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Media literacy education
Psychological characteristics indicators of media competence
Dr. Olga Mavropulo,
Don State Technical University, Rostov-on-don, Gagarin square 1, 344010, mosras2010@ya. ru
Dr. Elena Muryukina,
Don State Technical University, Rostov-on-don, Gagarin square 1, 344010, murjukina@yandex. ru
Abstract. The authors have studied the essence of the concept of media competence, the indicators of the development of the audience media competence from the point of view of psychology. The indicators (in ascending order): 1) contact; 2) motivational; 3) conceptual; 4) evaluative; 5) creative. In our opinion, there are several important conditions regarding this arrangement: absolute mobility of media education indicators; "work" of lower levels even while moving to higher levels of development.Speaking of the first condition, the authors would like to focus on the creative indicator. We spoke about its "drifting" form above, but still we emphasize once again on the lack of its permanent place in the classification of indicators media competence developed by A.V. Fedorov. Besides, a critical point is the existence of interrelations between the indicators. Emotional sphere of activity, expressed in the classification of the motivational indicator, as we have already noted, often affects the thinking processes of a person. The process of thinking is often distorted and changed by emotions. In turn, the evaluative and conceptual indicators of media education affect the creative level no less than the motivational and emotional spheres. Thus, thinking creates certain conditions for a fruitful creative process.
Key words: media competence, contact, motivational, conceptual, evaluative, creative indicator, creative thinking.
Introduction
The result of media education activities can lead to an increase in the level of media education, media competence. Let us note that in the science there are works in which the characteristics of such a concept as "media competence" have already been studied. These include the works of O.A. Baranov, S.N. Penzin [Baranov, Penzin, 2005], E. Camarero [Camarero et al, 2017], A.V. Fedorov [Fedorov, 2001; Fedorov & Levitskaya, 2015; 2017], S. Livingstone [Livingstone, 2004], E.V. Murykina [Muryukina, 2009] and others. At the same time, the alternative term for media competence is mass media - communication media (print, photography, radio, cinematography, television, video, multimedia computer systems, including the Internet).
The term "media competence" integrates two aspects, namely: "1) the accumulation of material and intellectual values in the field of media, as well as the historically determined system of their reproduction and functioning in the society; 2) in relation to the audience, "media competence" serves as a system of levels of personality development, capable to perceive, analyze, evaluate media texts, being engaged in media creativity, and absorb new knowledge in the field of media" [Fedorov, 2001].
Materials and methods
The materials of our research were the scientific works on psychology and media education. In our work we base on a comparative and retrospective types of analysis, generalization, synthesis.
Discussion
To identify the visible changes that accompany the media educational sessions on the material of the film press, we have chosen the system of the indicators of the audience media competence, developed by A.V. Fedorov [Fedorov, 2001, pp. 15-16] and presented in our work in Table 1.
Table № 1. Classification of the indicators of media competence development (by A.Fedorov)
№ Audience development indicators in the field of media competence Detailed explanation of indicators
1. Conceptual: below average, average, high levels History, theory and terminology background of media culture.
2. Contact: below average, average, high levels Frequency of contacts with different types of media, ability to choose favourite genres, topics
3. Motivational: below average, average, high levels Motives of contact with the media: emotional, epistemological, moral, aesthetic, etc.
4. Valuative: below average, average, high levels Level of media perception and the ability to analyze media texts.
5. Creative: below average, average, high levels Level of creativity in various aspects of activity (art, research, gaming, etc.) related to the media.
It seems possible to add a psychological description of these indicators. This will help us to determine their logical sequence (i.e., to identify the order) and to reveal existing relationships.
Thus, "contact" and "motivational" indicators determine the needs and motives for interaction of high school students with the media. A high motivational indicator of the development of media competence implies "engaging" cognitive, aesthetic, ethical, psychological, creative, emotional needs, as well as the need for self-actualization. Undoubtedly, it relies on emotions and feelings of personality, which manifest themselves before the activation of the process aimed at satisfying the need. "The peculiarity of feelings lies in the fact that they, being improved (the degree of their development directly depends on the degree of the contact indicator development), form a number of levels, beginning with immediate ones and ending with ultimate feelings (spiritual values and ideals)" [Nemov, 2001, p. 276].
"Conceptual" and "evaluative" indicators refer to such a psychological process as thinking. R.S.Nemov defines thinking as a movement of ideas, revealing the essence of things. Its result is not an image, but a certain thought, an idea, and a specific result may lead to a concept. Thinking implies theoretical and practical activities, and implies the inclusion of actions and operations of orientative and research nature [Nemov, 2001, p. 277]. The structure of thinking distinguish such logical operations as comparison, analysis, synthesis, abstraction and generalization.
Comparison reflects the identity of things and often acts as the primary form of theoretical and practical cognition. We believe that such a thinking unit as a "comparison" refers more to the conceptual indicator of media education. It is very difficult to clearly distinguish between processes related to mental operations, so the transition from the "conceptual" level to the "evaluative" one, from the psychological point of view, is smooth. Perhaps, the conceptual indicator of media competence is "the closest" to the analysis, which is understood as "the dismemberment of an object, mental or practical, into its constituent elements and their subsequent comparison" [Nemov, 2001, p. 278]. While the evaluative indicator is largely
associated with such a mental process as "synthesis". "Translating" into the language of media education, we can see that at the conceptual level, analysis takes place on the basis of the available knowledge, but the media text is not considered as an organic whole, but "componential". And with a sufficient level of analytical information, which directly depends on the amount of knowledge used, such a thinking operation as "synthesis" is included in the work. Thus, (when the above condition is fulfilled), a transition is made from the conceptual to the evaluative indicator of student development in the field of media.
There are several types of thinking:
1) Theoretical conceptual thinking. This type of thinking is indirectly relevant to our practical part of the lessons since media competence, like culture in general, has its goal to influence the emotional world of a person. Thus, the outstanding psychologist L.S. Vygotsky in the "Psychology of Art" [Vygotsky, 1999] says that the socio-aesthetic product (text) is built with the expectation of causing a psychological effect, to produce an explosion in the emotional sphere of an individual, called catharsis During our media education classes, we also strive to "understand" the emotional connection with the media product, using the knowledge base, in particular, relying on 6 key notions of media education.
2) "Theoretical visual thinking, which differs from the conceptual one in that the material used by a person for solving a problem is not concepts, judgments or inferences, but images. They are either directly extracted from memory, or creatively recreated by the imagination" [Nemov, 2001, p. 276]. With the help of imagination and memory, a high school student while solving an intellectual problem, transforms the corresponding images so that, as a result of manipulating them, finds a solution to the problem he is interested in.
3) Visual-figurative thinking. Its distinctive feature is that the thinking process is directly connected with the perception of the surrounding reality by a thinking person and can not be performed without him. This form of thinking is peculiar to preschool and primary school children and the people engaged in practical work.
4) Visual-active thinking, where the process of thinking is a practical transformative activity carried out by a person with real objects. The main condition for resolving a task is the correct actions with real objects.
The creative indicator takes pride of place. It does not have a "fixed" permanent place in the classification of indicators of the audience media competence. It can join any (motivational, contact, conceptual, evaluative) level of development. This indicator is directly dependent on many factors, among which we have identified the following:
- the age of the student;
- development of creative thinking;
- development of fantasy, imagination.
The creative indicator is in no way tied to any age. On the contrary, a person of any age can create and for doing this he does not need to have high contact, motivational, conceptual, evaluative indicators of development. The most "advanced" creators are preschool and primary school children. They do not think about motivating their actions, the emotional sphere plays a more important role for them. Beginning with the awkward age, the imagination activity, which is the impetus for creativity (in the form which manifested itself in childhood) is curtailed. The student begins to be critical of his work. At this age, "leading places" are occupied by two main types of imagination: "plastic (external) and emotional (internal). One of them can be called objective, and the other one subjective" [Vygotsky, 1999, pp. 29-30]. Thus, the place that the creative indicator can occupy according to this classification depends among other things on the age under study.
Consistent with the hypothesis that the creative indicator does not have its permanent place in the classification of A.V. Fedorov, it can be noted that creative thinking, in R.S. Nemov's opinion, is associated with the domination of 4 features:
1) Originality, unusualness of the ideas expressed, a strongly pronounced desire for intellectual newness;
2) The ability to see an object from a new angle, to discover its new use, to expand functional application in practice, that is, semantic flexibility;
3) Figurative adaptive flexibility, namely the ability to change the perception of an object so as to see its new, hidden features;
4) Semantic spontaneous flexibility, manifested in the ability to express various ideas in a situation that does not contain any specific aims [Nemov, 2001, p. 283].
So, based on the above features of creative thinking, we do not observe its direct dependence on contact, motivational, conceptual and evaluative indicators.
Any creative activity includes such a psychological unit as "imagination" and the result of creativity directly depends on the level of its development. It is the basis of visual-figurative thinking, which allows a person to navigate the situation and solve problems without resorting to practical actions. Despite the important place of imagination in human life, psychologists note that it remains byway and in many respects the nature of its origin is not explained by facts but assumptions. Imagination has 4 main types:
1) "Active imagination is characterized by the fact that, using it, a person voluntarily forces himself to the appropriate images in his own will;
2) In passive imagination, images arise spontaneously in addition to a person's will and desire;
3) In productive imagination, reality is consciously constructed by a person, instead of its mechanical copying. At the same time, it is still creatively transformed in the image;
4) The main task of reproductive imagination is to reproduce reality in its "real" form. There is also an element of fantasy here, although such imagination is more like perception or memory than creativity"[Nemov, 2001, p. 294].
It can be stated that most often the process of creating media texts is associated with the active imagination: before embodying any image on paper, perform in a stage version, role-playing game, etc., the artist creates it in his imagination, investing conscious voluntary efforts to it. But this, of course, does not mean that other forms of imagination have been ignored during media education classes.
The basic law of imagination, according to L.S. Vygotsky, is the following: "The creative activity of the imagination is directly dependent on the wealth and diversity of the previous experience of a man, because such experience represents the material which fantasy is made up of' [Vygotsky, 1999, p. 10]. Consequently, the creative abilities of a preschooler will be "poorer" than those, for example, of a high school student, which affects the complexity of designing the media texts. But this is a qualitative, not a quantitative indicator. Speaking about the activity of realizing creative abilities, it is necessary to note that preschool age is in the lead.
Based on the results of the above, it is possible to determine the sequence of the dynamics of the thinking process: the emergence of the motive, then the orientation, involving questioning - they are the result of a well-known understanding of a problem and its solution. Answering questions, the person begins to think over and sort out possible alternative solutions. The presented order of mental operations is important, since it affects the sequence of indicators of the development of media competence, which we range as follows (in ascending order): 1) contact; 2) motivational; 3) conceptual; 4) evaluative; 5) creative.
In our opinion, there are several important conditions regarding this arrangement: 1) absolute mobility of media education indicators; 2) "work" of lower levels even while moving to higher levels of development.
Speaking of the first condition, we would like to focus on the creative indicator. We spoke about its "drifting" form above, but still we emphasize once again on the lack of its permanent
place in the classification of audience development indicators in the field of media competence developed by A.V. Fedorov.
Undoubtedly, these indicators of media education have close interrelations. And although the presented levels can develop and function relatively independently, in the case of full media education, they "work" in an alliance. So, the imagination which is the "engine" of the creative indicator largely depends on the emotional sphere of a person. L.S. Vygotsky in his book "Imagination and Creativity in Childhood" said that "... impressions or images, that share the common emotional sign, in other words, producing a similar emotional impact on us, tend to unite with each other. It turns out to be a combined product of the imagination, which is based on a common feeling, or a common emotional sign that unites the heterogeneous elements that have entered into the connection "[Vygotsky, 1999, p. 13]. Consequently, the creative indicator implies reliance on emotionality. In fact, any work of media competence is subjective, since it has the author's feelings, emotions, etc. Undoubtedly, the media text will be "more perfect" with a more complex structure, if thinking is involved in creativity (expressed primarily by conceptual and evaluation indicators). It can be said that the media education process will be more efficient when using all the indicators of the audience development in the field of media competence simultaneously.
Besides, a critical point is the existence of interrelations between the indicators. Emotional sphere of activity, expressed in the classification of the motivational indicator, as we have already noted, often affects the thinking processes (conceptual, evaluative indicators) of a person. The process of thinking is often distorted and changed by emotions. R.S. Nemov writes that emotional thinking selects arguments in favor of the desired solution. But emotions and feelings can not only distort, but also stimulate thinking, because they make thoughts more tense, sharp, purposeful and persuasive. Without them, a productive thought is as impossible as without logic, knowledge and skills. "[Nemov, 2001, p. 299]. Emotions route thinking through the "given vector", participate in the activity of mental operations and when solving a problem, they perform heuristic (separating the optimum search area) and regulative (activating the search in the desired direction and slowing down, if it is erroneous) functions.
In turn, the evaluative and conceptual indicators of media education affect the creative level no less than the motivational and emotional spheres. Thus, thinking creates certain conditions for a fruitful creative process. Among them we have identified the following - "the more knowledge a person has, the more diverse the approaches to solving creative problems will be" [Nemov, 2001, p. 287].
L.S. Vygotsky also takes it into account condition when speaking of creative activity: "It is necessary to expand the child's experience if we want to create solid foundation for his creative activity. The more the child has seen, heard and experienced, the more he knows and has learned, the more elements of reality he has in his experience, the more significant and productive the activity of his imagination will be under other equal conditions"[Vygotsky, 1999, p. 10]. Thus, we tried to identify the existing inter-classifications of the relationship between the development indicators of the audience media competence.
Conclusions
Thus, we have studied the essence of the concept of media competence, the indicators of the development of the audience media competence from the point of view of psychology.
Therefore, using all kinds of thinking, we, in our media education work with school students, relied, mainly, on theoretical conceptual and figurative thinking. In doing so, we took into account:
a) the conclusion of psychologists that these types of thinking act simultaneously as the levels of its development. Theoretical thinking is considered to be more perfect than practical one, and the conceptual has a higher level of development than the figurative one;
b) age characteristics of a senior pupil's personality, manifested in the emergence of abstract-logical thinking, as a consequence of the tendency to abstract theorizing, the creation of abstract theories, which is characterized by the corresponding needs;
c) features of media education indicators, in particular the fact that each of them can exist relatively independently from the others and at the same time be a "conductor" to the creative indicator, which is the "embodiment" of the complete use of theoretical knowledge and practical skills for developing new media texts through creativity.
The presented order of mental operations is important, since it affects the sequence of indicators of the development of media competence, which we range as follows (in ascending order): 1) contact; 2) motivational; 3) conceptual; 4) evaluative; 5) creative. In our opinion, there are several important conditions regarding this arrangement: 1) absolute mobility of media education indicators; 2) "work" of lower levels even while moving to higher levels of development.
Speaking of the first condition, we would like to focus on the creative indicator. We spoke about its "drifting" form above, but still we emphasize once again on the lack of its permanent place in the classification of audience development indicators in the field of media competence developed by A.V. Fedorov.
Besides, a critical point is the existence of interrelations between the indicators. Emotional sphere of activity, expressed in the classification of the motivational indicator, as we have already noted, often affects the thinking processes of a person. The process of thinking is often distorted and changed by emotions. In turn, the evaluative and conceptual indicators of media education affect the creative level no less than the motivational and emotional spheres. Thus, thinking creates certain conditions for a fruitful creative process.
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