Audiovisual Competences in Times of COVID-19: The Role of Educational Actors in Media and Digital Learning of Adolescents

This research arises from the need to know the elements that have an impact on the audiovisual competencies of adolescents during the confinements provoked to prevent the spread of COVID-19. The purpose is to diagnose the development of audiovisual communication skills among Ecuadorian adolescents as a contribution to sustainability, based on the intervention of educational actors. The methodology is qualitative, with a descriptive approach. The instruments used were: focus groups with parents, students, and teachers from public and private institutions in Ecuador;semi-structured interviews with experts: and non-participant observation. It can be concluded that adolescents acquire audiovisual skills, processes, and languages autonomously before entering college, but they do so without the social context, ethical values and responsibilities that should be part of complete media learning. The demands of online learning during the pandemic have resulted in the development of skills and attitudes, but they have not led to full media literacy. It is pertinent to provoke innovations and updates in the curricula of higher education, specifically in the careers of social communication, in order to be aware of the technological changes on the basis of deontological principles and in favour of democratic values, tolerance, and responsibility with the sustainability of nature and people. © 2023 by the authors.

Perspectives of Media Competence in Communication and Journalism Careers in the Andean Area

The purpose of the research is to analyze the higher academic offerings in communication and related fields in the Andean Community to determine if there is a relationship with the potential demands of adolescents who developed competencies to generate and exchange audiovisual content since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic. The research question is: should the academic curricula related to audiovisual and media competence of Andean universities change or be updated to meet a new profile of young people who know the audiovisual language? The methodology is qualitative and descriptive through content analysis of the academic curricula of the leading universities in the international rankings that classify Latin American universities, as well as semi-structured interviews with experts in higher education in communication in the region. In the case of communication studies and related areas, it happens that young people, before entering university, learn autonomously many of the techniques, processes and audiovisual languages that feed the contents of the current offer, but it is an instruction acquired without the corresponding social contexts, deontological senses and responsibilities. The denominations of the titles of the careers are classic, the formation of media competence is not alluded to or implicitly assumed, the same happens with the names of the courses taught, they respond to common or generic programs of professional formation with emphasis on journalistic production and audiovisual contents. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.