ABSTRACT
Media literacy education has been linked to advances in critical thinking skills that may also result in positive behavior change. With the current state of distrust in the media and detachment from civic engagement, media literacy offers one way to regain trust, reinforce civic intentionality and create a more media savvy citizen. The current need for more research in the area of media literacy interventions was one of the main reasons for conducting this study; to attempt to measure the need for news literacy interventions at the university level for students of all majors at a prominent Egyptian-American university. Through surveys, the researchers gauged students’ basic critical knowledge and digital skills in relation to their media consumption. The survey was inspired by Potter’s (2004) News Media Literacy scale and Maksl, Craft, Ashley and Miller’s (2016) evaluation of a news literacy curriculum. Results indicated students lack basic critical knowledge and digital skills and have a reduced mindfulness when consuming news media. The authors recommend a general introductory media literacy intervention course open as a communication elective to all students to better equip them with the skills and knowledge necessary for heightened awareness as well as smart use of the media content they are exposed to on a daily basis.
