the analysis of complex processes of media functioning. In line with this interpretation of the media competence, the students were asked to answer 5 units of questions and do the assignments. 90 students (average age of students: 20–21 years old) participated in the experiment: 45 students (14 male and 31 female) of the control group, who did not attend the media education course, and 45 students (14 male and 31 female) of the experimental group, who attended media educational classes. Our research showed that at the beginning of an academic year there was no significant difference in the levels of media competence development between the students of the control and experimental groups. The ratio of young men and women in the control and experimental groups, in our opinion, is typical for Russian pedagogical universities, where for many decades male students have consistently been a minority (from 10 % to 30 % of a class). The classification of the media competence's development indicators developed by us turned out to be an effective tool for comparative analysis between the control and experimental groups. This analysis has proved the effectiveness of the model developed by us and the methodology for fostering students' media literacy (the level of media competence of the students who took and passed a one-year course in media education was four times higher than the level of similar indicators in the control group).

46-58

Authors: Reynaldo Gacho Segumpan, Joanna Soraya Abu Zahari

Interpretive discussions on asynchronous online interactions in an Omani academic setting seem to be muted in the literature. The purpose of this phenomenological research was to understand the meanings constructed by Omani International Business Administration (IBA) students enrolled in Electronic Commerce (MANG2402) class as regards their confabulations using Facebook as a platform of interaction. We examined the written reflective narratives of 25 IBA students describing their lived experiences of asynchronous online marketing exercise during Spring 2015 Semester at the College of Applied Sciences – Rustaq, Sultanate of Oman. Our analyses of data surfaced the following main themes: (a) Facebook Engagement as a Space for Information Dissemination; (b) Facebook Engagement as a Node for Building Relationships; (c) Facebook Engagement as a Boost for Business Engagement; (d) Facebook Engagement as a Concave of Knowledge and Skills which consisted of the following sub-themes: Acquiring Subject-specific Knowledge, Gaining General Knowledge, and Developing Communication Skills; and, (e) Facebook Engagement as an Avenue for Wholesome Entertainment