Quantifying media literacy: development, reliability, and validity of a new measure.

Media literacy has the potential to alter outcomes in various fields, including education, communication, and public health. However, measurement of media literacy remains a critical challenge in advancing this field of inquiry. In this manuscript, we describe the development and testing of a pilot measure of media literacy. Items were formed based on a composite conceptual model and administered to college communications students (n = 34). Each of three media literacy subscales had good internal consistency reliability (α(1) = 0.74, α(2) = 0.79, α(3) = 0.75). Principal components analysis revealed a five-factor structure that corresponded closely with the underlying conceptual model. As was expected, the media literacy scale was significantly correlated with a composite critical thinking measure (r = 0.32, P = .03). This scale may be valuable for the measurement of media literacy and the assessment of media literacy interventions.