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Media literacy and advertising discourse in three schools in Guayaquil

Abstract:

The advent of new technologies in everyday life has brought about a major shift in determining both the relationships between subjects, and the ways in which reality is interpreted and understood. Therefore, media literacy is posed today as an indispensable discipline in educational systems worldwide. This article presents the results of an experiment with high-school students. The aim of the experiment is to see to what extent media literacy can be useful to enhance the interpretative competence of students. The sample consists of students of 14-15 years of age, studying the Tenth course in three schools of Guayaquil. The independent variable comprised five advertisements. The results highlight the fact that, regardless of the socioeconomic context, students who were media literate showed a higher decoding and interpretative capability than those who were not.