New media literacy (NML) is considered a fundamental area of ​​21st-century society not only because it provides individuals with digital competencies and skills, but also because of the online opportunities and risks it poses. Evolving from traditional media literacy as a result of structural changes and transformations in information and communication technologies (ICT), NML plays a role in ensuring that any citizen can fully, actively, and consciously participate in today's society. This literacy provides a competency framework encompassing the ability to access media messages across a variety of formats, from print to video and the internet, to accurately understand these contents, analyze them critically, evaluate them with objective criteria and actively produce content. The mobilization and accessibility of new media tools and communication technologies, along with their centrality to life, has necessitated an approach that addresses the unique technical and socio-cultural characteristics of new media, moving beyond simply a combination of information skills, computer literacy and communication competencies. While NML plays a role in social identity construction, it also includes being aware of online risks that arise within the scope of new social issues such as information pollution, anonymity, privacy and surveillance, and being able to manage these risks.

Historical Development

The concept of literacy has evolved gradually through four main stages throughout history, paving the way for the emergence of new media literacy (NML). The first stage is Classical Literacy, which focuses on basic skills involving reading, writing, and comprehension. The second stage, Audiovisual Literacy, is associated with the rise of electronic media such as radio, television and cinema; in this stage, literacy expanded to include the ability to interpret visual and auditory messages. In the third stage, with the proliferation of computer and digital technologies, the concepts of Digital Literacy or Information Literacy emerged and the skills of accessing information and using computer-based tools came to the fore. The most recent and fourth stage, New Media Literacy (NML), is associated with the global spread of the internet and the phenomenon of media convergence. While encompassing all previous forms of literacy, it focuses on addressing the unique technical and socio-cultural characteristics of new media.

The institutional development of media literacy education began in the United States in 1932 and expanded in many countries, including Austria, France, the United Kingdom, and Canada, after the 1970s. By the late 1980s, media literacy was accepted as an independent field of research by the academic community and its theoretical foundations were strengthened.

Technical and Socio-Cultural Characteristics of New Media

The 21st century has witnessed the advancement of new media, which has permeated every aspect of society. New media can be broadly understood through its technical and sociocultural characteristics.

Technical Specifications

Early attempts to define new media focused on technical capabilities, such as computer and communication technologies, that enable users to interact with information and each other. Manovich identified two key principles underlying new media: numerical representation and modularity.

New media are primarily in the form of digital codes; this digital representation makes content programmable and computable. Modularity means that independent modules (e.g., sound and image) can be combined into large-scale objects and the elements can be modified while maintaining their identity.

These two fundamental principles have led to the emergence of two new characteristics: automation and variability in media production and manipulation at different levels. New media is also characterized by modularity, multimodality, and hybridity and interactivity, where video, audio clips, text, and graphics from different media and platforms coexist.

Socio-Cultural Characteristics

New media environments and tools play a crucial role today, shaping, transforming, and reshaping social relationships. New media technology offers opportunities for human interaction, influencing the formats and modes of communication. For some young people, online mediated communication can be a way to belong to a social group.

Core Skills and Competencies

New media literacy encompasses a skill-based cultural process encompassing access, comprehension, analysis, evaluation, and production. Understanding, accurately analyzing and evaluating the content of media messages (such as graphics, images, audio, video, and written text) is a lifelong process. The new media environment has achieved the ability to produce content through the opportunities afforded by information and communication technologies. Indeed, users become digital narrators of their personal stories by producing their own media through smartphones and apps.

Critical media literacy expands the concept of literacy to include diverse forms of mass communication and popular culture and deepens the educational potential for critically analyzing the relationships between media and audiences, knowledge and power. This competence includes developing competencies in analyzing media codes and conventions, critiques of stereotypes, values and ideologies, as well as the ability to interpret the multiple meanings and messages generated by media texts.

The components that media literate individuals need to know include having a perspective on the conventions and content styles in the production of media texts, the media industry (economic foundations, legal regulations), the way the media industry perceives the audience, and the effects of the media.

Online Opportunities and Risks

The new media environment offers opportunities and risks along with participatory and interactive usage opportunities.

Opportunities: New media provides users with digital opportunities that offer a range of mobility and freedom through websites, social media tools (such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter) and video production channels that provide unlimited access to information on topics ranging from health to politics. The active, participatory and productive user identity in the new media environment presents an opportunity for new media literacy. Media literacy education is considered an educational opportunity that provides and develops fundamental skills for informed and participatory citizenship.

Risks: The rapid pace of change in new communication technologies presents new opportunities and risks, particularly for children and young people. High-potential usage opportunities also bring with them numerous "new" risks. Constant networking or connectivity, while crucial for young people's social identity construction, also carries numerous risks. Issues such as identity and anonymity, privacy and surveillance must be addressed within the context of emerging social issues. Media literacy education programs also serve to protect individuals from inaccurate information.