STM Article Repository

The aim of this study is to determine whether there is a relationship between pre-service teachers' media literacy levels and their democratic values such as cultural diversity, tolerance, freedom of expression, and democracy. This relationship was investigated in terms of cognitive and affective domains of fundamental citizenship competencies and independent variables such as grade, department, gender, parents’ educational status, monthly income, political view and voting status. The relational research methodology of quantitative paradigm was followed for the purpose of the study. The sample of the study consists of 1066 pre-service teachers. The data collection tools are Student Profile Questionnaire, Scale of Fundamental Citizenship Competencies and Scale of Democratic Values in the Context of Active Citizenship. The obtained data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and multiple regression analyses. According to the findings, media literacy levels of pre-service teachers in “communicational competences” dimension are higher than in the other dimensions. While the scores of participants concerning the cognitive domain of fundamental citizenship competencies are high enough, the level of trust in political participation and political parties concerning affective dimension is low. Pre-service teachers attach partial importance to trust in governmental institutions. They think positively about the role of religion in individual life. Besides, it was found that there were significant relationships between pre-service teachers' levels of media literacy and democratic values regarding active citizenship.