Abstract
As a learning process wherein we ask questions to enhance knowledge, media literacy offers a powerful lens for examining how people practice communication across diverse applied contexts such as professional communicators shaping messages about COVID-19. Borrowing a page from Renee Hobbs’ (1998, 1999, 2010, 2011, 2021) media literacy education research, we sought to compare/contrast media content creators’ (journalism, advertising, public relations, marketing communication) information-seeking behaviors during the 2020-2022 COVID-19 pandemic for both their paid work and unpaid volunteer work, as well as for their own and family edification. Blending the media literacy lens with social construction theory (Berger & Luckmann, 1967), our survey findings collected at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021 suggest that professional communicators (N=174) relied more frequently on media sources (64.9%) for COVID-19 information for work (paid and unpaid) and on people such as medical professionals (51.5%) as sources for COVID-19 information for their own personal and family use. Other findings detail professional communicators’ use of media literacy learning processes of accessing, analyzing, creating, reflecting, and taking action.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Pompper, D., & Ertem-Eray, T. (2023). Media literacy and COVID-19 communication: Work and home sphere differences. Journal of Media Literacy Education, 15(2), 84-98. https://doi.org/10.23860/JMLE-2023-15-2-7
