Media Literacy in China: The Impact of Education on Individuals Media Behavior

In the past two decades, China's digital media era has developed rapidly, it resulted in the challenge of dealing with information overload. In this context, media literacy has become a crucial skill, with critical thinking serving as a core component of it. Moreover, media literacy education also become a significant factor affecting people's performance on social media, especially in the Web 2.0 era, where an abundance of UGC (user-generated content) is being created. Millennials and Gen Z grew up in the Opening Up Policy and Web 2.0 period. As these two groups have extensive exposure in the media era and they are the backbone of China's technology development, media literacy education seems more crucial for them. Some scholars have found that first-tier cities pay more attention to media literacy education, and the courses include editing classes and journalist workshops; however, media literacy education in China is still at a surface level due to people ignoring the cultivation of critical thinking. The article aims to investigate how education influences Millennial and Gen Z's media behaviour and what obstacles resulted in unsuccessful media literacy education spread. The findings indicated that the Chinese government has supported media literacy education in recent years. However, the unequal distribution of educational resources, differences in parents' expectations, and low teaching ability of teachers have blocked its widespread adoption. The main purpose of this article is to raise individuals' awareness of media literacy education and make individuals understand the status of China's media literacy education.