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Media Literacy As an Instrument for Promoting the Public Sphere A

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Media Literacy As an Instrument for Promoting the Public Sphere A ADVERTIMENT. Lʼaccés als continguts dʼaquesta tesi queda condicionat a lʼacceptació de les condicions dʼús establertes per la següent llicència Creative Commons: http://cat.creativecommons.org/?page_id=184 ADVERTENCIA. El acceso a los contenidos de esta tesis queda condicionado a la aceptación de las condiciones de uso establecidas por la siguiente licencia Creative Commons: http://es.creativecommons.org/blog/licencias/ WARNING. The access to the contents of this doctoral thesis it is limited to the acceptance of the use conditions set by the following Creative Commons license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/?lang=en Autonomous University of Barcelona Department of Media, Communication and Culture Doctoral Thesis Media Literacy as an Instrument for Promoting the Public Sphere A case study in Georgia (2018-2019) Author: George Jologua Supervisor: Dra. Carme Ferré-Pavia 2019 Acknowledgments I would like to express my deep gratitude to my supervisor Professor Carme Ferré-Pavia for her valuable and constructive suggestions during the planning and development of the research work as well as for her patient guidance and enthusiastic encouragement throughout the whole process of thesis writing. I would like to extend my thanks to the department of Media, Communication and Culture at Autonomous University of Barcelona for granting me the remarkable opportunity to improve my research skills and to contribute to the academic debate. I would like to thank Georgian school Italian School Tsiskari for granting me the permission to conduct a media literacy training for their students as well as for letting me come back to the school and organize interview sessions after one year since the completion of the course. I would also like to thank Tamar Mosiashvili from Civic Development Institute for granting me an access to the organization’s Moodle platform for retrieving materials as well as for providing me with the contact information of the school teachers trained by the organization. I would like to express my deep gratitude to my former classmate and a dear friend Hillol Sobhan, who initially introduced me to the works of Jurgen Habermas. My deepest gratitude goes to my parents Darejan and Tamaz for their immense support throughout the process of thesis writing and my life in general. The most special gratitude goes to my beloved wife Tusa, who appeared to be romantic enough to marry a doctoral student. 2 Table of Contents 1. INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................7 1.1 Objective of the study and the research question ...........................................................9 1.2 Justification ...................................................................................................................9 1.3 Structure of the thesis .................................................................................................. 10 2. LITERATURE REVIEW ............................................................................................ 12 2.1 Media literacy – theoretical perspective....................................................................... 12 2.1.1 Definitions ........................................................................................................... 13 2.1.2 Media literacy approaches .................................................................................... 21 2.1.3 Critical media literacy .......................................................................................... 27 2.2 Media literacy – practical approach ............................................................................. 32 2.2.1 Changing literacies............................................................................................... 32 2.2.2 Media literacy interventions ................................................................................. 35 2.2.3 Lesson plans ........................................................................................................ 39 2.2.4 Integration of media literacy across subject curriculum ........................................ 52 2.2.5 Media literacy in Georgia ..................................................................................... 60 2.3 Public sphere............................................................................................................... 72 2.3.1 Introduction to Habermas ..................................................................................... 72 2.3.2 The structural transformation of the bourgeois public sphere ................................ 75 3 2.3.3 Theory of communicative action and discourse ethics .......................................... 93 2.3.4 Mass media and the public sphere ........................................................................ 98 2.4 Media literacy and the public sphere ......................................................................... 106 3. METHODOLOGICAL DESIGN .............................................................................. 114 3.1 Objectives of the study .............................................................................................. 114 3.2 Qualitative approach ................................................................................................. 114 3.3 Research design ........................................................................................................ 116 3.3.1 Participant observation ....................................................................................... 117 3.3.2 Interviews .......................................................................................................... 125 3.4 Sampling ................................................................................................................... 129 3.5 Validity of the study .................................................................................................. 134 3.6 Limitations ................................................................................................................ 135 4. RESULTS AND ANALYSIS ...................................................................................... 136 4.1 Students’ assessment ................................................................................................. 136 4.1.1 Personal notes .................................................................................................... 136 4.1.2 Memories of the course ...................................................................................... 138 4.1.3 Media literacy competence in practice ................................................................ 143 4.1.4 Perceptions of advertisement .............................................................................. 146 4.1.5 Perceptions of political news .............................................................................. 150 4.1.6 Perceptions of media in general .......................................................................... 153 4 4.1.7 Creation of media products ................................................................................ 156 4.1.8 Benefits of the course ......................................................................................... 160 4.2 Teachers’ assessment ................................................................................................ 164 4.2.1 Integration of media literacy competence in practice .......................................... 164 4.2.2 Students’ interest in media literacy ..................................................................... 175 4.2.3 Perceptions of advertisement .............................................................................. 181 4.2.4 Perceptions of political news .............................................................................. 185 4.2.5 Media’s role in students’ daily lives ................................................................... 187 4.2.6 Media’s role on a society ................................................................................... 191 4.2.7 Creation of media products ................................................................................ 194 4.2.8 Benefits of the interventions ............................................................................... 199 4.3 Effects of media literacy interventions – summarizing the findings ........................... 202 4.3.1 Students’ assessment .......................................................................................... 203 4.3.2 Teachers’ assessment ......................................................................................... 206 5. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS ....................................................................... 209 5.1 The protectionist approach of media literacy as opposed to the strategic action by the system……………….. ............................................................................................................ 212 5.1.1 The changes in learners’ perceptions concerning the commercial interests in media………………… ........................................................................................................... 213 5.1.2 The changes in learners’ perceptions concerning the political interests in media. 215 5 5.1.3 The changes in learners’ perceptions concerning media’s role on a society ........ 217 5.2 The participatory approach of media literacy as the promoter of the communicative action in the lifeworld .......................................................................................................................
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