Roles of Media and Media Literacy Education: Lives of Chinese and American Adolescents

Background: Along with media saturation in society, concerns and issues arise about children’s media uses and the roles of media in their lives; both China and USA have the most media and Internet users in the world, but neither has formal media literacy education in the school curriculum. To decide how important media literacy education is for adolescents in these countries, we need to understand how they use media and what impact that media literacy may have in their lives. Aims: To describe and understand roles of media (TV, radio, music, computer, videogames and Internet) and media literacy education in Chinese and American secondary students ’ lives and their uses of media. Method: Surveys were conducted among Chinese adolescents. Questionnaires about media uses were sent to secondary schools in three cities in China, and a total of 955 questionnaires were returned by Chinese 7th- 12th graders; the results were compared with data drawn from American national studies on adolescents ’ media uses. Results: Adolescents in both countries spend a great deal of their time using a variety of media on a daily basis. The results describe the patterns of their media use, and indicate the importance of media literacy education, a 21st Century skill. Conclusion: Media plays similar important roles in Chinese and American adolescents ’ lives, so does media literacy education. The article concludes with suggestions for how to integrate media literacy education into the school curriculum. Key words: media uses / media literacy / American and Chinese adolescent educatio