Abstract of

Measuring the Acquisition of Media-Literacy Skills

Renee Hobbs

Richard Frost

Students who participated in a required yearlong Grade 11 English media/communication course that incorporated extensive critical media analysis of print, audio, and visual texts were compared with students from a demographically matched group who received no instruction in critically analyzing media messages. A nonequivalent group's design examined students' reading comprehension, writing skills, critical reading, critical listening, and critical viewing skills for nonfiction informational messages. Results suggest that media literacy instruction improves students' ability to identify main ideas in written, audio, and visual media. Statistically significant differences were also found for writing quantity and quality. Specific text analysis skills also improved, including the ability to identify the purpose, target audience, point of view, construction techniques used in media messages, and the ability to identify omitted information from a news media broadcast in written, audio, or visual formats.

Abstract from Hobbs, R., & Frost, R. (2003). Measuring the Acquisition of Media-Literacy Skills. Reading Research Quarterly, 38(3), 330–355. doi: 10.1598/RRQ.38.3.2