Communication, Consumption and Education: media literacy for citizenship

Abstract

This article proposes a reflection on the potential of media literacy present in the areas of access, evaluation and creation, for the formation of a critical and reflective sense that promotes autonomous action in the exercise of freedom and citizenship. Through bibliographic research on media literacy, communication, consumption, and education, we propose to define theoretical and methodological parameters that help to identify media competence indicators to foster a participative citizen identity, which can be explored in projects and research involving media literacy, both in formal and informal education.

Keywords
Media Literacy; Consumption; Communication; Education; Citizenship

Resumo

Este artigo propõe uma reflexão sobre o potencial de alfabetização midiática presente nos âmbitos do acesso, da avaliação e da criação, para a formação de senso crítico e reflexivo que promova a atuação autônoma no exercício da liberdade e cidadania. Por meio de pesquisa bibliográfica sobre alfabetização midiática, comunicação, consumo e educação, propõe-se a compilação de parâmetros teóricos e metodológicos que auxiliem na composição de indicadores de competências midiáticas para a constituição de uma identidade cidadã e participativa, que possam ser explorados em projetos e pesquisas que envolvam alfabetização midiática, tanto na educação formal como informal.

Palavras-chave
Alfabetização Midiática; Consumo; Comunicação; Educação; Cidadania

Resumen

Este artículo propone una reflexión sobre el potencial de la alfabetización mediática presente en los campos del conocimiento, la comprensión y la expresión, para la formación de un pensamiento crítico y reflexivo que promueva el desempeño autónomo en el ejercicio de la libertad y la ciudadanía. A través de la investigación bibliográfica sobre alfabetización mediática, comunicación, consumo y educación, proponemos la constitución de parámetros teóricos y metodológicos que ayuden a la composición de los indicadores de competencia mediática para la constitución de una identidad ciudadana y participativa, que pueda ser explorada en proyectos e investigaciones que involucren alfabetización mediática, tanto en educación formal como informal.

Palabras clave
Alfabetización Mediática; Consumo; Comunicación; Educación; Ciudadanía

Introduction

The changes in communicational and educational processes, generated by the acceleration of media production and consumption have impacted in the way citizens acquire skills related to the practice of information, leisure and entertainment. According to Perrenoud and Magne (1999), in order to build skills, it is necessary to mobilize formal and informal contents to face the challenges of daily praxis. The processes of communication give clues to understand how subjects interact in a media environment through the interrelated social constructs that compose life conditions (BACCEGA, 1998). The subjectivities of citizen discourse, formed by the materialities constituted in their everyday socio-cultural practices, present degrees of competencies that enable the verification of challenges and difficulties faced by the media use and the identification of actions and meanings that implement the behavior of subjects/individuals. “Media is a core dimension of contemporary life – of culture, politics, economy and personal relationships. Most people agree that in an intensely mediated society, media users need to become more autonomous, more competent more critical” (BUCKINGHAM, 2019, p. 13). The theoretical approach of the communication-consumption-education field, explored in this study, allows reflections about the skills of media literacy with awareness and citizenship for media consumption. The relations between communication, education and consumption, especially referring to production, distribution and consumption of the communicational process related to the construction of social meanings and values, result in the understanding of consumption of this communication (BACCEGA, 2012).

According to Livingstone (2000), investigating skills for media consumption has a deep relation with the digital environment that surrounds it, the interaction the user has with the Internet, and consequently with digital media, because it is only through the digital environment that it is possible to perceive the track these new technologies leave. The epistemological paradigm of this study comprises the logics of production and consumption, since the communicational process is articulated through multiple mediations that occur in the interaction between the space of production and reception (of consumption) established by social practices (MARTÍN-BARBERO, 1997). The understanding of media skills is not ruled only by market and hegemonic strategies, but it is seen in dialog with social demands and new cultural experiences that historically have emerged from the social materiality. The production of cultural industry includes both the demands that emerge from the cultural organization as well as from the new modes of perception and use (MARTÍN-BARBERO, 1997). According to Martín-Barbero (1997), the study of communication is much more than just the study of means, but a question of mediation.

Media is conceived by Silverstone (2005, p. 191) as a process of mediation where there is “the need to recognize the flow and fluidity in production and consumption of media texts and recognizing that the mediated meanings do not deplete in the point of consumption.” Silverstone (2002) proposes a critical relationship with media through what he calls a “mediation challenge”, in which come into play not only the representative schemes of media but also the relationship established with them: the mediation implies responsibilities and ethical and moral position of audiences, so they do not become accomplices of engagement strategies and media representation. Couldry (2008) expands the spectrum of the concept of mediation emphasizing the heterogeneity of relations and transformations emerging from the media. Through Silverstone, Couldry (2008, p. 383) understands mediation like a “result of the flows of production, circulation, interpretation and recirculation”.

This study is also justified by the relevance in advancing the studies proposed by Baccega in the elaboration of the Communication-Consumption-Education field like:

The place in which meanings are formed and deviate, emerge and submerge. In other words, to show, in the intersections of the field, the fluidity of society, their cultural behaviors, considering, mostly, the diversity of identities that inhabits each one of the subjects and their relationships with the consumer subject

(BACCEGA, 2010, p. 55, our translation).

Consumption is inserted in the socio-cultural communicational practices that comprise education, both formal and informal, as a place for the formation of repertoire that “gives the subject the feeling of belonging, allowing them to trace the architecture of their many identities” (BACCEGA, 2010, p. 63-64, our translation). Thus, it is possible to unveil the subject’s identity, their location in the social hierarchy and the power they have to have autonomy of expression aware of their needs as a citizen.

The epistemological field of this reflection is supported by the studies of media consumption per se, that deals with consumption of what is produced by the media (TOALDO; JACKS, 2013). When it comes to media consumption, it is important to emphasize that the focus is directed towards the relationship between the processes of communication, and not only the content of the messages. Therefore, it is interesting to understand how individuals consume media (means and products/contents), the way they appropriate it (how they understand and use it) and the context in which they are involved with them (places, forms, routines, among others). Toaldo and Jacks (2013, p. 7, our translation) reinforce that research in these dimensions:

(...) do not involve, however, the analysis of responses of the receptors to the content of a specific program, nor the consequences of this involvement with such program or genre (the influences of these media content in the life of individuals), which was performed by the studies of effects and, currently, to some extent, by reception studies.

According to the perspectives brought by Jacks and Escosteguy (2005) about audience research in Latin America, these can be acted both for a reception study and for a study of media or cultural consumption. In this sense, the scope of this study is located in the sphere of media consumption, which aims to understand both the use and interaction of the means by the subjects and also to locate the social and expressive context in which this activity takes place.

The media consumption shapes society, and researching how they influence consumer actions and constitute social practices is an indispensable theme to Communication studies. In social practices, put as highly permeable to the economic and socio-cultural dynamics in which it is inserted, “consumption presents important functions of distinction, classification and social mediation” (BACCEGA; CASTRO, 2009, p. 2, our translation)

The media consumption operates in a complex context that can alter the effective ways of consumption of information, and, consequently, interfere in the development of civic and participative competences in the issues of public sphere (SILVEIRA; AMARAL, 2018). For García-Canclini (2008), the public sphere is a field of competing traditions, a space of heteroglossia, in which certain meanings and customs are strengthened, such as the role of the State, but, in this process, new forces can attribute different meanings or emphasize the same concepts, through the action of civil society, thus avoiding the risks of unilaterality and authoritarianism. Citizenship can be strengthened by the expansion of communications and consumption when generating “association of consumers and social struggles, even in marginal groups, better informed about the national and international conditions” (GARCÍA-CANCLINI, 2008, p. 224, our translation).

The concept of citizenship is imbued in the construction of the Communication-Consumption-Education field. García-Canclini (2008, p. 35, our translation) emphasizes, “the changes in the way of consuming have changed the possibilities and formed to exercise citizenship”. The full citizenship follows the set of three indispensable steps, as reported by Baccega (2009): 1) having the awareness that they are a subject of rights; 2) having knowledge on their rights, in other words, having the conditions to access this knowledge; 3) being awarded to the subject the guarantees that they exercise or will exercise their rights whenever they please.

Being a citizen does not configure only by the recognition of the rights established by the State, but also by the understanding of production and consumption of “social and cultural practices that give the meaning of belonging” (GARCÍA-CANCLINI, 2008, p. 35, our translation) and enable the recognition of similarities and common necessities that constitute identities. Beyond the notion of identity, which brings the idea of the self, the field of the relationship between the self and the other is expanded, implying interdependence and reciprocity with the other, constituting the concept of otherness.

According to Sbardelotto (2018), the media action today has more agents present and no longer a single fixed producer, forming a decentralized communication network in which several participants interact and trigger different media processes. Skills to access, evaluate and produce information on the network have connections with digital citizenship, which involves not only the competent use of technology but also the responsible and ethical use of the web. The term digital citizenship, according to Neves (2010), is defined as the ability of citizens to use technology intelligently and understand cultural and social issues as they relate to technology. Digital citizenship promotes the right of unrestricted access to technological tools, and at the same time, respect for norms and the correct use of technologies. Internet has expanded the space for the exercise of citizenship, but access and understanding of media on the networks is not always egalitarian in social and economic aspects, which weakens citizenship since only part of the population actively participates and interacts in the digital environment.

This article comes from the presupposition that the processes of media literacy expand the capacity of interaction with the other and establish dialogic relationships, strengthening experiences of otherness and citizenship. A possible indication for citizens to be able to act critically in society is having the competence to relate and put themselves in the place of the occurrence of media processes in a conscious and competent way, which can be ensured by media literacy. The establishment of an education for critical consumption of media surpasses certain competences that can be observed through the dimensions established by UNESCO (WILSON et al., 2013), as well as researchers of English universities (LIVINGSTONE, 2004; COULDRY, 2008) and Spanish universities (PÉREZ; DELGADO, 2017). These researchers have developed expressive work in mapping media competences. With the goal of tracing convergences and complementarities of media competences established by theoretical-methodological research, especially referred in the aforementioned studies, we intend to structure a board that list essential components to deal with the challenge of mediation of communicational flow (SILVERSTONE, 2002, COULDRY, 2008) in the digitalized contemporary society.

Applications of Media Literacy

Media literacy is defined by Livingstone (2004) as the ability to access, analyze, assess and create messages through a variety of contexts. The researcher at London School of Economics and Political Science and member of the LSE Commission on Truth, Trust and Technology emphasizes that as media increasingly surrounds our relationships in society, there is a growing emphasis in the importance of guaranteeing that people have media literacy, not only to interact with media, but to get involved with society through media. To Buckingham (2019), it is important to raise critical issues about media, as well as technology, thinking on how these artifices represent the world and how they create meanings.

Propositions of education for media literacy, like the one established by members of NAMLE (National Association for Media Literacy Education), ensure a field of study, research and application that involves the significant progress in the construction of communication, creativity, collaboration and skills of critical thinking for kids, teens and adults in relation to mass media, popular culture and digital technologies (HOBBS; JENSEN, 2009).

Media literacy is a subject present in the agenda of the European Union, along with issues related to the right of freedom of expression and information, pillars that represent the rights of communication (CELOT; PÉREZ-TORNERO, 2009). Historically, Media Literacy Education - MLE is a widely contextualized activity that takes on different applications according to the socio-cultural and learning environment. Research propositions put it as a practice that deepens the analysis and reflection on the everyday environment of lived experienced, especially those related to media. According to the studies of Hobbs and Jensen (2009), the first applications of MLE appear and are developed throughout the 20th century, connected to the use of audiovisual media, firstly cinema then television. Initially, MLE was explored in schools and universities as a tool for teaching and learning language, critical analysis and skills for literacy, and, later, as an implementation of critical reading of cultural industries in quick expansion, based on interdisciplinary studies in Human and Social Sciences made by academics such as Roland Barthes, Harold Innis and Marshall McLuhan. Hobbs e Jensen (2009) also emphasize that during the 1970’s, education for media literacy began to be recognized as a critical practice for citizenship, part of the exercise of democratic rights and civil responsibilities.

In Brazil, experiences and reflections about communication and education are developed since the 1970’s, and emerge as propositions of critical reading of communication, more directed towards the processes of communication with the need of an analytical look towards the meanings mobilized by media, via education through media. Professor Ismar de Oliveira Soares, a forerunner in the field in Brazil, places the concept of educational communication as “a practice that assumes that we all have the right to communicate and to know the communication that is marketed to direct our consumption habits” (ROVIDA, 2017, p. 393, our translation).

A classic definition of media literacy created by the Ontario Association for Media Literacy in 1989 says that “media literacy is concerned in developing an informed and critical understanding of the nature of mass media, of the techniques used by them and the impact of such techniques” (JENKINS et al., 2009, p. 58).

In a society which, on one hand, communication corporations and institutions, especially those working with technology, dominate the practices of content production, circulation and consumption and, on the other, individuals increasingly take part in this processes, media literacy gives us skills to think about how media works, is organized, produces meaning and represents reality. Media literacy:

[...] emerged, in the last decades, as a new conceptual paradigm referring to the capabilities that allow the critical, autonomous and creative use – on behalf of people and communities – of any means of information and communication and their specific languages. The lack of this literacy constitutes one of the most serious barriers of personal, social and cultural development

(PÉREZ TORNERO, 2015, p. 99, our translation).

The main reference for conceptualizing media literacy was established by UNESCO, based on the principle of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, which, from the growing digitization of society, proposes to offer citizens tools to exercise their rights also in digitally mediatized contexts. UNESCO considers media and information literacy (MIL) as an embedding of knowledge on:

(a) the roles of media, libraries, archives and other information providers in democratic societies; (b) the conditions under which news media and information providers can effectively fulfill these functions; and (c) how to evaluate the performance of these functions by evaluating the content and services that are offered. This knowledge, in turn, should allow users to engage with media and information channels in a meaningful way. The skills acquired by media and information literacy can equip citizens with critical thinking skills, enabling them to demand high-quality services from the media and other information providers. Together, citizens foster an enabling environment in which the media and other information providers can provide quality services

(WILSON et al., 2013, p. 16, our translation).

Media literacy is a field of study focused on the development of capabilities to consume and produce media content consciously, but that is also attentive to observe and analyze how messages are understood and sent. In this context, media literacy is defined as “[...] the ability to access, analyze and assess the power of images, sounds and messages that confront the contemporary subjects as well as communicate in a competent manner” (BORGES, 2014, p. 221, our translation).

According to Adauto Soares (JULIO, 2018), Communication and Information coordinator of UNESCO in Brazil, the processes of literacy for media are recent phenomena in the country, propelled by the proliferation of fake news and by the anonymity of the agents that share them.

Each country is in one stage. There are nations where digital inclusion had already happened a while ago and where the subject is already included in people’s and school’s routines, something that is far from the reality in Brazil. Media literacy is about promoting people’s qualification so that they can be producers of innovation with a critical view, and not simple technology users

(JULIO, 2018, online, our translation).

In Brazil, there are serious deficiencies in the basic stages of the education sector and very sparse activities focused on digital and media literacy with little involvement of schools, technology companies, journalistic organizations, research institutes, politicians and governments. Public policies in the area proposed by the Ministry of Education are sparse, such as workshops supported by the Department of Education of the State of São Paulo. Currently, the National Common Curricular Base (BNCC), approved in 2017, defined the set of essential learning skills that students must develop from kindergarten until high school. In the proposal for High School, still in progress, the Portuguese language subject would be mandatory and would include the analysis of the phenomenon of proliferation of disinformation in the media, for example. However, the orientation is far from contemplating what Wardle and Derakhshan (2017) propose regarding the application of an internationalization work to the creation of a standardized literacy curriculum for the media, based on competences for research, critical evaluation of information sources, emotion analysis and reflective judgment, knowledge of the functioning and implications of algorithms and artificial intelligence. In this sense, it is necessary a robust and articulate educational action to raise “citizens with media competence, who know where to look and how to discriminate information, understand them, express themselves with and through media, actively participate, communicate.” (PÉREZ; DELGADO, 2017, p. 6, our translation).

The MIL curriculum proposed by the UNESCO manual (WILSON et al. 2013) gathers concepts of media and informational literacy, in order to propose a holistic approach for education necessary to life and work. The field of Communication-Consumption-Education allows for a redefinition of meanings related to a culture of media consumption that brings ideals and values that frame contemporary culture. The identification of competences related to media consumption on digital platforms provides parameters to investigate how this consumption influences the engagement with political and social issues, and fosters the establishment of a critical and participatory citizenship.

Mapping of media competences

A path for the identification of media competences are the studies that present theoretical-methodological approaches, like the ones listed in this article, related to the literacy processes for media consumption. We intent to, thus, observe confluences and share particularities in research that involve this theme to help in the understanding of possible competences needed both in the application of educational strategies and for the investigation and understanding of complex socio-cultural phenomena generated by the media consumption.

The three tables below bring indexes extracted from studies already consolidated in order to get to a set of media competences that contribute with the propositions of media literacy generating critical and reflective perceptions about the media. The indexes comprise distinct dimensions that present in their entirety an array of resources to be acted by the “challenge of mediation” (SILVERSTONE, 2002) present in the communicational flow (COULDRY, 2008), referring to the observation of representation and projections established by media and the way we relate with them, from production to consumption and from consumption to production. Therefore, the theoretical approaches used allowed us to compile competences referring to media access, evaluation and creation.

The first index (Table 1) is about access and implies in the possibility of connection with distinct equipment and technological platforms. It presupposes the need to search a certain information, the ability to search, consume and store information and media content, using the appropriate technology. It also contemplates the aptitude to identify useful media contents in different sources and formats. Having a computer and/or cellphone with a stable and fast connection is essential for the improvement of techniques and knowledge on language, production and expression of media and communicational formats. The critical view on media and sharing data in the digital ambiance, the attention to the origin and political-ideological intentions of certain message and the algorithmic logic, allow a more safe and aware media consumption.

Table 1
Media competences related to the access

General Index	Dimensions	Description/Authors	Media competences
Access	Knowledge	Comprises issues on politics and the media industry, processes of production, technology, language, access and acquisition of information, and algorithmic actions (PÉREZ; DELGADO, 2017).	• Understanding the need of searching a certain information. • Knowing how to research diverse and reliable sources. • Connecting technological and informational resources. • Knowing flows and processes of media production and consumption. • Identifying political and ideological opinions in the messages in the search. • Retrieving and storing information and media content. • Observing algorithmic logics.
	Access	Dynamic and social process. Ability to acquire information in different platforms, means and search engines (LIVINGSTONE, 2004).
	Knowledge	Knowing about the existence of media and where to access information (WILSON et al., 2013).
	Recirculation	Observes the media flow and their positive and negative consequences for more expansive social and cultural formations, as well as for democracy itself (COULDRY, 2008).

• Source: created by the author.

The second index (Table 2) represents the moment of evaluation and critical assessment of media content, of communicational flows, the understanding of the end goals of media corporations, information providers and public institutions. The competences here are complex and imply connecting the content with the respective media, formats, platforms and digital channels, based on the recognition and interpretation of political, social, cultural and economic contexts. It also involves checking the quality of data according to the logic of production, consumption and media circulation.

Table 2
Media competences related to the assessment

General Index	Dimensions	Description/Authors	Media competences
Evaluation	Understanding	Gathers dimensions of the field of reception, ideology and values (PÉREZ; DELGADO, 2017).	• Analyzing communicational flows, the roles of media companies, providers and creators. • Developing critical assessment of content, formats and digital channels. • Understanding of political, economic, social and cultural agencies. • Checking quality and structure of the media content
	Understanding	Develops abilities for the critical understanding of media consumption and production in the fields of aesthetics, politics, ideology and economy (LIVINGSTONE, 2004).
	Production	Checks how contexts and processes of production of the digital narrative are getting associated to certain practices, formats and narrative styles (COULDRY, 2008).
	Interpretation	Involves critical and reflective competence of the processes of production and reception (COULDRY, 2008).
	Understanding	Understanding of political, social, economic and cultural contexts, in the realm of production and reception (WILSON et al., 2013).
	Evaluation	Critical and aware interpretation of where information comes from, the contextual structure and purpose (WILSON et al., 2013).

• Source: created by the author.

The last index (Table 3) refers to the skills of media content creation in different digital ambiences. This component involves social and political participation through identification, monitoring and use of media practices. The competences involve dominating the mode of production of information, media content and the ability to communicate successfully with others. The work in collaboration and mobilization for the media of people, groups and institutions bring up certain causes and social opinions, which imply in ethical and citizen responsibilities.

Table 3
Media competences related to creation

General Index	Dimensions	Description/Authors	Media competences
Creation	Expression	Linked to citizen creation and participation communication practices (PÉREZ; DELGADO, 2017).	• Elaborating and using media content creatively. • Knowing the end goal of different channels and platforms. • Proposing political and social mobilization. • Developing work with collaborative propositions. • Monitoring media practices of people, groups and institutions. • Creating knowledge in an ethical and effective way.
	Creation	Ability of involvement and participation with the communicational process through production and dissemination of content in different media and platforms (LIVINGSTONE, 2004).
	Circulation	Media distribution among different sites, exchanges and sharing among different professionals, members of the audience and institutions (COULDRY, 2008).
	Production/use	Using and developing media products in a way to expand social and democratic empowerment (WILSON et al., 2013).

• Source: created by the author.

The interrelation among the dimensions linked in the tables above expands a set of media competences capable of theoretical and empirical application. The propositions by Pérez and Delgado (2017), concerning knowledge, understanding and expression, are associated to the abilities of media literacy listed by Livingstone (2004) related to the media access, analysis, assessment and creation, which, in turn, are articulated with the media flow of production, circulation, interpretation and recirculation reported by Couldry (2008). It is also correspondent to the thematic tripod established by UNESCO (WILSON et al., 2013) in the manual for MIL: 1) knowledge and understanding of the media and information for the democratic discourses and for social participation; 2) the evaluation of texts from the media and sources of information; 3) the production and use of media and information.

Knowing, understanding and expressing oneself are skills necessary to access, analyze, assess, create and distribute messages through media within a digital, global and democratic society. When individuals are aware of the importance of the mediation of media in the public life and have the ability to critically create, question and monitor certain messages using media and technologies, they become qualified to actively participate in the constitution and maintenance of democratic processes. Civic engagement results not only from technical skills for the media, but also from behaviors related to understanding the processes of consumption and mediation of the media that drive sociocultural attitudes (HOBBS et al., 2013).

The act of instituting and mapping media competences through the application and understanding of these indexes reinforces that the production of meanings is not depleted in the point of consumption, like Silverstone (2002) had warned, but it keeps being reconstituted and re-updated, which implies in the need of citizen action in the digital context and in the promotion of literate societies in media and information. Knowledge, understanding and expression generate citizen participation, a practice emphasized by Jenkins (2009) to define a participative culture, a process that absorbs and responds the recurring expansion of digital media, where consumers have access to a wide range of media content that can be researched, archived, appropriated, produced, re-created and shared in different ways.

We are using participation as a term that crosses educational practices, creative processes, community living and democratic citizenship. Our goals should be to motivate young people to develop the skills, the knowledge, the ethical structures and the self-confidence needed to fully participate in the contemporary culture

(JENKINS et al. 2009, p. 8).

Hobbs and Jensen (2009) reinforce that the competences coming from media literacy have connections with digital citizenship and with the new educational processes that need to dialog with an increasingly media-filled environment “where distinctions between producer and consumer had evaporated and the lack of definition between public and private world creates new challenges and opportunities for kids, teens and adults” (HOBBS; JENSEN, 2009, p. 5).

Being literate for media consumption implies in the composition of a consistent repertoire, responsible for the perceptive schemes and forms of cognition about the actions of citizens in the real and virtual world, both in the space of formal and informal education:

Constituting oneself as a citizen requires aptitude and motivation to actively participate of the collectivities to which we belong by contingency or option. We believe in the role of education in the development of a crucial ability that makes us powerful to act in the world and reflect about our practices. We understand that the ideals of social responsibility and conscious consumption are only effective if linked to the active exercise of citizenship in our days

(BACCEGA; CASTRO; 2009, p. 6, our translation).

Final Considerations

Having skills to identify how media consumption operates in digital environments is a challenge for the media literacy in the formation of critical individuals that are socially engaged. In his studies, García-Canclini (2008) already warned about the importance of understanding the processes of consumption and media in the identity formation and in the own constitution of citizenship. The media consumption shapes society, and researching how it influences consumer actions and constitutes social practices is an indispensable theme to Communication studies. In social practices, put as highly permeable to the economic and socio-cultural dynamics in which it is inserted, “consumption presents important functions of distinction, classification and social mediation” (BACCEGA; CASTRO, 2009, p. 2, our translation).

This study points out the relevance of researches that understand how people get involved and are conditioned by the media consumption and how these systems are reformulated and structured according to the action of people with media and media in society, essential paths to deepen practices of media literacy. Literacy for media educates and creates a background for the intentional and critical use of media and offers skills to understand the work of media in an intensely mediated world, allowing the citizen action in an aware and responsible manner. Media consumption does not only affect the way people express themselves through communicational processes, but also how they are sensitized by the production and use of media when understanding and monitoring how the medias work, how they communicate and how they represent everyday life.

The immense amount of information to which we are exposed daily by different devices and platforms, many fake messages, with abusive, violent and threatening content, requires the action of different evaluative and interpretative abilities about authorship, context and intention of content. The media skills listed through the theoretical framework presented stimulate critical questionings about the production and consumption of media and help understand how these mechanisms can create reliable meanings or capable of errors or intentionalities. Through this study, we were able to infer that the identification of communicational flows brings out indicators of media skills, which cannot be observed in an isolated manner, but in a process of interdependence where one potentializes the other.

Media literacy is not simply about knowing how to use specific devices, either to access or to create media messages. It is about taking into consideration the awareness of the circuit of mediation. The competences mobilized in an isolated manner darken the citizen protagonism, which can be a risk to social welfare and to the establishment of consistent democratic and civilization processes. Literacy for media consumption implies in creating an understanding on why we are consuming certain media and/or content and what the consequences of this mediation to society are, as a whole. We are what we consume, and the fields of Communication and Education also need to be mobilized as integral parts of the construction of social meanings and values of everyday life in the media consumption society.

Referências

• BACCEGA, M. A. Comunicação e linguagem: discursos e ciência. São Paulo: Moderna, 1998.
• BACCEGA, M. A. Inter-relações comunicação e consumo, receptor e consumidor. In: XVIII ENCONTRO ANUAL DA ASSOCIAÇÃO NACIONAL DOS PROGRAMAS DE PÓS-GRADUAÇÃO EM COMUNICAÇÃO, 2009, Belo Horizonte. Anais eletrônicos.. Belo Horizonte: PUC-Minas, 2009.
• BACCEGA, M. A. Comunicação/educação: relações com o consumo. Importância para a constituição da cidadania. Comunicação, Mdia e Consumo São Paulo, v. 7 n. 19, p. 49-65, jul. 2010. Disponvel em: <http://revistacmc.espm.br/index.php/revistacmc/article/view/194/192>. Acesso em: 22 out. 2019.
  » http://revistacmc.espm.br/index.php/revistacmc/article/view/194/192
• BACCEGA, M. A.; CASTRO, G. G. S. Comunicação e consumo: cidadania em perigo? Revista da ESPM, v. 16, n. 4, 2009.
• BACCEGA, M. A. O consumo no campo comunicação/educação: importância para cidadania. In: ROCHA, R. M.; CASAQUI, V. Estéticas midiáticas e narrativas do consumo Porto Alegre: Sulina, 2012, p. 248-268.
• BORGES, G. Qualidade na TV pública portuguesa Análise dos programas do canal 2. Juiz de Fora: Editora da UFJF, 2014.
• BUCKINGHAM, D. The media education manifesto Cambridge, UK; Medford, USA: Polity Press, 2019.
• CELOT, P.; PÉREZ-TORNERO, J. M. Study on assessment criteria for media literacy levels A comprehensive view of the concept of media literacy and an understanding of how media literacy level in Europe should be assessed. Brussels: European Commission, 2009.
• COULDRY, N. Mediatization or mediation? Alternative understandings of the emergent space of digital storytelling. New Media & Society, v. 10, n. 3, 2008.
• GARCA-CANCLINI, N. Consumidores e cidadãos: conflitos multiculturais da globalização. Rio de Janeiro: Editora UFRJ, 2008.
• HOBBS, R.; DONNELLYA, K.; FRIESEMA, J.; MOENA, M. Learning to engage: how positive attitudes about the news, media literacy, and video production contribute to adolescent civic engagement. Harrington School of Communication and Media, University of Rhode Island, Kingston, 2013.
• HOBBS, R.; JENSEN, A. The past, present, and future of media literacy education. Journal of Media Literacy Education, n. 1, 2009.
• JACKS, N.; ESCOSTEGUY, A. C. Comunicação & Recepção São Paulo: Hacker Editores, 2005.
• JENKINS, H. Cultura da convergência São Paulo: Aleph, 2009.
• JENKINS, H.; CLINTON, K.; PURUSHOTMA, R.; ROBISON, A. J.; WEIGEL, M. Confronting the challenges of participatory culture, media education for the 21st Century Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 2009.
• JULIO, K. B. Alfabetização midiática incentiva jovens a refletir sobre a informação. Meio & Mensagem, 13 ago. 2018. Disponvel em: https://bit.ly/2WLzAnG Acesso em: 10 abr. 2019.
  » https://bit.ly/2WLzAnG
• LIVINGSTONE, S. On the cutting edge, or otherwise, of media and communication research. Nordicom Review, v. 21, n. 2, p. 7-13, 2000.
• LIVINGSTONE, S. Active Participation or just more information? Young people’s take up of opportunities to act and interact on the internet. Information, Communication & Society, v. 8, n. 3, p. 287-314, 2004.
• MARTN-BARBERO, J. Dos meios às mediações Comunicação, cultura e hegemonia. Rio de Janeiro: Editora UFRJ, 1997.
• NEVES, Bárbara B. Cidadania digital? Das cidades digitais a Barack Obama. Uma abordagem crtica. In: MORGADO, I. S.; ROSAS, A. (org.). Cidadania Digital Portugal: Livros Labcom, 2010.
• PÉREZ, M. A.; DELGADO, A. Da competência digital e audiovisual à competência midiática: dimensões e indicadores. Lumina, v.11, n. 1, 2017.
• PÉREZ-TORNERO, J. M. La emergencia de la alfabetización mediática e informacional. Un nuevo paradigma para las polticas públicas y la investigación. Revista Telos: Cuadernos de comunicación e innovación, p. 99-102, 2015. Disponvel em: https://dialnet.unirioja.es/servlet/articulo?codigo=5111753 Acesso em: 10 nov. 2019.
  » https://dialnet.unirioja.es/servlet/articulo?codigo=5111753
• PERRENOUD, P.; MAGNE, B. C. Construir: as competências desde a escola. Porto Alegre: Artmed, 1999.
• ROVIDA, M. Educomunicação, uma prática social: entrevista com Ismar de Oliveira Soares. REU, v. 43, n. 2, p. 387-397, dez. 2017.
• SBARDELOTTO, M. Circulação em rede: a complexa comutabilidade dos polos de produção e recepção no fluxo comunicacional digital. Questões Transversais, v. 6, n. 11, 2018.
• SILVEIRA, P.; AMARAL, I. Jovens e práticas de acesso e de consumo de notcias nos media sociais. Estudos em Comunicação, v. 1, n. 27, 2018.
• SILVERSTONE, R. Complicity and collusion in the mediation of everyday life. New Literary History, v. 33, n. 4, 2002.
• SILVERSTONE, R. The sociology of mediation and communication. In: CALHOUN, C.; ROJEK, C.; TURNER, B. (ed.). The international handbook of sociology Londres: Sage, 2005.
• TOALDO, M.; JACKS, N. A. Consumo midiático: uma especificidade do consumo cultural, uma antessala para os estudos de recepção. In: XXII ENCONTRO ANUAL DA ASSOCIAÇÃO NACIONAL DE PROGRAMAS DE PÓS-GRADUAÇÃO EM COMUNICAÇÃO, 2013, Salvador. Anais eletrônicos… Salvador: UFBA, 2013.
• WARDLE, C.; DERAKHSHAN, H. Information Disorder: Toward an interdisciplinary framework for research and policy making. Council of Europe, 2017. Disponvel em: https://goo.gl/9bsMGi Acesso em: 10 out. 2019.
  » https://goo.gl/9bsMGi
• WILSON, C.; GRIZZLE, A.; TUAZON, R.; AKYEMPONG, K.; CHEUNG, C. Alfabetização midiática e informacional: currculo para formação de professores. Braslia: UNESCO, UFTM, 2013.

Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  13 Dec 2021
• Date of issue
  2021

History

• Received
  27 Feb 2020
• Accepted
  29 Aug 2021