Media Literacy Revisited: A Combined Approach to Iranian Media Literacy in Social Media

This paper intends to provide a basis for theorizing the concept of “Social Media Literacy” (SML) and then measure it among Iranian users of Telegram. This study chose Telegram as its research field because of its popularity in Iran. The proposed framework for measuring SML consists of three levels of access and awareness, critical understanding and knowledge, and finally creativity and engagement. The study was conducted using an online questionnaire. The sample population was chosen based on a combination of purposive and convenience sampling methods. The questionnaire was accessible through Google Drive for a week in December 2017. During that week, 574 responses were received, 10 of which were not acceptable. Although, this was a quantitative research in its essence, but attempts were made to validate it more and more by using qualitative techniques in designing the questionnaire.
The results show that Iranians’ SML is higher than what is supposed to be. In fact, analysis of the data confirms that a great number of users, when facing fake posts, generally understand that they are not real.
A minor part of users, of course, show their opposition and send feedback to senders or discuss it in Telegram’s groups. Moreover, the study shows that there is a positive correlation between SML and income, gender, career and studying field variables.