Digital literacy among parents and how it leads to the consumption of media by their children in UAE

Mohamad Khalid, Kaddoura; Nassir, Bouali

المجلة الجزائرية للاتصال
Volume 26, Numéro 1, Pages 47-63
2024-06-01

Digital Literacy Among Parents And How It Leads To The Consumption Of Media By Their Children In Uae

Authors : Mohamad Khalid Kaddoura . Nassir Bouali .

Abstract

Abstract: We now live in a time where we spend most of our times in front of screens, not just entertaining ourselves, but as an essential part to function in our daily life. We use screens to study, work and communicate, Media screens and the digital world around us have evolved to the point of becoming a necessity that we can no longer avoid. This study aims to find out the levels of digital literacy among parents in the United Arab Emirates and examine how it may affect their children’s literacy. It also examines parenting methods and attitude used to reduce and grow digital literacy and screen use among children. The paper uses Lank shear & Knobel (2008) Sociocultural theory as a base for the theoretical framework. The sociocultural theory argue that digital literacy consists of a “myriad of social practices and conceptions of engaging in meaning-making mediated by texts that are produced, received, distributed, exchanged, etc.,” the way individuals engage and make meaning of situated practices is perceived as digital literacies. An in-depth survey was conducted to 62 parents using simple random sampling method among parents of children below or equal to the age of 14. Both quantitative and qualitative questions were included in the survey. The former consisted of yes-no questions as well as some behavioral questions, while the latter comprised of open-ended questions that aimed to encourage participants to explain their answers to gain context around the quantifiable data in a narrative form. According to the findings, the average percentage of the questions that were answered accurately was 62.43%.