Awareness about Media and Information Literacy among Research Scholars of Pondicherry University A Survey

Media and Information Literacy (MIL) emphasizes a critical approach to literacy to enables people to question critically what they have read, heard and learned. It is required in all levels of education and more so to research scholars. The aim of the study is to find the awareness and use of MIL tools by research scholars of Pondicherry University. The objectives are: a) to identify the level of awareness in MIL among research scholars; b) to assess the usefulness and relevance of MIL among research scholars; c) to identify the training needs of research scholars in MIL; d) to determine the problems faced by the researches scholars of Pondicherry University while using MIL tools; and e) to suggest the best methods of delivering MIL training to the research scholars of Pondicherry University. The survey method and questionnaire tool are used in conducting this study. Of the total 13 schools, due to time limitation research scholars working in 10 schools were taken as sample. A majority of the respondents are aware of the term MIL and that enables them to save time. Most of the respondents use journals/papers followed by internet for conducting research. The majority (75.49 %) of them preferred 1-2 weeks of workshop-based training on MIL. MIL syllabus may cover media literacy (75.49 %), information literacy (86.27 %), computer literacy (77.45 %), digital literacy (54.9 %), literary literacy (71.57 %), and news literacy (73.53 %). A majority (62.74 %) of the scholars do not know on MIL initiatives in India. Therefore, UGC may have to take necessary steps in implementing the same.