Social Determinants of Critical Thinking and Their Reflection in the Innovation of Teaching Media Literacy at Universities
Project KEGA 017UKF-4/2024
Project duration: 2024 – 2026
Principal Investigator: Mgr. Andrea Chlebcová Hečková, PhD.
About the Project:
In the project, we focus on the innovative approaches to enhancing media literacy education at universities in the context of the influence of the social environment on the ability to think critically with an emphasis on the issue of the critical thinking skills of the university-educated
population, specifically considering communications published in online media. The project covers the deficiencies in the current research and methodology of processing this question of the existence of determinants influencing critical thinking, namely the social environment. The focus and dimension of the project, especially in education about the media and information environment, are currently not reflected by any educational initiative. In this context, not even research initiatives in Slovakia address this issue.
In this case, the target group is an educated population. This approach eliminates the factor that influences the development of critical thinking skills of an individual, which is currently one of the most presented, namely the education level sufficiency of the recipients. The project aims to offer a new perspective on the factors that influence the ability of critical thinking in the context of communications published in online media, namely the social environment factors. At the same time, it reflects the problem of dejournalization of the media environment, which causes the spread of media communications, especially in the online environment, without applying standard journalistic procedures ensuring, for instance, the value of the truth and the maximum possible degree of objectivity.