Welcome to Part 5 of our series “Media literacy in Croatia: short analysis”!

In this part of the series, we are analysing already existing research on the topic of media literacy in Croatia. 

Research “Media literacy among Croatian Citizens” was done within the project “Media literacy is important” coordinated by GONG (Civil Society Association). Research was conducted by the Institute for development and international relationships in 2023.

This research aimed at investigating media literacy among Croatian citizens. There were almost 1000 citizens interviewed from different regions of the country, of different genders and different ages to reflect the demographics of the whole country. 

For the purpose of the research, media literacy was defined as knowledge, abilities and life skills to access, analyse, evaluate and create media content in various forms which are necessary for participation in society. 

It included three main areas: technical skills, content creation and critical thinking. 

• Technical skills refer to the ability to use digital technologies to access information, navigate through the complex network of information, read and understand messages and participate in the digital information economy. 
• Content creation assumes being active creators of new interpretations and meanings of digital information. 
• Critical thinking refers to understanding the social construction of media content, language, the role of different audiences in understanding content, the idea and ideology policies as well as institutions in content creation, and the role of media in social topics.

The research showed that between December of 2021 and March 2022, the total of 91.5% citizens of Croatia used their mobile daily or every second day, 88.5% used television, 76.7% used the internet on their mobile phone, 67.2% used the radio, 55.8% used the internet on other devices. During the same period, 50.7% did not go to the cinema, not even once. Also 26.4% of citizens didn’t read printed newspapers and 24% did not read any books.

The research also showed that 69.3% of citizens between the ages of 18 and 29 watch television everyday or every other day, and 98.8% citizens older than 75. Younger people use the internet much more than the older population. More than 80% of the older population has never used the internet through their mobile phone, or on any other device. Their main reason was lack of skills. Most citizens, more than 97%, use their technical skills for sending and receiving electronic mail, reading online news and searching for information about products and services. Least frequent activities that citizens do is cooperation on common projects through Google drive and Dropbox, participation in discussions about civil and political topics and writing blogs.  

Comparison of different genders revealed that women spend more time creating and uploading their content than men, while men spend more time using the Internet for Internet banking services. Men also participate more in discussions on civil and political topics. 

When it comes to content creation, less than 10% of citizens published any news, a newspaper article or created some form of digital audio or visual content. Meen seem to be more active than women in this area.  On the other hand, more than 30% of citizens created some form of internet content such as blogs, comments on portals, social media or forums. Those citizens who create content on the Internet feel more confident to comment on the content on social media, forums and portals. They also know to estimate if a specific program or app is safe for download, and they know how to create new content from existing photos, music or videos. 

Many citizens (almost 70%) notice the differences in how information is shown in the media, and they ask their friends, family members and other people for opinions. They also try to compare information with other sources like books, encyclopaedia, other TV channels or newspapers, as well as checking them in search engines such as Google. 

The research findings show that the majority of citizens agree that two people can interpret one piece of news in different ways. Citizens believe that the media should report about gender equality (over 72%), national minorities (over 60%) and different sexual orientations (almost 50%). Citizens also estimate new portals according to their appearance, variety of content and whether they align with their values. Almost a third of citizens have trouble estimating if online news is true or fake. They are mostly concerned about the news they receive through Facebook, various news portals and YouTube.

Citizens rarely participate in different forms of social and political activities. Almost half stated that they participate in petitions, around 35% donating money, and around 20% boycott products due to political or ethical reasons. The most popular TV genres are quizzes, foreign criminalistic films and series. And least popular are cultural and scientific shows, reality shows and religious ceremonies.

The second research was “Media literacy among Croatian academic students” was also done within the project “Media literacy is important” coordinated by GONG (Civil Society Association). Research was conducted  by the Institute for development and international relationships in 2023.

For the purpose of this research, media literacy was also defined as knowledge, abilities and life skills to access, analyse, evaluate and create media content in various forms which are necessary for participation in society. And it also included three main areas: technical skills, content creation and critical thinking. 

Academic students from three Croatian faculties participated in this research. The results show that approximately half of the students use traditional media such as TV, radio, books, cinema or newspaper less than once a week or not at all. Big majority of them use their mobile phone every day or every other day, and almost everyone uses internet on their mobile phones daily for sending and receiving emails, searching for information about products and services, using online video streaming platforms, reading news, using internet banking, communicating with public institutions, buying products and services, communication via social media. The other least mentioned reasons for using the internet were writing blogs, participation in civil and political discussions, as well as creating and publishing own content. Although the majority of students claim that they are able to create new content from the existing photos, music and videos, a very small percentage of students actually created any content. They are mostly consuments of the content rather than creators.

In the domain of critical thinking, around 80% of students agree that the media owners influence the content, that they choose the content which will attract audience, that audience searches for news which will be aligned with their political beliefs, that two people can interpret the same news in different ways, that news have an impact on people whether they are aware of it or not, that news is made to attract attention, that production techniques can influence the perception of viewers. Students are generally concerned with the truthfulness of information on Facebook and Youtube, and most of them claim that they are able to estimate whether some news or information is true or not. Students have also reported low political participation. 

The most popular TV content among students are quizzes, foreign sit-coms, crime shows, Hollywood movies, as well as documentaries. The last popular content were national and international soap operas, religious and agricultural programmes.

Although it is impossible to verify the truthfulness of the information and answers provided by the students, they give insights into media literacy and behaviour among students. Although frequent use of the Internet surely contributes to their technical skills, it seems like it would be useful to improve their content creation skills as well as their skills of estimating the truthfulness of information received through digital media to be more active participants in society.

WHAT CAN WE DO? 

If you are a youth worker, you can use these research results to think about interventions with young people, but also use them on the advocacy level to change things within your policy context. 

INTERESTED IN PREVIOUS ARTICLES?  

Part 1 dealing with Croatian laws can be found HERE. 

Part 2 dealing with ethical codes can be found HERE.  

Part 3 dealing with the National Youth Programme can be found HERE. 

Part 4 dealing with the formal educational curriculum can be found HERE.