Impact of the Newspaper in Education Program and Parental Mediation on Adolescents' Social Participation: A Focus on the Mediated Effects of News Use Behavior and Self-Expression

Abstract

This study examines adolescents' media use after receiving media education, specifically, media education received through Newspaper in Education (NIE) at school and parental mediation at home. The study verifies whether media education stimulates social participation by analyzing adolescents' self-expression. Data collected through the Korea Press Foundation's 2019 survey on media use among students aged 10 to 18 in Korea (N = 1,905) were analyzed. Students who experienced NIE used various types of media to access news and consume news more sensibly. This type of news use influenced adolescents to become more active in self-expression and encouraged social participation. In addition, the relationship between parental mediation and social participation is sequentially mediated by adolescents' sensible news use and self-expression. This study aimed to test the effects of Newspaper in Education (NIE) experience and parental mediation on adolescents' social participation. More specifically, this study analyzed the mechanisms of the effects of NIE and parental mediation experiences on adolescents' social participation and presented mediated effects models with multimedia news use, sensible news use, and self-expression to investigate their relationships. This study used survey data from the Korea Press Foundation's Tweens' and teens' media use in Korea 2019 (N = 1,905). The results of NIE experience effects can be summarized below. First, adolescents with NIE experience access to news using not only traditional media such as newspapers, TV, and radio but also various digital media such as portals, news media websites, messenger services, and videos available online. Also, adolescents with NIE experience and who receive parental mediation consume news more sensibly than students without NIE experience. Finally, these results showed that media education utilizing news encourages adolescents to be concerned about public issues, which can increase their interest in news and thus help them consume news more actively and critically. Furthermore, the results of this study confirmed the positive effects of NIE and parental mediation in enhancing adolescents' citizenship. They not only expressed their opinions but also took part in social issues actively and enthusiastically. In other words, self-expression significantly mediates the relationship between NIE, media use, and social participation.