Media literacy of schoolchildren in a post-transitive society: study results

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Lomonosov Moscow State University

Faculty of Journalism

Media literacy of schoolchildren in a post-transitive society: study results

Tatiana I. Frolova, D.Sc. in Philology

Anastasia Yu. Obraztsova, Researcher

Moscow, Russian Federation



Аннотация

Медиапотребление школьников в постпереходном обществе: результаты исследования

Фролова Татьяна Ивановна, Доктор филологических наук, профессор Кафедра периодической печати, факультет журналистики, Московский государственный университет им. М.В. Ломоносова, Российская Федерация, г. Москва

Образцова Анастасия Юрьевна, Научный сотрудник,Проблемная научно-исследовательская лаборатория комплексного изучения актуальных проблем журналистики, факультет журналистики, Московский государственный университет им. М.В. Ломоносова, Российская Федерация, Москва

Актуальность. Статья основана на обширном исследовании факультета журналистики МГУ имени М.В. Ломоносова «Медиапотребление школьников: информационная эпоха и социализация детей в постпереходном обществе» (2013-2016). Глобальный контекст, обусловивший актуальность исследования, состоит в неоднозначности социальных последствий интенсификации медийных процессов и попытках общества воздействовать на процессы медиапотребления детей.

Цель. В исследовании определяется степень включенности представителей разных групп школьников в новое информационное пространство, характер их включенности в функционирование социальных сетей, описывается роль представителей старших поколений в процессах медиапотребления.

Методология. Одним из направлений исследования было выяснение позиций школьных педагогов и родителей по вопросам медиапотребления детей. Глубинные интервью строились на основании гайда, содержащего перечисление направлений беседы, которая строилась на следующих тематических блоках: семейные традиции использования СМИ, дети и СМИ, новые и традиционные медиа, при этом в интервью с учителями присутствовал дополнительный блок вопросов, посвященных медиаобразованию. Опросы проводились в 5 городах Российской федерации: Угличе, Якутске, Перми, Калининграде, Москве. Опрошено 104 родителя и 78 учителей.

Результаты. Согласно результатам исследования, вопроса о том, нужны ли СМИ детям школьного возраста в современном обществе, нет, потому что «они есть». Однако, нет единой стратегии по их интеграции в учебный процесс.

Вывод. Мы зафиксировали результаты достаточно противоречивого характера. Родители считают, что СМИ нужны их детям для критического восприятия действительности и получения новых знаний, однако сами используют их для развлечения и отдыха. В этом находит отражение как поколенческий барьер технологического свойства, так и неустойчивая ситуация в состоянии отечественной медиасистемы, продуцирующей контент ненадлежащего качества.

Ключевые слова. Социализация, медиапотребление, медиаграмотность, школьники,учителя.



Abstract

Media literacy of schoolchildren in a post-transitive society: study results

Tatiana I. Frolova, D.Sc. in Philology, Professor, Department of Periodical Press, Faculty of Journalism, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow Russian Federation,

Anastasia Yu. Obraztsova, Researcher, Problem Research Laboratory for Complex Studies of Current Issues of Journalism, Faculty of Journalism, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow, Russian Federation

Topicality. The current study is based on the research «Media Consumption among schoolchildren: Information Age and Socialization of Children in a Post-Transition Society» (Faculty of Journalism, 2013-2016). The research shows how parents and teachers understand the effects media have on their children.

The study describes how Russian children of school age use different sources of information nowadays and why they use them. It also analyzes the role and place of traditional mass media in children's life, looks into the level of their immersion into the information environment. The authors discuss if the society needs accurate and relevant information in order to improve the approach to these processes, and to develop media content strategies that meet the needs of children's socialization.

Objective. The study determines the degree, to which different groups of school children are immersed in various information environments, types of social media they use and the role of older generations in children's media consumption.

Design. In this work, in-depth interviews with respondents are used as the main method of study. The interviews include questions regarding the following issues: family traditions of media consumption, children and mass media, new media and traditional media. Interviews with teachers included a block of questions dedicated to media education problems. These interviews were conducted in five Russian cities: Uglich, Yakutsk, Perm, Kaliningrad and Moscow. The respondents included 104 parents and 78 teachers.

Results. The current research doesn't underestimate the use of the mass media for children of school age. Still, there is no universal strategy of mass media's integration into the educational process.

Conclusion. The results are quite contradictory. Parents argue that their children need mass media to analyze the reality and to get new knowledge, but their practical use of the media is focused primarily on entertainment. Talking about the control, parents often mention restraining measures. This points to a problem of digital divide between generations, as well as highlights the instability of the Russian media system, which produces content of quite poor quality.

Keywords. Socialization, media consumption, media literacy, school children, teachers.



The state of socialization processes and media consumption among schoolchildren in contemporary Russia

Children are an extremely important part of society. There are more than 31 mln children and teenagers under 20 years of age in Russia, 18 mln of them are of school age. According to the 2010 Population Census, they make up approximately one-fifth of the country's population. The personality structure and the main features of a person's character are shaped at a young age: physical and mental health; cultural, moral and intellectual potentials that will make an impact on the future generations. Society is not indifferent to the process of formation and development of children's potential. The peculiarities of childhood determine special rights of children and responsibilities of adults for their lives, health and development which were fixed in the Convention on the Rights of the Child, ratified by Russia (1999).

According to the Convention, a child has a right «to search for, get and share information» as long as this information does not violate the rights of others and is not damaging to the reputation of this or that person, health and moral principles of the population (Art. 13); member states, which have signed the Convention, «recognize the important role of mass media» and provide children with an access “to information and materials from different national and international sources aimed at the encouragement of social, spiritual and moral well-being, along with a healthy physical and psychological development of children”, and also “encourage mass media” to supply information and materials that are useful to children (Art. 17). These provisions are included in a range of national legislative documents: “The Federal Act on Basic Guarantees of Children's Rights” (Federal Act No. 124-Federal Act of 24 July 1998), federal programs “The Children of Russia” (The Russian Federation Government Resolution No. 172 of 21 March 2007 «On the Federal target program “Children of Russia” for 2007-2010), in an approved “National Strategy for Children for 2012-2017” (Decree of the President of the Russian Federation of 1 June 2012 No. 761). Formulating the objectives of this study, the authors proceeded from the understanding of the meanings of socialization that are not controversial and are generally accepted for the majority of studies, including the critical attitude to the meaning of the concept [1; 2]. In family children develop their first interaction skills, master their first social roles, and make sense of norms and values [3-8]. School provides pupils with systematic education, prepares them for life in society, and helps them to develop into citizens. A community of the child's fellows shapes the communication environment that does not depend on the adult's control and frequently runs counter to it. Thus, it is creating an attractive environment for pupils and particularly for teenagers to be in. Mass media and other mass- communication channels open to the children “the world of adults”, which they have less direct contacts with, and also expand their communicative sphere. The nature of the processes within the media in turn makes a huge impact on the development and upbringing of children. The instability of the media system [9-13] along with the growing media influence, that may be considered an agent of socialization, have formed a totally new environment for the development and upbringing of the new generations. The study of the media behavior of children and teenagers along with a research of their media consumption is one of the main spheres in pedagogic studies, psychology, sociology, journalism [14-20].

Methods

This article is an attempt to present and interpret the data of the research. One of the goals of the research was to find out the views of school teachers and parents regarding the issues of media consumption of school-age children and to reveal the level of media literacy of children according to these agents of socialization. The group of parents is represented by urbanites aged 25 and older who have one or more children of school age. The group of teachers consists of urbanites aged 25 and older who have work experience in state-funded educational institutions. The qualitative research was held on the basis of a random choice from the base of parents and teachers. The in-depth interviews with representatives of the older generation were made. In Uglitch 30 people were interviewed; in Yakutsk -- 37 parents, in Perm -- 9 people, in Kaliningrad -- 12 parents. In Voronezh as well as in Moscow 8 parents agreed to answer the questions of an in-depth interview. The number of respondents who answered the questions of the poll was the following: -- 44 teachers in Yakutsk, 7 people in Voronezh and 9 teachers in Perm, Kaliningrad and Moscow each.

The quantitative research was held in accordance with the maximum variable quota sampling. The in-depth interviews were conducted in accordance with the guidelines which included the following thematic clusters: family traditions of the media use, children and the mass media, new and traditional media. At the same time the interviews with teachers included an additional group of questions devoted to media education.

After decoding and analyzing the data gathered by means of interviewing the respondents, these data were partly classified and summarized to illustrate the opinions in the relevant topical units [21-24]. The aims of the research were the following: to study the correlation of the youth-audience with mass media, to elicit media preferences of pupils, their interests and needs; to study the degree of the media's impact on the process of learning and on the development of norms and values, to understand why teenagers use the mass media and how they perceive them. As part of the study, it was necessary to take the opinions of parents and teachers on the sources from which teenagers get information about the world, what they watch, how they use the Internet, why they use particular sources of information, what role the school and the family play in this process.



The results of the survey among teachers: Children need mass media

The survey among pupils showed that about 20 % of the respondents pointed out to the fact that teachers have an influence on their media preferences. Meanwhile the survey among teachers highlighted the teachers' view regarding the question of whether the media «are needed or not» for schoolchildren. The respondents claimed that this question is irrelevant -- «the media exist», without any doubt, there is a need to integrate children into the media sphere. Therefore, the question is how to build up a relationship with them, how to use them in the educational process. Nowadays this process is not well-structured; it depends on the specific perspectives of the teacher and is sometimes chaotic. There are no general teaching strategies in the field of media education.

At the same time everyone believes that it is necessary to get children acquainted with the mass media content; it is necessary to provide the participation of mass media in the process of socialization. The ways in which schoolchildren media behavior may be regulated and how the older generation may participate in this process were frequently raised in the interviews. The existing age restrictions are considered to be ineffective; the issue itself seems to be relevant, but no specific proposals were made, the respondents only indicated the necessity to install Internet filters on school computers.

Teachers believe that media consumption may contribute to the development of a personality, and may foster civic education. However, it is not clear from the answers how this process may be integrated into school education. As a whole, the processes of media behavior and media consumption by schoolchildren and their effects on socialization may be characterized as fairly relevant from the point of view of the teachers, but these processes are not totally comprehended by them, these issues are not a topic for public discussions in the professional community of teachers. Educators do not try to structure it or somehow change it. “It is necessary to get the children acquainted with the media, give examples, bring magazines, show programs on TV. Children are obsessed with the Internet. But I don't do it in my classes as we are short of time.” “This is a rather trivial question if mass media are useful for children or not. A person should read, analyze, should know how to use the media. Yet, if something happens in our country, there is similar information everywhere. When getting information every person ... should be able to analyze it. And there is pressure at school, then from parents. One needs to be up-to- date but it should not be imposed.”

Media consumption: the family decides. The most typical answers of the teachers (80 % of the respondents) are as follows: mass media (particularly television and the Internet) shape the worldview of schoolchildren who are unprepared to analyze information they get, and according to the observations of the teachers, these children are a majority.

Making reference to some forms of media use in the educational processes, on their own methods regarding the media behavior of the pupils, and giving characteristics to their observations in connection with the media consumption of the pupils, the majority of teachers link the media consumption patterns of pupils to the traditions and customs created in the family, rather than at school. In their opinion, that is the responsibility of parents to nurture the culture of media consumption and to control the media behavior of their children.

At the same time, we may acknowledge the fact that this control is weak, parents lack interest in the activities of their children, in particular in their relations with the mass media and other sources of information. Teachers and parents have opposing opinions concerning this matter. The majority of parents believe that they do control the media behavior of their children, while teachers disagree with this. Some parents support the idea of introducing a general media education course, but the majority are not enthusiastic about this sphere of school education. They believe that the right skills for media consumption will develop independently, without their interference.

The teachers refer to the parents' meetings where they express these recommendations to the parents, however, consider them ineffective. In is stated by all the respondents: “Children watch the same programs as their parents.” “All the interests stem from the family. If a child is left to his own all day long, spends time on the Internet -- the consequences are negative. They mainly should be controlled by the parents.” “The majority of parents do not take a great interest in it -- they are occupied by their own lives. We discuss this during parents' meetings but we get an impression that they forget it as soon as they leave the room. It is really easy to put a child in front of the computer and to free yourself that way.”

Newspapers and magazines: silence. Observing the media consumption of the pupils, teachers emphasize the declining role of newspapers and magazines. Sometimes children get tasks when they need to resort to newspapers (for example, when they study the journalistic style in the language) -- the difference between the use of the classical examples and the contemporary newspaper style makes it difficult to use media materials as teaching resources.

Some teachers (of literature, history, social studies) note that they direct the pupils to newspapers and magazines in search for up- to-date materials; however, these tasks are not given systematically. Print media and other sources are more frequently used by responsible pupils, but the others prefer simple downloading from the Internet. Teachers sometimes turn to their professional press when they need methodological insights.

One of the reasons why periodicals are becoming less common is the decline of press subscriptions. Subscription to periodicals is expensive for province residents: “it is unaffordable; the postmen bring only a few newspapers”. However, village residents still consider periodicals the source of information since not everyone has Internet access.“There is no interest in periodicals as parents are not subscribed to them. Print media are in silence.”

“The paper media have lost this battle.”

At the same time, occasional interest in local newspapers is observed when a news event involving schoolchildren and their relatives is covered.Nowadays the situation is deteriorating because of the fact that this kind of press is considered to be for «the pensioners», it hardly attracts the attention of young people. Television: poor choice. Television viewing is still an activity popular among schoolchildren; however, it no longer has the leading role, according to teachers' points of view. This type of activity comprises about 30 % of all the media activities of pupils. The main reason is the Internet use; however, the quality of television programs makes a significant effect on the choice of children. Entertaining content that is consumed by the adults along with children prevails. Contests, soap operas, sports programs are also in demand due to the influence of parents.

The topical similarity of the programs is also noticed: the phrase «there is no choice» in relation to television content is a popular answer among teachers. Overdramatization of the news stories is emphasized and is claimed to have a negative effect on children, as well as broadcasting of negative values and consumption ideology that encourage the development of antisocial behavior. All these are core traits of the extremely commercialized television content: the topics, communicative techniques, ideological attitudes.

“Television has become less significant ... the choice is poor... political programs are not watched.”

“Television is watched because parents watch it. They watch the same programs as their parents, that are the first two channels and TNT; on the first two channels they watch reality programs where all the participants shout at each other and discuss strange issues... one should understand that the presenter's aim is to provoke conflict, make the atmosphere tense. Children accept this and consider this to be real, then they project it in their lives.”

“There are many negative factors. Children sometimes watch programs for adults. They have become rude, self- centered. These are the programs on TV where one gets rid of others by tricks and everyone defends his/her interests. Children can also see that everyone stands for his own rights. This used to be different: motherland was more important than one's own interests.”

Evaluating the media content teachers emphasize the fact that the image of teachers the mass media create is not favorable. It doesn't foster the development of a positive attitude to teachers and to education in general:

“The attitude to school and teachers is developed by the mass media. For the last 20 years the image of an uneducated and hated person that may even be beaten has been promoted... And this situation the media are to blame for this.”

The Internet: at any time of the day or night. The majority of the respondents do not see the competition between the traditional and new media due to the total victory of the Internet. The competition, according to their opinion, is in the past. However, the consequences of this victory may be considered as ambivalent.

“There is no competition between traditional and new media. The Internet is winning, the traditional media may only compete with each other.”

“Having no access to the Internet is compared to the end of the world. The Internet has substituted newspapers, magazines and books. One may speak about an addiction: when a child is at home, he / she is totally immersed in the Internet life."

The Internet: more advantages than disadvantages. Most attention in the interviews is given to the Internet and to pupils' and teachers' interaction with the Internet. Normally, there is free access to the Internet at schools, where filters are set. The teachers have demonstrated an ambiguous attitude to the Internet. Some of the respondents note that children get damaging information and disinformation from the Internet. social teacher media literacy information

However, contrary to some of the expectations, positive attitudes dominate, including the opinions of senior teachers who have a big teaching experience and an opportunity to compare the role of sources of information and the type of children's communication environment.

The positive role of the new sphere is noted mainly as a source of information and resource that may help to diversify the preparation of home tasks, essays, talks and presentations. In this connection the position that reflects the ambivalence of the Internet as an information resource is fully presented: passive, uncritical attitude to the information for downloading seriously prevents the development of the personality. The attitude of the teachers to the Internet should be paid special attention to. They express their concern over children's limited real-life communication, not being out in the streets, uncritical attitude to the type of communication in social networks, and dangerous hobbies.

At the same time, many of them emphasize the necessity of careful interference in pupils' private space, and consider strict prohibitions and pressure unacceptable. Teachers make an attempt to distinguish between «useful» and «harmful» aspects of the Internet environment, but at the same time they admit that they lack experience and knowledge. They need expert support and educational projects that may help them to systemize their randomly gained skills and knowledge in this sphere. They lack information, which prevents them from being guides for schoolchildren and feeling confident in this role. They say:

“They are rarely seen in the streets, they surf the Internet. The Internet distracts them from communication. It has replaced immediate communication with peers. They create different groups, different subcultures. Even at our school girls are interested in this.”

“It is not a problem to find ready home tasks on the Internet. They [pupils] think that they don't need to worry if everything is in the Internet. For example, I know that there are keys to the tasks in the Internet and I try to invent something myself, something that is not in the Internet. There are compositions on different topics. I try to stop plagiarism -- I don't give writing a composition as home task, they write them in class. I teach them not to copy the information that they find in the Internet, but read it, think it over and rewrite in their own words.”

“Children nowadays do not think what they study and watch. They are out of the information environment; they are at the gossip level. They know what is being discussed in the family circle.”

The effect of the mass media on socialization: One cannot live without the media. The majority of teachers claim that there is a connection between the media consumption activity and the academic performance, as well as the development of personal qualities. However, the connections between the type of media consumption and personalities as it follows from the answers are complex and ambiguous. They are not always positive. The abundance of information that children may make use of puts pressure on them, disorients them. One needs to shape special skills to search for information.

“There is a connection between their progress and the peculiarities of media consumption. We have reading diaries in class. A teacher gives the task to find information and children write down the source of information. We have a contest of readers' diaries, and the best ones are rewarded at the end of the year. That is how we try to accustom them to reading. If children are interested, it effects their future choice of educational institutions.”

Media education projects: children should be taught. Media projects are eagerly approved of by teachers. The educators, who took part in the survey, are convinced that everyone needs media education -- they need it, and so do the children and their parents. A number of respondents complained about not having time for their personal media consumption.

They frequently feel they lack knowledge in the media sphere although they often use the Internet and traditional media to prepare for the classes. They wish they had more knowledge in this sphere. Almost all of them mention that children live in media abundance, they cannot critically evaluate or find relevant information. All the respondents pointed out the necessity to introduce special classes aimed to teach pupils how to handle information, including the information in the media.

At the same time none of the respondents was able to name any media educational projects; only some of them heard that in other countries at schools there are subjects aimed to teach how to interact with the mass media. ICT lessons are not enough for children to become media-literate. As a rule, they do not distinguish between the notions of information and media literacy. Nevertheless, teachers understand that mass media serve as a window to the world.

Children need to be well-informed about this world, but this does not happen. Teachers believe in the necessity of the system of media education, as well as basic knowledge for parents, who have to exercise control over their children's media consumption at home. Advanced training courses, as well as the program of media education at Moscow State University, were mentioned by some respondents. It was mentioned that teachers have basic knowledge in media literacy, which they would like to improve. It would be better if such work was carried out by a person with special education.

Yet, the parental control is necessary. The role of a teacher is to be a guide in the world of the media, but educators often lack knowledge and time in the school curriculum to do so. The best option, according to the interviewed, is to combine teachers' knowledge and guidance at school and parental control at home.

“We need to teach children to work with information as they don't know how to do it.”

“The system is needed. One should understand that children live in the media space which they are not well familiar with and do not know its laws. The teachers are not well aware of them too. One should be familiarized with them, classes should be held, explications given of what may be excluded. One should explain and speak about the sources. The information is different. Where is the truth and where are the lies? What have the media made up?”

“We had been waiting for the [educational] standard of the second generation. We had expected the standard of media education to be covered, but it did not happen. The children are navigating the information space by «trial and error»... there are courses where critical movie watching is taught. And in the case of the mass media there is probably nothing like that.”

“A teacher should give some advice and parents have to control.”

The results of the survey among parents: One can't live without the mass media nowadays 50 % of children have pointed out the fact that parents influence their media consumption. The aim of the survey among parents was to reveal the traditions of family media consumption, its influence on the children's consumption and behavior, and to obtain information regarding the methods and forms of parental control, the opinion of parents about the necessity of additional media education classes. 88 parents from the cities mentioned were surveyed. Some parents, mostly those of high school students, notice an interesting tendency of simultaneous media consumption: teenagers watch television while at the same time communicate in social networks.

The role of information: The youth needs the mass media. It is recognized by all the parents interviewed. However, such statement is rather formal as the arguments are poor and similar. The informative and entertaining functions of the mass media are emphasized. As a rule, common facts are repeated and no personal motives are mentioned. Such attitude is revealed in the media content analysis which is consumed by families where the journalistic content takes an unimportant place. Information literacy and the culture of interaction with the media are often confused. The necessity to be well-informed about the mass media, to nurture the culture of media consumption is not clearly articulated.

“One can't live without information nowadays. It is important to know what is happening in the world... some educational things about the world... for one's own interest, hobby.”

“The mass media are needed. They are the source of information. They are entertainment.”

“Mass media are necessary to children. They provide a variety [of information] and horizons that we can't give them.”

Media consumption: Is everything under control? We tried to the test the hypothesis that «everything comes from the family». The hypothesis was partly been proved: almost half of the children indicated that they turn to the mass media on advice or under the influence of their parents. Nevertheless, other factors identify the ambiguity of the parental influence.

The question about the nature of media consumption in families has revealed rather complex picture which probably demonstrates the transitional nature of the relations with the media -- at the level of the comparison of different families, as well as at the level of the differences between the younger and older generations within families. The most frequently mentioned types of the print media are the local newspapers along with TV guides, periodicals devoted to gardening, entertainment, sports, cars, educational periodicals, including entertaining magazines for the youth -- «Liza-Girl», «Oops!», magazines for children and news magazines. The socio-political federal press is not mentioned -- neither are the newspapers, nor the magazines. Some parents make harsh statements about the press, believing that the print media are on the stage of degradation. “Print media have no perspectives. The Internet is easier and cheaper. It is always within reach with a gadget. <...> News in newspapers is potentially outdated. I read a Russian newspaper on the Internet.”

However, more than a half of the parents claim that they read print media at home: subscription is mentioned along with the retail buying. Parents, as a rule, read local newspapers but the youth is not interested in them. The press is bought by the parents (for themselves and for the children), children do it by themselves and parents do it on demand of their children. Therefore, the teachers hold to a tougher vision of the family consumption of print media. A big number of respondents have pointed out to the lack of tradition of print press consumption for the reason of its expensiveness and retargeting on the Internet-media.

“We have no place to get the newspapers from. We are not subscribed to them as it is expensive.”

“We are subscribed to the local newspaper... My daughter is interested in fashion, cloths.”

“Our whole family reads newspapers and magazines. The post works badly that is why we have no subscriptions. [Our] child waits for the magazines, tracks every issue.”

“We do not read them ourselves and have no subscriptions. Children read old magazines which their parents were previously subscribed to. The Internet is everywhere.”

“There is no tradition of reading newspapers in the family. The eldest child doesn't even read magazines for teenagers.”

“[My] son doesn't like reading, he is lazy.”

Radio -- is the least common type of the media. Television continues to play a big role in the way of life of the families; however, the patterns of television viewing are different. A family watches television mostly in the evening time, 3-4 hours a day, in a number of cases that is a background viewing. Families have 1-3 television sets -- that is the moment that defines the nature of viewing.

The availability of one television set determines the collective viewing of television programs of parents and children, which is frequently followed by the discussion of news, entertaining programs and soap operas. However, this situation is not typical. More often members of the family watch television separately; even more frequently parents watch television, the elder children spend time in front of the computers. Parents rarely limit the time of television viewing. One third of the respondents among parents believe that a child does not consume television content at all giving preference to the Internet-space.

According to the parents' observations, pupils are more attracted by the entertaining content, particularly soap operas (especially sitcoms). Apart from that pupils watch informative programs, parents watch the news. Sociopolitical, analytical and news programs are not mentioned.

“If parents watch some programs, children watch them too. During the weekend my daughter mostly waists time on TV.”

“We mostly get information from TV... But my daughter in not very interested in the news... We all have very different interests; we all like different soap operas... The whole family watches the first channel.”

“In the evenings we drink tea, this is a tradition. At the same time, we watch television. We discuss the news of the day together and then go our separate ways.”

“We do not discuss the news; we are not interested in politics and economy.” “We have not been watching television at all recently.”

Special attention is paid to the Internet -- parents point out to the Internet's obvious predominance in the nature of media consumption. According to their opinions, first comes the communication in networks, on the second place is the search for information in the education process, and then come all the rest including the Internet media. In accordance with the opinions of the parents and teachers surveyed, the majority of the schoolchildren get primary information about some events in the social networks and then (if they are interested and want to get more details of the story) they use the Internet to search for more information. Five surveyed parents paid attention to this tendency.

The majority of the representatives of the older generation noted the changes in the media priorities -- children use the Internet to search for information, as the traditional media do not satisfy their demands. Parents try to discuss the most important news events in the family and only two of the surveyed parents do not pay attention to this.

The Internet is evaluated positively. Everyone notes that their children easily navigate the Internet, easily pick up the search methods. They see no competitive advantages of the traditional media over the Internet. Sometimes they refer to the possible convergent technologies giving the advantages to the Internet.

«The Internet has the priority. My daughter would rather read something on the Internet than take a newspaper.»

“A child lacks free time just to surf the Internet... Only weekends are left or 2-2.5 hours in the evenings.”

“The Internet positively effects education. However, games, entertaining web sites take too much time.”

“He plays on the Internet. 80% of the time they play -- both the father and the son.”

“The press will disappear with the time and everything will be on the Internet.”

“The Internet will overshadow everything -- books and all the rest. Books are read on the Internet as well. The boy does not spend time on the social network VKontakte, it causes a negative response in him. He bans his younger sister to do so. More often he searches for information for study purposes.”

“You can't pull them away by their ears from the Internet.”

“My child waists all his free time on the Internet every day.”

“All the family members watch the news on the Internet.”

“The print media have no prospects. The Internet is easier and cheaper.”

Parental control: «Do we control»? The overwhelming majority of parents claim that they control their children on the Internet and social networks (according to their words, they control the time, content and sometimes the fact of communication), as well as the information consumption as a whole -- such unanimity seems to be dubious. As teachers speak about the necessity of parental control parents probably believe that such an answer might be correct and would create them an image of a good parent.

They do not display anxiety about the excessive enthusiasm of their children regarding the social networks. Parents at the age of 30+ have mastered Internet and rarely question themselves about the dangers which are connected with the new information technologies. The concerns that have been expressed by teachers about the passive use of information from the Internet are not mentioned in their answers.

There are no regrets that children are reading fewer books as they lack time and devote it to the Internet. Parents are calm when children are at home in front of a computer; they see no possibility of dangerous information influence on their children. The majority of parents do not control the media consumption of their children thinking that it's unnecessary; they refer to the responsibility and common sense of the children, their trust. Some parents note that their children are more information literate and, in accordance with their opinions, that is a sufficient reason for the lack of parental control.

“We track down the telephone access, the father does it -- he may demand the details on the websites... the social network boom is over. They either have grown up or their interests have changed.”

“We control what he does on the Internet. The door in the room is always opened, I enter the room. We have a block of doubtful sites.”

“She uses a cell phone, so I do not control her. It takes little time, so she may use it. And the son is quite an adult thus I don't control him too...” “She is a very responsible person. I don't check her, I trust her.”

“We would like to control, but it is hardly likely. If it is forbidden to children to do something, they would want to enter the sites.”

Media education: «It is needed».

Special classes on media education are welcomed as a whole; however, their aim is outlined and understood rather vaguely. It is not clear who will be responsible for them and in what form they have to be carried out -- as a part of their curriculum on special classes, on the additional classes or as an integrated part of other subjects.

Parents do not know about the proper projects. The idea of media education is seen as positive. Some parents believe that media culture should be nurtured in families, however, it is not clear what competences parents have themselves. According to the answers, these skills are not developed.

“Yes it is important. It is very important. There is a great choice nowadays. Even we adults cannot distinguish it let alone the children. Of course, someone who may explain it professionally is needed.”

“It would be good if children are told about that on some special classes.” “Media education classes are needed. It may help them in the future, may broaden their horizons. The classes may be held by some visiting specialists.”

“They should be acquainted with it but not obtrusively. It would be good. If it is was part of the extracurricular classes.”

“One should not get obsessed with it. The culture of education at home is enough.”

Based on the survey data, we may make a conclusion that the situation with media education is in transition and therefore has a rather ambiguous character. Parents believe that the media are necessary to children, but they do not give high assessment to the media content. Recognizing the role of the parental control they mention mainly the prohibitions. Seeing the media as a source of knowledge in a real world, they themselves use them mainly as a source of relaxation and entertainment. This situation reflects both the generation gap and the unstable situation in the state of the national media system that produces the low-quality content.



Список использованной литературы

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References

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