Assessing media literacy competences: reflections and recommendations from a quantitative study

Abstract

The assessment of media literacy is a complex task, which might attempt to reconcile a research field traditionally developed within a critical paradigm with the task of evaluating and quantifying media literacy competences through essentially quantitative methods. Despite the lack of consensus regarding how to evaluate and measure media literacy, this goal is increasingly sought by political and regulatory stakeholders, as well as studied within the academic world. Based on one of such attempts, a study on the media literacy competences of 679 Portuguese teenagers, this paper presents a review and a reflection on the specific challenges posed by the intent to quantitatively assess media literacy, without neglecting its core critical dimension. It concludes by suggesting the need for methodological convergence and the continuous development of valid and reliable indicators, which must necessarily be context and subject-dependent, to improve this area of research.