Abstract
Media literacy has been gaining traction as a part of higher education curricula to support learning as educational institutions are recognizing the importance of develo** students’ media literacy skills. However, students’ emotional reactions towards media literacy can be vastly different and, in turn, may impact their perception of truth and credibility of mixed media messages. In this study, we explored 68 non-health professions university students’ unique emotional profiles towards media literacy. We further examined whether students with different emotional profiles would differ in their credibility ratings (truthfulness, trustworthiness, and believability) of media messages that were drawn from mainstream and fake news sources. We also investigated the relationship between emotion profiles and emotional reactions towards mainstream versus fake news messages. We employed a probabilistic, latent clustering approach, latent profiling analysis (LPA), to generate latent categories of emotion profiles. LPA revealed four distinct emotion profiles that students endorsed: (1) low emotions, (2) moderate emotions, (3) high negative emotions, and (4) high positive emotions towards learning media literacy. Additional findings revealed that students with a low emotional profile tended to rate all media messages as more truthful, trustworthy, and believable than other emotion groups. Moreover, we identified that students in the moderate emotions and high negative emotions group rated fake messages with more positive emotions. This study offers insight towards the significance of understanding how emotions towards media literacy can impact the outcomes of media perception. This is an important step that will encourage educators to develop more engaging media literacy instruction and interventions.
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This research was supported by funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) of Canada ID: 435–2019-0959 awarded to the senior author, J.M. Harley.
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Clarissa Lau
Current themes of research:
Educational assessments, applying innovative analytic methodologies, and modelling learning traits including cognition, metacognition, motivation, affect, and psychological traits. Also develo**, evaluating, and validating technology-rich learning and assessment platforms to support literacy, learning, and medical education.
Most relevant publications in the field of Psychology of Education:
Sinclair, J., Jang, E.E., Azevedo, R., Lau, C., Taub, M & Mudrick, N. (2018). Changes in emotion and their relationship with learning gains in the context of MetaTutor. In Nkambou R., Azevedo R., & Vassileva J. (Eds.), Lecture notes in computer science: Intelligent tutoring systems 2018 (pp. 202-211). Cham: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-91464-0.
Lau, C., Sinclair, J., Taub, M., Azevedo, R., Jang, E. E., (2017). Transitioning self-regulated profiles in hypermedia learning environment. In the Proceedings of the Seventh International Conference on Learning Analytics And Knowledge. ACM. https://doi.org/10.1145/3027385.3027443.
Byunghoon “Tony” Ahn
Current themes of research:
Develo** and evaluating educational technologies and simulations with a special focus on anti-harassment education. Also, multimodal and dynamic measurement of emotions.
Most relevant publications in the field of Psychology of Education:
Ahn, B.T., & Harley, J.M (2020). Facial expressions when learning with a queer history app: application of the control value theory of achievement emotions. British Journal of Educational Technology, 51(5), 1563–1576. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjet.12989.
Harley, J.M., Liu, Y., Ahn, B.T., Lajoie, S.P., & Grace, A.P. (2020). Examining physiological and self-report indicators of empathy during learners’ interaction with a queer history app, British Journal of Educational Technology, 51(6), 1920–1937. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjet.13019.
Ahn, B.T., & Harley, J.M (2020). Facial expressions when learning with a queer history app: Application of the control value theory of achievement emotions. British Journal of Educational Technology, 51(5), 1563–1576. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjet.12989.
Harley, J.M., Liu, Y., Ahn, T.B., Lajoie, S.P., Grace, A.P., Haldane, C ., Whittaker, A.., & McLaughlin, B. (2019). I’ve got this: Fostering topic and technology-related emotional engagement and queer history knowledge with a mobile app. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 59, 1-18. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cedpsych.2019.101790.
Meagane Maurice-Ventouris
Current themes of research:
Medical and health-related education, including the study of visual-spatial training.
Most relevant publications in the field of Psychology of Education:
Maurice-Ventouris, M., Moran, H.R.M., Alharbi, M., Ahn, B.T., Harley, J.M., & Lachapelle, K.J. (2021). The study of visuospatial abilities in trainees: A sco** review and proposed model. Surgery Open Science, 5, 25-33. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sopen.2021.05.001.
Jason M. Harley (in addition to the above; senior author)
Current themes of research:
Develo** and evaluating educational technologies and simulations with a special focus on educational technologies and training that supports psychological well-being and health literacy. Also, the development and testing of emotion and emotion regulation theory, especially using multimodal emotion analyses.
Most relevant publications in the field of Psychology of Education:
Harley, J.M., Lou, N.M., Liu, Y., Cutumisu, M., Daniels, M., Leighton, J. P., & Nadon, L. (2021). University students’ negative emotions in a computer-based exam: The roles of trait test-emotion, prior test-taking methods, and gender. Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education. 46(6), 956-972. https://doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2020.1836123.
Harley, J.M., Lajoie, S.P., Tressel, T., & Jarrell, A. (2020). Fostering positive emotions and history learning with location-based augmented reality and tour-guide prompts. Learning & Instruction, 70, 1-16. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.learninstruc.2018.09.001.
Harley, J.M., Pekrun, R., Taxer, J.L., & Gross, J.J. (2019). Emotion regulation in achievement situations: An integrated model. Educational Psychologist, 54(2), 106-126. https://doi.org/10.1080/00461520.2019.1587297.
Harley, J.M., Jarrell, A., & Lajoie, S.P. (2019). Emotion regulation tendencies, achievement emotions, and physiological arousal in a medical diagnostic reasoning simulation. Instructional Science, 47(2), 151-180. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11251-018-09480-z.
Poitras, E. G., Harley, J.M., & Liu, Y. (2019). Achievement emotions with location-based mobile augmented reality: an examination of discourse processes in simulated guided walking tours. British Journal of Educational Technology 50(6), 3345-3360. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjet.12738.
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Lau, C.HH., Ahn, B.“., Maurice-Ventouris, M. et al. Latent profiling students’ emotions towards media literacy and examining its relationship to media credibility. Eur J Psychol Educ (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10212-024-00796-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10212-024-00796-8