International Journal of Media and Information Literacy

40-52

Authors: Slimane Aboulkacem, Lory E. Haas, Abigail R. Winard

Part of being a 21st century citizen is experiencing the polarization and the divisiveness of the world, especially across digital social spaces. We live in a new media environment that is personalized for everyone. Additionally, today’s media life is characterized by the speed of information production, consumption, as well as and often absence of trustful information sources. Information is available in unprecedented amounts at the touch of a fingertip and finds us through an armada of digital services. Hence, the purpose of this research is to explore the perceptions and practices of 268 pre-service teachers from Algeria and the USA. Responses to four open-ended questions, which were part of a mixed methods survey, were analyzed for this study. These questions were posed to investigate pre-service teachers’ views of today’s news, its sources, and how they proceed into verifying and sharing information. The findings revealed that students indicate they verify information but did not share how they verify sources other than frequent use of Google search engine. Moreover, friends, family members, and Facebook comments were found to potentially sway the pre-teachers’ opinions or even sometimes determine their news believability.

66-71

Authors: Art Silverblatt

The ability to develop a critical distance from the messages being conveyed through the channels of mass communication is of vital importance. However, the value of Media Literacy education extends beyond media analysis, furnishing critical thinking skills for people who are in danger of losing the ability to come to independent conclusions based on the systematic assessment of evidence. According to Renee Hobbs and Richard Frost, media literacy education enhances critical thinking across a broad range of disciplines: The first large scale empirical study measuring the acquisition of media literacy skills in the United States concluded that incorporating media message analysis into secondary level English language arts curriculum … improved students’ reading, viewing and listening comprehension of print, audio and video texts, message analysis and interpretation, and writing skills. In addition, it should be emphasized that that the discipline of Media Literacy is essentially apolitical. Media Literacy educators teach people how to think, not what to think. What determines the validity of an analysis is the following: 1) the systematic application media literacy methodologies; and 2) the contentions must be supported with concrete examples (e.g., television episodes, films, and social media threads). Instead, the discipline of Media Literacy furnishes individuals with the skills to develop an independence of thought so necessary to the survival of democracy.

3-10

Authors: Olga Gorbatkova, Anastasia Levitskaya

The article is devoted to hermeneutical analysis of the film Dead Poets Society (1989, directed by Peter Weir). Reviews of Russian and foreign film critics are included into the analysys. The author presents the historical, ideological, political, social and cultural contexts, that influenced the film production; the main characters, the narrative structure and techniques used by the media text's producers. Interpreting the results of hermeneutical analysis of the film Dead Poets Society the authors come to conclusion that: – the media text clearly shows the main trends of the state policy in the educational, social and cultural fields; – the plot does not directly reflect the important events in the political life of the country, but there is a certain trace. Socio-political, economic objectives, ideological upbringing, religious education to varying degrees are reflected in the storyline of the media text (fundamental values are family, religion, love, loyalty, justice, generosity, kindness, mutual assistance, ability to take responsibility for actions, etc.); – the plot is immersed in the educational process, only slightly touches on love themes and is absolutely devoid of sex scenes; – the media text's concept is: socio-moral struggle (for personal happiness, love, truth, right for self-identification, freely express one's thoughts and ideas, etc.); confrontation against teachers' dullness, conservatism, bureaucratic approach; – this media text gives the idealized image of the teacher: intellectual, competent, respectful communicator of humanistic moral values and norms of behavior; – students' activity is centered around education and self-identity; – this media text promotes the humanistic ideal of a romantic character, attractive for the high moral and human qualities; – the film's authors present a strict social distance between teachers and students; unwavering authority and respect for the teacher, the prestige of the teaching profession in the eyes of students.

18-29

Authors: Svetlana Nedelcheva

This study focuses on the multumodal devices in representing migrants along the Balkan route in Bulgarian online news during the “migrant crisis” of 2015/2016. It reveals a broader sense of the term ‘text’ in describing the migrants including both verbal text and pictorial display of their social activities. They are seen as ‘social actors’ with particular social relationships between them and the people in the countries they pass through. A series of conceptual mappings characterizes the excerpted material: WATER metaphor, COMPETITION metaphor, EUROPE IS A PERSON metaphor, THE CRISIS IS A PERSON metaphor, EUROPE IS A HOUSE metaphor. The visual representation corresponds to the verbal one, therefore giving the reader a sense of objectivity of the news. Mostly the image of the refugees in the news is positive. The poor conditions they live in on their way to Europe are discussed with sympathy and compassion, consistent with Bulgarian foreign politics.