The Impact of Media Literacy on Developing Media Students' Skills in Verifying AI-Generated Images Published on Social Media Platforms

The research problem is defined by examining the impact of media literacy on the development of media students' skills in verifying AI-generated images, particularly those published on social media platforms. To achieve this, the researcher employed a quasi-experimental methodology, applying a training program to a purposive sample of 30 students-both male and female- enrolled in the Media Department of the College of Arts at the University of Tikrit, Iraq. The training program aims to enhance media literacy skills, namely: (access, analysis, collective reasoning, and evaluation) These skills are designed to equip the (experimental group) with the ability to verify AI-generated images both (visually and digitally), enabling them to distinguish between synthetic and real images. The study yielded several notable findings, the most prominent of which is the presence of a (statistically significant difference) between the mean scores of the experimental group in the pre-test and post-test for the (access skill), in favor of the post-test. This result is supported by the fact that the calculated t-value exceeded the tabulated t-value, leading to the rejection of the null hypothesis and the acceptance of the alternative hypothesis. Additionally, the study found a (statistically significant difference) between the mean scores of the experimental group in the pre-test and post-test for the (analysis skill), again in favor of the post-test. This difference is explained by the fact that the calculated t-value exceeded the tabulated t-value, resulting in the rejection of the null hypothesis and the acceptance of the alternative hypothesis. This research underscores the critical role of media literacy in empowering students to critically assess and distinguish AI-generated images, particularly in the digital landscape of social media.