Factors affecting media literacy during Covid-19 pandemic of secondary school students in Pittsburgh city, Pennsylvania USA

Abstract

Currently, social media use is very popular. Hence, social media literacy is important. Self-directed is process that improves media literacy. The purpose of this study was to identify factors affecting social media literacy of high secondary school students during COVID-19 pandemic in Pittsburgh city, Pennsylvania, USA. The cross-sectional survey by quantitative research was conducted. The sample sized was calculated and proportional stratified randomly selected 160 students. The instrument to identify affecting factors was the questionnaires which tested for validity and reliability by IOC and Cronbach’s alpha coefficient, the results were more than 0.5 and 0. 73 respectively. The descriptive statistics and multiple linear regression by forward stepwise were applied. The findings are as following: the social media literacy and self-directed learning of students were high level. The factors affecting social media literacy are self-directed learning, learning media literacy from schools, parents’ suggestions. This model could predict social media literacy of high secondary school students 43.4% . The suggestions are school should promote self-directed learning and offer students a course of media literacy. The family should control and suggest of social media use for the media literacy of students.