Media literacy in the post-turth era: A survey on the awareness of false content

Due to the development of digital communication technologies, the changes in the structure of the mass media and the media in the communication processes have brought along some changes in the production of social knowledge and social reality, as well as the epistemic conditions regarding the production of news. It is seen that the ethical debates brought about by these changes and transformations have been frequently discussed in recent years, especially within the framework of the post-truth phenomenon and various related concepts. Post-truth is considered as an adjective that expresses the situation where "personal beliefs and feelings are effective from objective facts in the process of shaping public opinion". In this context, discussions on the production and dissemination of false content, which constitutes one of the most important disadvantages of online environments and creates a serious obstacle to obtaining objective information about reality, triggering misinformation, especially for younger and sensitive generations, have led to academic, political and social issues centered on media literacy. As a matter of fact, the increasing effect of the media on the social field and daily life has revealed the importance of media literacy in the fight against the post-truth environment and has brought along discussions on effective media literacy. The main purpose of this research, which aims to develop a perspective compatible with today's conditions regarding the concept and practices of media literacy, is to determine the position of university students consisting of young adult individuals in media environments by examining their perceptions and experiences of media and news environments in general, and false content in particular, in the context of new media literacy skills. as well as examining the characteristics of production and participation. In the research, "new media literacy scale" was applied in order to determine the new media literacy skill levels of the students and the findings were examined in depth with a qualitative study in the next stage of the research. Therefore, the study was conducted with the mixed method research. The sample in the quantitative phase consists of 379 students studying at Şırnak University. The study group of the qualitative stage consists of 30 students in the sample group. As a result of the research, although a "high" level result was obtained in the new media literacy general score averages, it was determined that the perceptions of "production" in the dimensions of functional and critical levels were lower than the perceptions of "consumption". The findings obtained from the study revealed that, in terms of general averages, the levels of "critical production" dimension were lower than all other sub-dimensions of new media literacy. The findings were examined in detail through the interview form applied in the qualitative phase of the research and in-depth interviews with the students.