Examining media literacy level of teacher candidates and their perspectives on media literacy

As in many other countries, following the 2007-2008 education year when media literacy courses began to be included in the curricula, media literacy has become one of the discussion topics among educators and decision makers in Turkey. Discussion topics related to media literacy have included who is going to give the media literacy courses, what qualifications will be sought out in media literacy education teachers, what will be included in the media literacy curriculum in terms of its content, and at what level the media literacy course will be given.The current study which aims to examine the perspectives and media literacy levels of teacher candidates utilized the survey method.The sample of the study included the Elementary School Education Department (Elementary School Education and Social Studies Education programs) and Turkish Language Education Department teacher candidates (480) in the Education Faculty at the Dumlupinar University in the 2008-2009 education year.The results of the study showed that teacher candidates have a low level of reaction to media messages, do not educate people around enough about the effects of media, but make use of different sources of media to gain information, are cognizant of media literacy, believe in the importance of media literacy courses, and think that media literacy courses should be given at more than one level.Keywords: Media Literacy, Media Education, Critical Media Literacy, Social Sciences