The examination of social media usage of social studies teacher candidates in terms of different variables in the level of media literacy

Media literacy is increasingly important in the last four decades. Along with the understanding of the importance of media literacy, media literacy education has become a necessity. Media literacy education is given to children as a primary level second level elective media literacy course. The people who are obliged to read the media literacy course are the teachers of social studies. It is necessary for the senior students of Social Studies teacher, who will be teachers of social studies teachers and future teachers, to be able to teach this course about media literacy. One of the important factors that influence media literacy education is social media, which has existed over the past two decades and has been continuously diversified. The widespread use of social media means that social media directly or indirectly affects every aspect of our lives. This effect of social media has caused the positive or negative attitudes of people towards social media. The aim of this research is to examine the social media usage of Social Studies teacher candidates in terms of different variables in the media literacy levels. 267 students attending Uludağ University, Sinop University, Kastamonu University, Marmara University, Ege University and Uşak University Social Studies Teacher Training Department participated in the research in 2017-2018 academic year. Research, Research is a descriptive study and it is designed in a research screening model. Social Media Attitude Scale developed by Kararaş (2008), Media Literacy Level Scale (MODBÖ), Otrar and Argın (2016) and Personal Information Form developed by the researcher were used as data collection tool in the research. T test, ANOVA test and TUKEY tests were preferred when it was determined that the total scores obtained from the scales differed significantly according to the variables, as a result of normal distribution of the data. According to the findings obtained in the research, social studies teacher candidates' media literacy levels were high and attitudes towards social media were partially positive. As a result of the research, it was determined that as the social media usage duration of Social Studies teacher candidates increased, the media literacy levels also increased.