The Effects of BeNetWise Program on Youth Media Literacy: A Mixed Methods Research

Abstract

Existing literature has demonstrated that cultivating media literacy skills may optimize various indicators of student success. However, limited research has been conducted to examine how media literacy programs can improve effective consumption and production of media contents. The present research addresses these gaps through providing preliminary evidence about the effectiveness of BeNetWise, which is a two‐year project launched in Hong Kong to educate youth on proper attitude and behavior in the cyberworld. This study was based on a sample of 196 secondary school students who participated in the media literacy intervention. The Chinese version of the New Media Literacy Scale was used to assess functional consumption, critical consumption, functional prosumption and critical prosumption. The results indicated that students who were exposed to this program significantly improved on functional consumption, critical consumption and critical prosumption. Findings point to the advantageous impacts of the BeNetWise project on the adaptive consumption and production of various media contents.