A critical education for 21st century: A study on youth and media literacy

Abstract

Youth being exuberant, coruscating, inventive and spirited is the most critical element of the population. Youth are the powerful agents of social change. The study adopts UN stated citizenry between the age of 15-34 years as a youth. Youth presently comprises a significant part of the Indian population. India is anticipated to have a 34.33% share of youth in the total population by 2020. Social media is capturing plenty of popularity, study divulges that the average person spends additional time each day on their smartphone and PCs than they do sleeping. The youth expends more than 27 hours a week on social media platforms. Social media enables them to communicate and stay in touch with their social peers 24 x 7. Youth is plugged with the internet and aware of the constant updates. Media literacy becomes imperative for the youth as they are the social agents, if social agents are not media literate then the development of the country will hamper. Mis informed youth can create confusion and will be misled. Media literacy is to educate and make aware to the youth about the different media sources, content and how to read the content. The focus of the study is to promote media literacy among Indian Youth. This study intends to make Indian youth an expository thinker of the media content so that they can develop critical thinking, become analytical choosers, and inculcate critical reading skills. The study tries to probe the sagacity of Medial literacy amid Indian Youth through online surveys. The study is done on social media users who devour the internet more than two hours per day. The sample consumes information mainly political followed by entrainment and then International and sports. The survey reveals that the Indian youth face disinformation on social media routinely and sometimes they can unearth fake news and sometimes take it as truth. They find it hard to identify reliable and unreliable sources. The findings reveal that the Indian youth is somewhat aware of the media literacy but feel that media literacy should be enforced powerfully among the Indian citizens. The youth believes that thinking critically should be the main motive of media literacy followed by understanding the authors goal, creating media responsibly and become a smart consumer. The study concludes that social media platforms along with the government bear a responsibility to make Indian youth acquainted with the media literacy campaigns. Media literacy among youth can be imposed by organizing training programs, workshops by colleges and other educational institutions, incorporate in school and college curriculum.