Media and Social Change: Media Literacy in Youth and Early Adulthood as a Resilience Factor (2013-2017)
Prof. Dr. Gerhild Nieding
Dipl. Psych. Carolin Braun
Universität Würzburg, Institut für Psychologie, Entwicklungspsychologie
The project is supported by the Bavarian State Ministry for Education, Science and the Arts under the Bavarian research network “Fit for Change”.
Under a (developmental) psychological perspective, resilience can be understood as an (adapt) ability to manage one’s own development despite possible unfavorable circumstances.
Because media are involved in processes of continuous dynamic change in society and often accentuate them critically, dealing competently with the media is becoming a necessary resilience factor for all individuals.
In this project, the development of media literacy in adolescents and young adults will be examined in a longitudinal survey, using a computerized online media literacy test, which we developed.
We aim to verify the assumption that media literacy is a resilience factor for accelerated processes of social change.
In addition, relevant cognitive and social-emotional variables will be collected.
Based on the results, a media skills training for adolescents and young adults will be developed and subjected to a first evaluation.