New Media Literacy Score
April 2, 2013 9 Comments
If you follow me on Twitter then you know that I have already sent out a link about this study I am conducting. However, I also wanted to share this brief blog post as it relates to my sampling strategy for this study. You may recall a post several months back about Participatory Culture and Web 2.0 for Social Work Education. This study is the next phase of my work so I hope you will join in. Here is some more information with the link below.
You are invited to participate in a survey entitled, Assessing New Media Literacies in Social Work Education. The purpose of this study is to understand the relationship between media literacy and digital participation among social work educators and students. Specifically, this study will increase understanding regarding the use of information and communication technologies such as social media, while testing the validity and reliability of a newly developed assessment tool for self-reported media literacy levels.
Your participation is very important and the survey should not take more than 15 minutes of your time. You are being asked to complete an online questionnaire asking about basic demographics, digital participation, civic engagement, and new media literacies. You will be presented with a series of statements about media use, which will help determine your media literacy skills. At the completion of the survey, you will receive a score indicating your level of new media literacy.
Your participation is in this survey is completely voluntary and your consent will be assumed by your participation. You are free to decide not to participate in this study or to withdraw at any time without any adverse effects or penalties. Your decision about whether to be in the study or not is completely voluntary, and confidential. This study is not collecting any personal or identifiable information and risks to participants is minimal. The alternative to this study is simply to not participate. If you have any questions about the survey, feel free to contact the investigator at the contact information provided below.
To access the survey and find out your New Media Literacy Score, clink the link.
UPDATE: The survey has closed and you can read more about this work on my blog. Be sure to check out this link here.
Thank you again for participating in this study.
Jimmy.
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JimmySW 
I found the concept of necessity around being/not being yourself so philosophically loaded I almost could not continue…:). The word “smart” got me as well. And i am always curious about how researchers make the seemingly lose/lose decisions around the demographics of sex and gender; did you consider wording aside from “other”? Loved the survey…I am a total sucker for being promised a score! Good luck with your work…
Reblogged this on MOBILE SOCIAL WORK and commented:
Our Colleague Jimmy Young – assistant Professor at the Department of Social Work, University of Nebraska – Kearny, recently started a survey exploring the New Media Literacy of Social Work educators, instructors, and students. His survey is good way to self-assess your New Media Literacy Score as it ends with a score about once literacy. My result:
Thanks for taking this survey. Your New Media Literacy Score is: 247
Congratulations, you are a media literacy Master!!! Your prowess is of new media is evident and you seem to fully enjoy taking part in it. You are smart about interpreting the news media and confident in your abilities online. This is important today as understanding new media will not leave you behind, but instead you will be creating and sharing the information of the future. Your ease and comfort with various media types will be an important asset to you socially and professionally.
The result made me feel good … until I past the survey to one of my colleagues and tech-savvy soul mate who came out with 269
What’s your score? Share in the comments!
Thanks Lutz 😀
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I took the test (I don’t recall my score or I would post it here). I had some concerns about a few test items that seemed to confound New Media Literacy with interests in pop culture, e.g., following celebrities through New Media, reading/participating in fan fiction, etc. These items seemed focused on how one population (especially youth) use New Media. I don’t think that people who don’t do these things are necessarily lacking in New Media literacy, they might just not be interested in using New Media in that particular fashion.
I just thought I would share these observations, Jimmy, because they could affect how you analyze and interpret the data.
Best of luck with your analyses…I can’t wait to hear your findings!
Thanks for your feedback Nancy. You are not the first to bring up this issue with the questions, so I think that says something about this instrument. By the way, this is an instrument I am trying to help validate from another colleague. I am interested in this because of the New Media Literacies that hold promise for social work education. I should clarify, though, that the New Media Literacies I am discussing are the ones identified in the Henry Jenkins White Paper on Confronting the challenges of Participatory culture. Dr. Jenkins identifies 12 NML skills, which is what I am trying to measure. The questions dealing with pop culture have reference to the several skills, which also kind of tie together. The first skill is that of Appropriation, or the ability to meaningfully sample and remix media content. This skill is not something new, or necessarily taught. Instead it happens anytime someone downloads music to remix it and then share it again. The same holds true for major media content such as TV and movies. The skill comes not from the illegal act 🙂 of remixing content, but from learning how to create new stories and then sharing those stories via social media. As they do this, skills regarding the use of software are certainly developed, but skills related to traditional literacy begin to emerge, such as critical thinking.
What I am trying to say is that yes, I agree with you that some of the questions seem very focused on Youth, and I will definitely try to look at those question in the next iteration of the instrument. However, I think the questions have some value when thinking about what they are trying to measure. As for people lacking in New Media literacy, what this research (I think) will show is that individuals who don’t necessarily do those things are less likely to have developed those skills. I understand how that sounds in the context of the last part of your sentence in that people may not be interested in using New Media in that fashion. This is where I need to reshape the questions. However, (and here comes the agist comment) I just don’t know of many scholars/educators or adults who do sample and remix content to create and share new stories or offer some sort of critique of XYZ. Well, there is the Daily Show 😀
Okay. This was wayyyyyy to long of a response, and I really do value your feedback so thank you.
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