Formation of media literacy in information society

ФОРМИРОВАНИЕ МЕДИАГРАМОТНОСТИ В ИНФОРМАЦИОННОМ ОБЩЕСТВЕ

Создание эффективной системы медиаобразования в Украине будет способствовать усовершенствованию учебного процесса. Статья посвящена проблеме развития медиаграмотности и формирования медиакультуры в информационном обществе. Автор анализирует взаимосвязь между такими понятиями, как медиаобразование, медиаграмотность, медиакультура, опираясь на исследования украинских и зарубежных ученых.

Ключевые слова: медиаобразование, медиаграмотность, медиакультура, культурная компетенция, информационное общество.

The main text

In modem society information technologies have become an integral part of human life. The transition from industrial society to information society, precipitous increase of information demands new approaches to the educational process, new methods, and forms of presentation of educational information. Thus, the primary task of education is mastering the skills to work with a variety of information sources, and ability to expose the acquired information to critical analysis.

The rapid development of information and communication technologies requires special training of individuals to skillful and safe use of these technologies which makes media education the question of special significance nowadays and brings such notions as «media literacy» and «media culture» in the foreground.

According to the Conception of implementation of media education in Ukraine (2010), «there is an urgent need for the development of media education, one of the main objectives of which is to prevent the person's vulnerability to media violence and media manipulation, escape from reality into the mazes of virtual world, spread of media addiction» [1].

Media Education is the object of study of a number of Ukrainian and foreign scientists: G. Onkovych, A. Fedorov (theoretical and methodological aspects), Sakhnevych, I. Chemeris, N. Duhanina (historical and methodological aspects), E. Kosolapova, S. Tsym- balenko, T. Kuznetsova, Sh. Mader (cultural aspect) and others.

Media education is the process of personality's development by means of media with the purpose of formation of the culture of communication with media, creative communicative skills, and critical mode of thinking, skills of full perception, interpretation, analysis, and evaluation of media texts, learning of different forms of self-expression by means of media techniques [3, p. 104].

Defining horizontal and vertical vectors of modern media didactics G. Onkovich regards media education as «the process of personal enhancement and selfdevelopment with the help and through the material of mass communication (media)» [8, p. 74].

In Recommendations Addressed to UNESCO on Media Education, media education is considered as «part of the basic entitlement of every citizen, in every country in the world, to freedom of expression and the right to information and is instrumental in building and sustaining democracy. Media Education addresses a wide range of texts in all media (print, still image, audio and moving image) which provide people with rich and diverse cultural experiences» [9].

Media education system operates a certain set of terms such as «media education», «media culture», «media literacy», «media competence», «media didactics».

Media culture - is a system of material and intellectual values in the field of media, a historically determined system of their reproduction and functioning in society as well as; with respect to the audience media culture can be a system of levels of development of human personality able to perceive, analyze, evaluate media texts, to be involved into media creation, to acquire new knowledge in the sphere of media. Similar notions are information culture, video culture, audiovisual culture [2].

Information culture is a system of material and intellectual values in the field of information, as well as a historically determined system of their reproduction and functioning in society; in relation to the audience information culture can be a system of levels of development of the human personality able to perceive, analyze, evaluate information, to acquire new knowledge in this area [2].

We support the point of view of L. Usenko, A. Fedorov, J. Pungente, I. Rother, D. Suess, Ch. Worsnop who consider that media literacy is the result of media education process [2]. The more you study media and by means of media the more media literate you are.

The importance of formation of media literacy and media culture is discussed by many Ukrainian and foreign scholars. Some of them admit that it is necessary to form media literacy and information culture from primary school age because of the strongest influence of uncontrolled flow of information on the younger generation. E. Kosolapova affirms that because of children's psycho- physiological characteristics and lack of abstract thinking media literacy education and formation of information culture of primary school pupils is a difficult process. She considers that the process of visualization and the usage of media text as a learning tool can facilitate the perception of children for their understanding the complex material [5]. By media text we mean a message that is present in any kind or genre of media [2]. Thus, media text helps to form media culture of the children.

Prof. Dr. Sergey Tsymbalenko mentions a new living space of real and virtual communication as a uniform system where teenagers live through computers, and defines update internet generation as «global kids who have unlimited possibilities to access and to revise information and knowledge» [11, p. 98]. He asserts that «through open and allembracing online information children can be independent from grown-ups when getting relevant information», and «the young generation is already living after the model of collective intellect by taking advantage of communication with peers and adults for decision making» [11, p. 98]. But having access to unlimited amounts of information causes the problem of getting high quality information and thus, the problem of mastering the skills of selecting relevant information and developing critical mode of thinking to interpret the received information, to make one's own conclusions and to create new information. So the necessity of navigation programmes containing useful tips and help to find qualitative information on different issues is of urgent importance nowadays.

Sharon Mader, Dean of Library Services, University of New Orleans, says about the necessity of expansion of scholarly communication and facilitating knowledge sharing worldwide, and suggests the idea of transforming students to scholars by creating media and information competences through communicating research. Universities and institutional repositories should play a key role in transformation process. The former must «ensure that students develop the media and information literacy competencies essential for shaping and leading the new face of global scholarly communications», and the latter can be used «not only to promote the dissemination and preservation of scholarly and creative work, but also as a powerful vehicle for developing and refining media and information literacy competencies in undergraduate as well as graduate students, and to train these future researchers and knowledge workers and citizens to be able to deal both technologically and intellectually with the new world of scholarly communications» [10, p. 322].

So in the process of transforming students into scholars the former become skillful users and creators of information, develop information communications technology skills, digital literacy, media literacy and information literacy, and in such a way the students contribute to the formation of their own media and information culture.

In information society knowledge is becoming the highest value and the level of mastering knowledge is the determining factor of social differentiation. So for contemporary society we can use such notions as «knowledge societies» or «intellectualized societies». Too rapid development of information and communication technologies and constant pressure of uncontrollable flow of information have a negative influence on human mind resulting in disability to think logically and the so-called clip thinking [6]. To prevent it we should pay attention to the information literacy and information culture. T. Kuznetsova considers cultural competence as a target factor of information literacy. She defines cultural competence as «the degree of one's socialization, inculturation and professionalization in relevant social environment» [6, p. 207]. For its development one should master skills and technologies of navigation, search, analysis, selection and processing of large data arrays for solving numerous functional tasks (instrumental, education, and entertainment) [6]. Thus, we can conclude that the level of personal cultural competence reflects the level of personality's media and information culture.

Summing up, we would like to cite the famous Russian media pedagogue O. Baranov: «When we speak about the influence of the mass media on the people, we should mention, in the first place, their informational and educational roles that can not only `move the walls of our dwellings apart to the size of the planet', but also give us the various, discrepant and disembodied information about people, their behavior, their mode of life in the different kinds of societies, regions, countries. New communication media help us to overtake the broad range of information. And at the same time they form us as the audience - readers, listeners, viewers, Internet user, i.e. consumers. Could we become the active subjects of culture; will depend on some supplementary conditions such as: are we ready to interact with media (in our schools pupils are mostly taught to be readers); is media closely related to the person's life; what are the family media choices» [7, p. 47-48].

Thus, media and information literacy and media culture are inseparably linked with each other. The ability to resist the negative information influence and manipulation is one of the essential parts of the development of contemporary personality. The life in the information society is impossible without mastering media and information literacy and culture.

We share Irmgarda Kasinskaite-Buddeberg's point of view who considers media and information literacy as one of the prerequisites for building inclusive, open, participatory and pluralistic knowledge societies. People with high level of media and information literacy:

1. are able to access, evaluate, produce, and disseminate information and media content using appropriate technology;

2. develop critical mode of thinking to interpret the received information, to make one's own conclusions and to create new information;

3. can create knowledge and share it widely as well as know how to engage with information providers and media for self-expression and democratic participation;

4. understand and know their information and media rights and their responsibility for demanding free, independent, and diverse information and media systems;

5. realize the role and functions of information providers and media, as well as the conditions under which these functions can be performed [4, p. 27]

We consider that only individuals with high level of media and information literacy and media culture should build knowledge societies. The formation of media culture and the creation of effective system of media education in Ukraine can ensure the improvement of the educational process and the quality of European higher education.

References

1. Концепція впровадження медіаосвіти в Україні [Електроний ресурс]. Режим доступу: http://osvita. mediasapiens.ua/material/koncepciya-vprovadzhennya-mediaosviti-v-ukrayini.

2. Федоров А. В. Словарь терминов по медиаобразованию, медиапедагогике, медиаграмотности, медиакомпетентности / А. В. Федоров. Таганрог: Изд-во Таганрог. гос. пед. ин-та, 2010. 64 c.

3. Чемерис І. М. Медіаосвіта за кордоном: теорія медіаосвіти та коротка історія розвитку / І. М. Чемерис // Вища освіти України. 2006. № 3. С. 104-108.

4. Irmgarda Kasinskaite-Buddeberg. Towards a Holistic Approach to Literacy: Media and Information Literacy // Media and Information Literacy for Knowledge Societies. Moscow: Interregional Library Cooperation Centre, 2013. P. 23-28.

5. Kosolapova, E. Media Literacy Education and Formation of Information Culture of Primary School Pupils in Children's and School Libraries: Possibilities and Limitations // The current state of media education in Russia in the context of world trends. Moscow: Russian Institute of Cultural Studies, 2013. P. 38-46.

6. Kuznetsova T. Cultural Competence as a Target Factor of Information Literacy // Media and Information Literacy for Knowledge Societies. Moscow: Interregional Library Cooperation Centre, 2013. P. 206-209.

7. Kutsenko, E. Media education in Ukraine: history and prospects for further development // The current state of media education in Russia in the context of world trends. Moscow: Russian Institute of Cultural Studies, 2013. P. 47-54.

8. Onkovich, G. Horizontal and Vertical Vectors of Modern Media Didactics // The current state of media education in Russia in the context of world trends. Moscow: Russian Institute of Cultural Studies, 2013. P. 72-78.

9. Recommendations Addressed to UNESCO on Media Education. http://www.nordicom.gu.se/sv/clearinghouse/ recommendations-addressed-unesco-media-education.

10. Sharon Mader. Transforming Students into Scholars: Creating MIL Competencies Through Communicating Research. Media and Information Literacy for Knowledge Societies. Moscow: Interregional Library Cooperation Centre, 2013. P. 316-323.

11. Tsymbalenko, S. Promoting media culture of young generation // The current state of media education in Russia in the context of world trends. Moscow: Russian Institute of Cultural Studies, 2013. P. 95-102.

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