Haber Okuryazarlığı Programı: İçerik Tasarımı ve Etkililiğinin Değerlendirilmesi

Abstract

As a result of technological developments, even ordinary people have become content producers, which increased the amount of information that is in circulation. The fast spread of the information which is also easily accessible, leads to suitable grounds for the rapid proliferation of fake news. This phenomenon often has an impact that can start from an individual level and spread to the whole society. News literacy is one of the most important concepts that has been emphasized recently to combat fake news and to raise awareness of information users. This type of literacy aims to provide information users with critical thinking skills in evaluating the accuracy and the reliability of the news. This study aims to design a Turkish news literacy training program based on existing news literacy curriculums along with the related literature, and to evaluate its impact on information users. The designed content, which consists of seven different modules, was applied to first year students of Hacettepe University Department of Information Management in two consequent years by using quasi-experimental design model steps. In order to evaluate the effectiveness of the program, the participants were assessed before and after the training via pre- and post-tests. Subsequently, by evaluating the results, the missing parts of the training that needed improvements were determined. The results showed that Module 4-5 entitled “News verification I-II” became the module that students made the most of in both years. In addition, it was identified that the students who attended the second-year training also benefited from Module 1 entitled “What is news literacy”. However, it was also observed that the students could not fully benefit from the educational content in some aspects. According to the results of the pre- and post-tests, it was determined that the groups who received training in both years made more mistakes in the “distinguishing between misinformation and disinformation” learning outcome. Moreover, the most problematic issues for the students who received training in the first-year were “distinguishing information sources that are important for news verification”, “analyzing the difference between assertion and verification, as well as between evidence and inference”. As for the students in the second year, however, it was “being able to evaluate the role of mass media in realization of freedom of expression” learning outcome. As a result of these evaluations, it was concluded that it is important to collaborate with different disciplines to design a news literacy training program. In order to make the training more efficient, the content should be designed in accordance with the changing needs of the information users and the changing information environments.