A Survey Of Children's Moral Consensus In The Context Of New Media

The new media age,based on the Internet,brings about cultural diversity and challenge the authority and unification of the traditional morality,causing the value diversification and moral anomie.It is a strong impact for moral consensus which the existence and operation of society depends on.It is a critical period that Children develop the moral character and behavior.The complex environment of new media has brought great challenge to children's moral education.There are many problems to be considered,for example,what is the situation of children's exposure to new media,what is the current situation of children's moral consensus in the context of new media,and the impact of the new media on children's moral consensus?Scholars claim that children could be moral agent and have the ability of moral reasoning.Thus,this study aims to formulate a questionnaire to investigate children's moral consensus.The questionnaire includes two parts: the situation of children's moral consensus and children's use of new media.A total of 3277 children from 6 provinces in China participated in this survey to complete the questionnaire made by the researchers.Data gathered were tallied by SPSS20.0.Results from Exploratory Factor Analysis show three factors: moral cognition,moral affection,and moral behavior for this questionnaire;Confirmatory factor analysis was performed to show its good convergent validity and reliability(Cornbrash's? = 0.902).The moral consensus questionnaire for children in this study reflects children's beliefs in morality and represents children's perspective.Thus,it is highly recommended for educators who care for children's moral education.The survey results show that:(1)in the use of new media,most of the children are willing to use new media,mainly to meet the recreational needs,and new media has affected children's knowledge,behavior and judgment of right and wrong.Based on this,children are inclined to indulge in the new media.In addition,Parents are less likely to accompany children in the use of new media,and most parents only limit to use of time.(2)Under the background of new media current situation of children's moral consensus,children think that the most important moral qualities are filial piety,honesty,courtesy,respect and helping others.The overall level of children's moral consensus is higher,and there are some differences in demographic variables.(3)The correlation between the use of new media and the level of moral consensus of children,children's exposure to different levels of new media,there is a difference in the level of moral consensus.Based on the survey results,the study reflects on the flowing questions deeply under the background of new media age.Firstly,what is the new moral environment that children are facing? Secondly,what are the reasons for the differences of demographic variables about children's moral consensus? Thirdly,what is the difference between children's moral consensus and adult expectations for children's morality? Fourthly,what is the mechanism of the interaction between new media and children's moral consensus? Fifthly,what kind of moral consensus is suitable for children in the new era?To this end,the research puts forward some suggestions from the perspective of curriculum: In new media era,we need to strengthen children's media literacy education,to respect of children's moral subjectivity position,to reconstruction of children's moral education curriculum based on the new media and children's moral consensus.