Assessment of Media Literacy Skills of Undergraduates in Universities in Ogun State, Nigeria

Abstract

This study assessed the media literacy skills level of undergraduates in Ogun State, Nigeria. The study adopted the descriptive survey research design, while the multistage sampling procedure was adopted. The target population comprised 4 189 Level 200 undergraduates from eight departments of the selected faculties in the different universities in Ogun State, Nigeria. A validated questionnaire with Cronbach’s alpha (r=0.96) was used as the data collection instrument. The probability proportional to size sampling technique was used to select 837 undergraduates from the study population. A total of 754 copies of the questionnaires were retrieved and used for the analysis. Data were collated and analysed using descriptive statistics. Findings revealed that 69.0% (520) undergraduates possessed high media literacy skills, 28.5% (215) possessed moderate media literacy skills, while 2.5% (19) possessed low media literacy skills. This indicated possession of high media literacy skills among undergraduates. Further, the construct, ability to access media messages or content, was the most prevalent out of the four constructs used to measure the media literacy skills of the undergraduates. The study recommended the nurturing of abilities to access, analyse, evaluate and create media content and the provision of accessible internet connectivity with internet-enabled media devices in the various units of universities, among other suggestions.