Media usage and media skills in young lifeworlds

Young people today are growing up in a highly mediatized and digitized world. Information is more diverse and accessible than ever. But how do teenagers and young adults deal with the daily flood of information and the omnipresence of media offerings? Which media do they use? How competent do they consider themselves to be in using the media? Which sources of information do they rate as particularly credible, and which as less credible? And what about their security awareness? Do they use security precautions when they go online? 

SINUS-Institut was commissioned by Südwestrundfunk and the Medienpädagogischer Forschungsverbund Südwest to get to the bottom of these and many other questions in an empirical study of 14- to 29-year-olds in 2014.

Dr. Marc Calmbach and Dr. Christoph Schleer from SINUS-Institut were among the contributors to this article.