Desenvolvimento e Validação da Escala de Literacia Mediática e Informacional para Alunos dos 2º e 3º Ciclos do Ensino Básico em Portugal

Communication and sharing of meanings in a highly mediated world requires multiple literacies. Regardless of definitions and approaches, these literacies have been open up critical debates about what media skills citizens should have, as well as when they should be acquired. In the present study we report on the process of developing and validating a scale of Media and Information Literacy for students in the 2nd and 3rd cycles of Basic Education in Portugal. The construct validity was examined via Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) for a sample of 1151 participants. The EFA revealed a three-factor structure, consisting of 22 items that explain 53.23% of the total variance. The scale has an excellent overall internal consistency (ωt = .92), with an adequate internal consistency for all subscales (Cronbach’s α and Ordinal α > .70). The results show good psychometric qualities of this scale that could be an advantageous instrument for the prognosis and evaluation of interventions related to media literacy.