Attitudes of secondary school students to media literacy (Adiyaman sample)

Today, it is very easy for people to communicate with developing technology. Thanks to the media, people are able to communicate with each other without addressing distance and address their communities and send their opinions in written, oral or visual form to all over the world at the same time. Media owners can be effective on people by means of these opportunities and they can easily create publicity and direction in any subject they want. In today's world, it is argued that this effectiveness of the media is now the fourth power of sovereignty along with the three powers. It is not difficult to predict the magnitude of the harm that can be caused to people when used in the wrong hands and in the wrong way, considering that they may not always have good intentions. When we consider the relationship between our society and the way of life and the media, those who will be most affected by this potential negativity will be the children whose personalities are yet to be formed and who are the most vulnerable of the society. For this reason, it is seen as a necessity to give media education from an early age in order to be aware of the harmful aspects of the media and to use it in a positive way. As it is accepted in the world, the right way of media education in our country is going through the media education at school and media literacy lesson is used as a generally accepted method for media education. The main purpose of media literacy; To use the useful aspects of the media and to protect them from harmful aspects. An individual with media literacy education and a media literate can evaluate the messages he receives from the media correctly, weigh the credibility and use the media effectively and positively. Considering the age of the children's being acquainted with the media and the impact of the media on children, the necessity of media literacy from the elementary school will be revealed.Therefore, in this study, first of all, what is communication and media (mass media) through literature review, the effects of media on community life and children, and the effects on media education, what is the media literacy which is the basis of media education and the necessity of media literacy in our country It is disclosed. After the literature information, studies about determining the media literacy perception levels of secondary school students with the main scope and purpose of my study were conducted. The research was conducted in accordance with the general screening model. The universe of the study is composed of secondary school students studying in Adıyaman province. The sample was consisted of 420 students who had taken media literacy courses in 2018-2019 academic year at 4 selected secondary schools. In the research, the attitudes of the students towards Media Literacy were measured by a 5-point Likert-type questionnaire and other information about the sampling was obtained with a personal information form.