The Relationship between Media Literacy and Political Awareness of Tehran Women

Comprehensive development has required increasing human capital and the maximum participation of different layers of society, especially women, who are about half of the population. To achieve this development model, we must know the process, nature, structure, and performance of the political-social system and be aware of the conditions and situation of the global communication networks and intelligent management of development programs. Since digital media provides the necessary conditions for the active presence of women in both private and public realms, it is a suitable tool for gaining awareness, provided that people know the skills to use it. These skills are called media literacy which is the ability to understand, evaluate and use media. This study examines the relationship between media literacy and political awareness components of Tehran women. The questionnaire of this research to investigate political awareness includes these indicators: important political events and developments of today, political literature (political terms and concepts), familiarity with national and transnational political groups, organizations, and factions, their rules, principles, and goals, recognition of prominent personalities, opinionated, influential, or having significant political and administrative positions), political patterns (set of principles, concepts, ideologies, and overt or hidden political tendencies in policies and their implementation), and political analyzes. Moreover, to better achieve the objectives and independent variable of this research, the media literacy component, including digital competence, digital usage, and digital transfer, has been considered.The research method was the survey and documentary. The statistical population included all Tehran women over 20 years old. The sample community was selected from the urban community, regardless of women's economic and social status. The number of women in Tehran was 4369551, and the sample size was 384. Questionnaires were distributed by random cluster sampling. Data were analyzed using SPSS by the Correlation coefficient, standard regression model, t-test, variance analysis of variables, and demographic statistics (marital, age, education, employment). The websites, web portals, and social networks were samples of digital media in this study. The study of the relationship between media and political awareness in previous research is mainly based on measuring people's practical behaviors and participation. Internal research focuses on studying the dimensions of political awareness based on individual or social characteristics of different layers of society, and research in other countries focuses on the use of political awareness in the field of public services. This research aims to identify the relationship between media literacy and political awareness of Tehrani women to expand women's activities in the public and developmental sphere of the country. The main question is, what effects media literacy skills of Tehrani women have on increasing their political awareness? The results show a significant (direct) relationship between digital media literacy and political awareness of Tehran women, especially in their knowledge and understanding of political concepts, patterns, and political schools of the day. At the same time, increasing women's political awareness can facilitate their political interactions and, if participation continues, provide a platform for the information of numerous new discourses in society. The demographic findings of this research based on the level of education, age, marriage, and employment show that Tehrani women, despite being more present in the community compared to previous years, do not have the development of skills appropriate for communication and information technologies. Furthermore, having media literacy skills regardless of age, employment and marital status of Tehrani women has a positive effect on achieving their political awareness of the duties and functions of agents and officials of the political system.The results indicate that there is a direct relationship between the level of education of women and the acquisition of media literacy skills, so the higher the level of education of people, the greater their familiarity and mastery of media literacy skills. Of course, it should be noted that women’s mental beliefs about the existence of male socio-political structures, legal inequalities, and even providing for the family's livelihood needs and activities in businesses outside the public domain of society, reduce the sufficient opportunity for the necessary motivation for the development of these skills. Considering the direct relationship between media literacy and political awareness, it can be said that women's political awareness has not significantly increased compared to the time and advanced information tools. It appears that spreading education on media literacy as a means of preventing the occurrence of irrational behavior in digital media, and improvements in political-social interactions among women through the education system of the country, are among solutions that should be considered for implementation in Iran.