Media and information literacy: a measurement instrument for adolescents

Media and information literacy is the process of empowering people to seek, evaluate, use and create information effectively in order to achieve their personal, social, occupational and educational goals. This paper presents the dimensions and categories of an instrument (the MIL questionnaire) developed within the University of the Basque Country's UNESCO Chair in Communication and Educational Values, which aims to analyse media and information literacy levels amongst adolescents. The instrument is based on four dimensions that encompass basic aspects of the field of educommunication. These dimensions are: (1) Media access and use; (2) Media language and critical comprehension; (3) Production and programming processes; and (4) Transforming one's situation through communication. The aim of this piece of research was to test the reliability and validity of this instrument in a pilot study conducted with 167 adolescents aged between 13 and 15, from schools in Colombia, Ecuador and Spain. With the exception of the first dimension, the results indicate that the questionnaire has an acceptable reliability level and is an adequate instrument for evaluating media and information literacy among adolescents.