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. 2024 Feb;26(2):941-960.
doi: 10.1177/14614448211068530. Epub 2022 Jan 16.

Social media literacy: A conceptual framework

Hyunyi Cho  1 , Julie Cannon  2 , Rachel Lopez  1 , Wenbo Li  1
Affiliations

Social media literacy: A conceptual framework

Hyunyi Cho et al. New Media Soc. 2024 Feb.

Abstract

Concerns over the harmful effects of social media have directed public attention to media literacy as a potential remedy. Current conceptions of media literacy are frequently based on mass media, focusing on the analysis of common content and evaluation of the content using common values. This article initiates a new conceptual framework of social media literacy (SoMeLit). Moving away from the mass media-based assumptions of extant approaches, SoMeLit centers on the user's self in social media that is in dynamic causation with their choices of messages and networks. The foci of analysis in SoMeLit, therefore, are one's selections and values that influence and are influenced by the construction of one's reality on social media; and the evolving characteristics of social media platforms that set the boundaries of one's social media reality construction. Implications of the new components and dimensions of SoMeLit for future research, education, and action are discussed.

Keywords: Digital media; mass media; media literacy; perceived reality; social media.

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Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Social media literacy framework: content and competency.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Self on social media.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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