ABSTRACT
This study aimed to examine the perceptions of students taking a media literacy course about the content shared during the Kahramanmaraş earthquakes within the framework of media literacy theories. Structured interviews were conducted with 30 students. The participants experienced problems such as access and infrastructure problems, conscious access restrictions, disinformation and panic news. They struggled with competencies such as “cognitive skills”, “emotional skills”, “moral skills” as pointed out by Potter (2016) and “critical thinking” emphasized by theorists such as Hobbs (2010) and Brown (1998). Participants mainly confirmed their information by following official sources, government, teyit.org, Kandilli Observatory, AFAD and AHBAP as a private aid association. Participants predominantly received information from X, but also used applications such as WhatsApp, Telegram, Instagram and Facebook, and confirmed information from multiple sources, as Kellner and Share (2019) point out. As Jenkins (2006) points out, although they were active participants, they experienced problems due to disinformation. This reveals that digital media literacy in particular needs to become widespread.
KEY WORDS
Crisis Journalism. Disaster. Disinformation. Earthquake. Earthquake Journalism. Media Literacy.