Methodological proposal for the development of media competence diagnoses in university students

Abstract

Today's society has a close relationship with the media, which, in addition to offering valid and false information, are characterized by an excess of available content, leading citizens to make decisions without the need for sufficient media competence. Given this problem, the condition observed by university students is a cause for concern, so this descriptive and explanatory proposal presents the methodology to be followed in the construction and validation of an instrument to diagnose media competence in the following aspects: (1) feasibility of the instrument; (2) guidelines for the development of diagnoses based on the conditions of university students at different times in their training process; (3) analysis of the mastery of media competence in its various dimensions; and (4) identification of guidelines for the development of training processes based on the results obtained. Among the main findings, a standard instrument is presented, which will allow the necessary adjustments for the generation of new proposals. It is concluded that various limitations of this type of proposals are present, which, although they illustrate specific processes, the constant media evolution makes it necessary to demand substantial changes in the methodology and specific indicators, which can easily become obsolete. In addition, the difficulty of collecting data to obtain diagnoses with sufficient validity is questioned.