A Study On Media Literacy Of University Students In The New Media Age

With the development of media technology, the Internet has been widely used. We have entered the new media age. Although it brings great convenience to people’s social life, it’s also the breeding ground for many negative issues. This is worth in-depth discussions from the particular perspective of media literacy, especially the university students who are eager to use new forms of communication. This study is designed to know the media literacy status of this group in the new media age by doing an empirical research.This study first explains the concept of media literacy, and analyses the development of its theory and practice. And on this basis, combined with the characteristics of new media, this study expands the connotation of media literacy, including the ability of using new media; the content acquisition, speculative and critical reading ability; the understanding of new media content and its operation mechanism; the judgment and reflection on the influence of new media to personal life; the understanding of the interaction between new media and the society.Then, this study attempts to do a questionnaire survey, using the students of Xiamen University students as samples, through which to understand in what degree does new media has influenced the living state of the university students, can they deal with the complex environment on Internet in a good way, and can they use the Internet actively to promote the development of society as a result. The results show that the university students can well operate and use new media, but spend too much time on it, especially when study and social contacts, which means they have a strong dependence on new media. Facing a huge amount of information on Internet, university students always do not know how to choose. And although interactivity and participation are two characteristics of new media, university students often use those to keep online relationships, when face network issues, more people hold an attitude of seeing. This result reflects the current media literacy status of university student in general.Hoping the conclusion of the connotation of media literacy, the questionnaire design and the research results can provide some reference for related researches in the future.