New media literacy of school students in Singapore

Abstract

The rapid development of new media affects the way in which people, largely the younger generation, interact, socialize and work. The new media present unprecedented opportunities for far wider participation in the continuing social, economic and cultural development in a global context. At the same time, this global phenomenon also inevitably brings with it many issues such as misinformation, information overload, unwanted surveillance, abuse of the vulnerable etc. The new media age requires people to participate with new media in a responsible and informed manner – they need to fully understand the means by which information, ideas and opinions are created, circulated and shared in new media, and has the capacity for access to, produce and participate in the new media environment (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 2007).<br> Singapore government recognizes the significance of the global new media culture and the need to prepare younger generation to meet the requirements of new media society. It is critical to Singapore’s future economic prosperity and its population’s economic competitiveness that an average Singaporean student be proficient at knowledge adaption and knowledge generation. In turn, the critical success factors lie in how these students can meaningfully engage in social-participatory activities that utilize new media that help them to be effective and efficient navigators, researchers, aggregators and analyzers of information sources and data.<br> New media education policies and intervention requires the backing of research- based evidence that provides an objective assessment of the current state of new media literacy as well as the desired state of achievements. This project is a survey study that assesses the level of new media literacy of students in the Singapore schools.<br> There is a lack of consensus on the meaning and scope of the new media literacy in the literature. This project will research on the scope of new media literacy and develop a conceptual framework for new media literacy. In addition, the existing literature has no mature quantitative instrument to measure new media literacy. To this end, this project aimed to examine the Singapore youths’ new media literacy to inform further studies and provide a tool and baseline information for MOE’s future policy development.