Determining the relationship between media literacy and social skill levels of the eighth grade primary school students

In this study, determining the relationship between media literacy and social skill levels of the eighth grade primary school students, considering various variables, is aimed. With this design, the questions of whether the relationship between media literacy and social skill levels of the eighth grade primary school students differs significantly according to gender, the school which they attend, having computer at home, time spent using computer, having television at home, time spent watching television, having access to internet, time spent on the internet; as well as whether there is a relationship between media literacy and social skill levels are sought an answer.The study has relational scanning model feature from general scanning models. The study group of the study consists of the eighth grade primary school students who study at the schools which were chosen from five different educational areas in the city center of Elazığ. Economical conditions and family profiles were considered in selection of those schools. The study group is consisted of 947 eight grade students who study at the selected schools.In the study, two different assessment scales have been used to receive students? opinions. One of them is the ?Level Determination Scale for Media Literacy? which was developed by Karaman ve Karataş (2009) and the other is the ?Social Skill Inventory?, as translated into Turkish by Galip Yüksel in 2004, which was developed by Riggio in 1989.The study has showed that there is not a significant relationship between media literacy level and social skill level. Considering the relationship according to the lower dimensions; it is observed that there is a relationship in some lower dimensions; however this relationship is very weak. It is observed that gender of the students does not form a significant difference for media literacy but it does for social skill level. Furthermore, female students? social skill levels are found to be higher. It is observed that the school which the students attend affects neither media literacy nor social skill levels. On the other hand, having a television, time spent watching television and time spent using internet are not found to cause a significant difference in media literacy. This is an unexpected result. However, having a computer and having access to internet have a significant effect, conditionally. It is observed that the students with the internet access at home form the group which has the highest media literacy. Social skill levels are observed to be affected significantly considering time spent on the internet. The students who do not use the internet within the day form the group which has the highest social skills.